Tennessee National Wildlife Refuge stretches along the Tennessee River in West Tennessee, where the Tennessee Valley Authority's creation of Kentucky Lake reshaped the landscape into a largely permanent wetlands environment. Established in 1945, the refuge protected habitat that proved especially favorable to waterfowl. Today it encompasses 51,359.46 acres, or 207.84 square kilometers, in three units along the river: Big Sandy in the north, Duck River in the middle, and Busseltown farther south. Its importance lies in preserving a large expanse of river-edge wetlands in a region where the river and reservoir transformed the natural landscape.