Emiquon Project
| Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge | |
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IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
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Sunrise at the Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge in July, 2011.
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 Map of the United States
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| Location | Fulton County, Illinois, United States |
| Nearest city | Havana, Illinois |
| Coordinates | 40°19′30″N 90°05′30″W / 40.32500°N 90.09167°WCoordinates: 40°19′30″N 90°05′30″W / 40.32500°N 90.09167°W |
| Area | 11,122 acres (45.01 km2) |
| Established | 1993 |
| Governing body | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service |
| Website | Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge |
| Designated | February 2, 2012 |
The Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge is a 11,122-acre (45.01 km2) wetland wildlife refuge located in Waterford Township in Fulton County, Illinois across the Illinois River from the town of Havana. Only 3,000 acres (12 km2) are currently owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It is in the Central forest-grasslands transition ecoregion.
Most of the wildlife refuge is made up of reclaimed agricultural land. A 7,100-acre (29 km2) reclamation project within the Refuge, the Emiquon Project, is operated by the Nature Conservancy, which is a partner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the creation of the Refuge.
In February 2012, the Emiquon Complex, centering on the Emiquon NWR, was designated under the Ramsar Convention as a Wetland of International Importance.
The Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge and the Emiquon Project cover the historic beds of Flag Lake and Thompson Lake, which were shallow, alluvial lakes created by the Illinois River during the geological period that followed the last ice age. Heavy loads of sand and silt carried southwest by the river created almost random, undulating topography along the river's bed. The river responded to these deposits by repeatedly shifting its course, leaving long, narrow sections of abandoned riverbed behind it. Two of these sections became Flag Lake and Thompson Lake.
Surrounding these two lakes, and strung out along the western bank of the Illinois River, was a characteristic North American riverine ecosystem characterized by dense populations of shellfish, fish, migratory birds, and mammals. The Emiquon wetland became a favorite home for many Indians of the Illinois Territory for thousands of years, leaving 149 known archeological sites behind them within the parcels of land that make up the Project. These hunter-gatherers used and lived in and around both the wetlands of Emiquon and the adjacent river bluffs. During the centuries between 1000 CE and 1300 CE, many of them buried their dead in an adjacent blufftop, now the Dickson Mounds National Historic Site.
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