Clear Springs Trout Company was started by Jess O. (Ted) Eastman and a group of investors in September of 1966. At that time Ted's goal was to raise 400,000 lbs of Rainbow Trout and sell them to the processor where he had previously worked for twenty years. They decided not to buy his fish, so he built a small processing operation. Ted won…they lost. In 1981 Clear Springs Trout Company purchased Ted's former employer, 1000 Springs Trout Farms. The company name was changed in 1991 from Clear Springs Trout Company to Clear Springs Foods, Inc., opening the door for expansion beyond Rainbow Trout. In August of 2000 ownership changed from a closely held private company to a privately held employee-owned company.