Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge is a vast protected Missouri River landscape in Montana surrounding Fort Peck Reservoir. Established in 1936 as the Fort Peck Game Range and later renamed and reclassified as a refuge, it grew from New Deal-era dam building, conservation policy, and Olaus Murie’s call to protect the region for wildlife beyond waterfowl alone. Its significance also reaches far deeper in time: glacial forces shaped its plains, an ancient inland sea left rich fossils including dinosaurs, Native peoples long hunted here, and the Lewis and Clark Expedition crossed this country in 1805, where Sacagawea famously helped save vital records after a boat overturned.