Mingo Wilderness

Eighteen thousand years ago the Mississippi River flowed through what is now Mingo Wilderness, forming a rich swampland of bottomland hardwoods, cypress, and tupelo. This biologically diverse habitat attracted Native Americans and later settlers, who logged and drained much of the forest. In 1944, Congress established the Mingo National Wildlife Refuge to preserve what remained. Today this Wilderness protects crucial habitat for river otters, bald eagles, wood ducks, swamp rabbits, and migratory waterfowl along the Mississippi Flyway. Located in the western third of the refuge, it features rolling hills of the Ozark Plateau, Monopoly Marsh, and miles of canoeable waterways under a canopy of cypress and hardwoods.