Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge is a 6,486 acre (26 km²) wildlife refuge located 5 miles south-east of

Dardanelle, Arkansas Dardanelle is a city in northeast Yell County, Arkansas, United States. The population was 4,745 at the 2010 census. Along with Danville, it serves as a county seat for Yell County. It is located near Lake Dardanelle. Dardanelle is part of the ...

. The Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge is bounded on one side by the

Arkansas River The Arkansas River is a major tributary of the Mississippi River. It generally flows to the east and southeast as it traverses the U.S. states of Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas. The river's source basin lies in the western United Stat ...

and on its other sides by an

oxbow lake An oxbow lake is a U-shaped lake or pool that forms when a wide meander of a river is cut off, creating a free-standing body of water. In South Texas, oxbows left by the Rio Grande are called '' resacas''. In Australia, oxbow lakes are call ...

that was formerly the main channel of the Arkansas. The oxbow lake was formed in 1954 by the Army Corps of Engineers during their efforts to straighten the Arkansas River navigation channel. The island that was formed by this project between the old and new channels was transferred to the

US Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

in 1957 for use as a wildlife refuge. The land was formerly agricultural land but was abandoned after the 1927 flood. The primary function of this refuge is to provide a winter home for

duck Duck is the common name for numerous species of waterfowl in the family Anatidae. Ducks are generally smaller and shorter-necked than swans and geese, which are members of the same family. Divided among several subfamilies, they are a form t ...

s and

geese A goose (plural, : geese) is a bird of any of several waterfowl species in the family (biology), family Anatidae. This group comprises the genera ''Anser (bird), Anser'' (the grey geese and white geese) and ''Branta'' (the black geese). Some o ...

that

migrate Migration, migratory, or migrate may refer to: Human migration * Human migration, physical movement by humans from one region to another ** International migration, when peoples cross state boundaries and stay in the host state for some minimum le ...

from the north along the

Mississippi Flyway The Mississippi Flyway is a bird migration route that generally follows the Mississippi, Missouri, and Lower Ohio Rivers in the United States across the western Great Lakes to the Mackenzie River and Hudson Bay in Canada. The main endpoints of t ...

each year. Up to 100,000 of these fowl live in the refuge during the winter months.

Notes

External links

Holla Bend National Wildlife Refuge
National Wildlife Refuges in Arkansas Protected areas of Pope County, Arkansas Protected areas of Yell County, Arkansas Protected areas established in 1957 1957 establishments in Arkansas {{Arkansas-protected-area-stub