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The Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge is a wetland wildlife refuge located in Waterford Township in Fulton County, Illinois across the Illinois River from the town of Havana. Only 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 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. ==History== 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.〔Brenda Rothert, "Emiquon's rebirth begins: Nature Conservancy planting 260,000 trees at preserve near Lewistown", Peoria Journal Star, May 6, 2007.〕 When new Americans of European ancestry began living along the Illinois River in the late 17th century, they brought several wetland diseases with them, notably malaria. Local Indian populations declined, and the settlers tried not to live in or near wetlands, believing them to be unhealthy places to live. When Fulton County was organized in 1823, the settlers selected a blufftop location several miles away as the county seat. A population of local Illinois River settlers thinly settled the Emiquon riverbank, which was too wet for traditional European-style farming. The region continued to yield a living to fur trappers, hunters, and fishermen. However, in 1919 Joy Morton, a wealthy Chicago CEO, acquired the Emiquon area and had a levee built around it and drainage ditches dug. Emiquon became the ''Norris Farm'', and the former wetlands and lake beds were drained and converted into cornfields. The formerly free-flowing Illinois River was dammed and confined to a narrow channel running between artificial banks. Much of Emiquon was low-lying and required periodic pumping with electric motors so that the land could remain dry and useful as farmland. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Emiquon National Wildlife Refuge」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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