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The Alvord cutthroat trout, Oncorhynchus clarki alvordensis, is a subspecies of cutthroat trout. It was native to spring-fed creeks that ran down to Alvord Dry Lake in southeast Oregon, which was a large lake during the ice ages and an isolated drainage, part of the Great Basin today. This is one of the two cutthroat trout taxa considered extinct because all known populations are hybridized with Rainbow trout which were introduced into streams in the Alvord basin in the 1920s. The subspecies name was given in 2002 by Robert Behnke (Trout and Salmon of North America). In 2006, Behnke found a small population of cutthroat trout in Guano Creek, some 40 miles west of the historic home of alvordensis that bore a very close resemblance to museum specimens of the Alvord trout. Behnke speculates (personal communication) that they might be selectively bred to reproduce a modern version of the historic fish.
