Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge
Big Stone National Wildlife Refuge
Odessa, MN 56276
Phone:320-273-2191
Fax:320-273-2231
Web: www.fws.gov/midwest/bigstone
Established: 1975.
Location:Near the Minnesota-South Dakota border, 0.5 miles west of Odessa, Minnesota.
Facilities:Visitor contact station, viewing sites, hiking trails, auto tour route.
Activities:Fishing, hunting, wildlife watching, educational programs.
Special Features:Part of the Big Stone-Whetstone River Project of Minnesota and South Dakota, the refuge serves as a wintering area for as many as 1,200 whitetail deer and has a year-round population of river otters. Site also protects an area of ball cactus, which grows nowhere else in Minnesota.
Habitats: 11,521 acres of wetlands, woodlands, native prairie, and granite rock outcroppings.
Access: Open during daylight hours.
Wild life: Mallard, Canada geese, American bittern, partridge, beaver, otter, white-tailed deer.
See other parks in Minnesota.