The 1919 Federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, allowed the California Department of Fish & Game to create a large number of game refuges. It should be noted, California led the nation in wildlife conservation. Many may not realize that in 1869, Lake Merritt in Oakland was declared a game refuge, a first in the nation.

By the early 1920s there was a proliferation of state game refuges. Locally, one of the best known was Blacks Mountain. Another was Skedaddle which extended from that mountain range north to Shinn Peaks. There was a quirk in these refuges because they included private property. One of the lesser known was the Brockman Flat Lava Beds region on the west side of Eagle Lake. In the fall of 1924, Fish and Game Warden, C.O. Fisher announced duck hunting along the west shore of Eagle Lake from Christie’s Eagle Lake Resort to Spaulding Tract was prohibited, it in essence being a part of the Eagle Lake Game Refuge.

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