In Vernon, Connecticut, this archaeological site preserves the remains of a brief fish hatchery founded in 1871 by firearms inventor Christian Sharps after demand for his Civil War-era rifle declined. On farmland that included an old mill and mill pond, he built ponds, water-control features, berms, and a small cabin for an operation intended to raise hundreds of thousands of trout annually at a time of declining native populations. The venture ended with Sharps's death from tuberculosis in 1874 before it fully developed. Surviving foundations, dam fragments, and berms make the site significant both for its link to Sharps and for its evidence of early postwar fish culture.