Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge

Lake Ilo National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) is located in the Missouri Slope region of western North Dakota, near the Killdeer Mountains. Established in the mid 1930's for migratory waterfowl, this unique Refuge encompasses slightly more than 4,000 acres and is home to approximately 226 bird species, 36 mammals, 9 reptiles/amphibians, and 11 different fish species.

Lake Ilo NWR also is home to one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services largest cultural resource deposits. Prehistoric hunters and gatherers of the plains, referred to as Paleoindians, used the confluence of Spring Creek and Murphy Creek, now inundated by Lake Ilo, as a place to make tools and exchange goods more than 11,000 years ago. Knife River Flint, which was used to make sharp edged tools, was the primary reason for the Paleoindians to call Lake Ilo home. The flint can still be found regularly at Lake Ilo NWR today.

Lake Ilo NWR also provides a home for several endangered and threatened species. The endangered whooping crane has been observed during its annual fall migration feeding along the lakeshore mudflats. Piping plovers, a threatened species, often nest and raise their young at the Refuge. Pintails, blue-winged teal, gadwall, and mallards as well as Canada geese are also common nesters at the Refuge.

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