Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge
| Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge | |
|---|---|
|
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
|
|
Snow Geese against the Loess Hills
|
|
 Map of the United States
|
|
| Location | Holt County, Missouri, United States |
| Nearest city | Mound City, Missouri |
| Coordinates | 40°04′08″N 95°13′34″W / 40.068778°N 95.226102°WCoordinates: 40°04′08″N 95°13′34″W / 40.068778°N 95.226102°W |
| Area | 7,415 acres (30 km2) |
| Established | 1935 |
| Governing body | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Website | Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge |
Loess Bluffs National Wildlife Refuge (renamed in January 2017 from Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge) is a National Wildlife Refuge in northwestern Missouri, United States, established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a refuge and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife.
The refuge comprises 7,350 acres (30 km2) along the eastern edge of the Missouri River floodplain south of Mound City, Missouri in Holt County, Missouri.
The refuge is bounded by the Loess Hills on the east with a trail going to the top built originally by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The most dramatic moments occur during spring and fall migrations, when the refuge serves as a chokepoint for hundreds of thousands of ducks and geese (particularly snow geese) on the Central Flyway. As many as 475 bald eagles have been sighted on the refuge in the winter. The refuge annually celebrates the eagle visits with "Eagle Days" celebrations. In February 2013, over one million snow geese were counted.
The refuge derived its original name from Squaw Creek, a stream originating about 30 miles (48 km) north at the Bilby Ranch Conservation Area in Nodaway County, Missouri that is dammed to form the reservoirs. The creek is the larger of the two main creeks that feed the refuge and parallels the road on the west. Davis Creek, the next biggest creek, parallels the east side road. They merge with the Little Tarkio Creek just south of the refuge in a man made ditch leading five miles (8 km) to the Missouri River.
The land which was originally wetlands used by migratory foul had earlier been used as a private hunting preserve.
In 1906 the Squaw Creek Drainage District No. 1 after much litigation using the contactors Rogers & Rogers completed ditches to drain nearly 20,000 acres of land into the Missouri River in a massive project in which more than 500,000 cubic yards of earth were moved (335,031 on Squaw Creek and 192,715 on Davis Creek) in area stretching from East Rulo to Mound City at a point where the Missouri River bottoms were said to be the widest of its entire length. The Holt County Sentinel celebrated the completion with the headline "Rolls on to the Sea...Twenty Thousand Acres of Land Reclaimed and Will Here After Blossom as the Rose." The article said that people from Kansas City would have to find some place to hunt.
...
Wikipedia