Meredosia National Wildlife Refuge encompasses 5,255 acres along the Illinois River near Meredosia in a historically wet river landscape on an important migratory flyway for waterfowl. Much of it occupies the wetland tract known as Meredosia Island, beside shallow Meredosia Lake, in a backwater and marsh environment that has long attracted ducks, geese, and other birds. Although early twentieth-century efforts sought to drain much of the Illinois Riverbed for farming, this tract remained wetland. After the Chicago Meredosia Gun Club began managing ponds for waterfowl habitat in the early 1920s, the federal government acquired much of the island in 1973 and created the refuge, which is now managed for a wide range of Illinois River valley wildlife.