Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge in Mississippi spans 48,000 acres across Noxubee, Oktibbeha, and Winston counties and was formally established in 1940 to protect wetlands as habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. Assembled in the 1930s through federal land programs, it includes extensive bottomland and upland forest, lakes, and reservoirs that support species such as quail, deer, turkey, wood stork, American alligator, bald eagle, and endangered red-cockaded woodpeckers. Wildlife viewing, regulated seasonal hunting, and research with Mississippi State University make the refuge both a conservation landscape and an active example of land stewardship in eastern Mississippi.