The Fight for the Upper Mississippi: Steven Marking on Will Dilg and the Birth of a Refuge

In 1924, Will Dilg and the newly formed Izaak Walton League of America fought the proposed drainage of the lush Winneshiek Bottoms near Lansing, Iowa by lobbying for the creation of a new, unprecedented-in-scope federal refuge. In less than a year, they succeeded, and the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge was born. This year, events throughout the upper Mississippi mark its centennial.

Will Dilg was probably more responsible for the success than anyone else. He was one founder of the Izaak Walton League and intimately familiar with the channels and islands of the upper Mississippi River. In this episode, I talk with Steven Marking, a musician and riverlorian who was so fascinated by Dilg’s story that he wrote an entire show about him.

In this episode, Marking talks about his own childhood on and near the Mississippi and explains how he felt connected to Dilg. We talk about Dilg’s love of the upper Mississippi, a tragedy on the river that changed his life, his role with the Izaak Walton League and lobbying for the refuge creation. We also talk about some of Dilg’s character traits that didn’t always endear him to others. We finish with a description of the new show that Marking created about Dilg.

In the Mississippi Minute, I preview some events coming up this summer to mark the centennial and mention a couple of my favorite spots.