Entiat National Fish Hatchery was built from 1940 to 1941 on 37 acres of land by the Bureau of Reclamation as one of the fish mitigation facilities for Grand Coulee Dam, Columbia Basin Project. Beginning in the fall of 2009, Entiat National Fish Hatchery began raising summer Chinook salmon using eggs from Wells Fish Hatchery. The goal of the program is to maintain a segregated harvest program for summer Chinook. Fish from this program are not intended to spawn naturally and are not intended to supplement, naturally-spawning summer Chinook populations. Released smolts and returning adult fish must travel 490 river miles between the hatchery and the Pacific Ocean.