Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge

Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge is located in northwest Missouri near Mound City. The refuge was established August 23, 1935 as an Executive Order 7156 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a refuge feeding and breeding ground for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge is 30 miles northwest of St. Joseph, Missouri. It is 100 miles north of Kansas City, Missouri, and 100 miles south of Omaha, Nebraska. The refuge includes 7,415 acres of wetlands, grasslands, and forests along the eastern edge of the Missouri River floodplain . Overlooking the refuge from the east, the Loess Hills habitat is a geological formation of fine silt deposited after the past glacial period. The hills stretch from about 30 miles south of St. Joseph, Missouri, to extreme northern Iowa. Some of the last parcels of native plants, of a once vast native prairie, can be found here. The refuge was officially named one of America’s top 500 Globally Important Bird Areas by the American Bird Conservancy in 2001. The Western Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network designated Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge a “Site of Regional Importance” in 2007.