Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge

Public Lands Institute

Geological age: ~525 million years ago (bedrock); mountains re-exhumed ~300 Mya.
Epoch: Cambrian bedrock (Furongian); Wichita Mountains uplifted during Pennsylvanian Ouachita Orogeny (~300 Mya), then buried and re-exhumed ; one of the most geologically complex mountain histories in the U.S.
Native lands: Comanche (Nʉmʉnʉʉ) · Kiowa · Wichita (Kitikiti'sh) · Apache · Fort Sill Apache; Quanah Parker (Comanche) called the Wichitas home; mountains set aside from Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation lands in 1901.
Displacement & Tenure: Cession 510: Treaty with the Kiowa, Comanche, and Apache (Medicine Lodge Creek, 1867); Cession 485: Agreement with the Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache (Jerome Agreement, 1892, ratified 1900); Congress carved 61,500 acres directly out of the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache Reservation and proclaimed the Wichita Forest Reserve on July 4, 1901; President Roosevelt redesignated the area a game preserve in 1905; the New York Zoological Park shipped fifteen bison by rail to the refuge on October 10, 1907, at the invitation of Quanah Parker's Comanche delegation; retitled Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge in 1936.
Shadow History: The refuge occupies land ceded by the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache under the Jerome Agreement (negotiated 1892, ratified June 6, 1900), which extracted approximately 2.5 million acres of KCA surplus lands over sustained Kiowa opposition; President McKinley established the Wichita Forest Reserve on those ceded lands by Proclamation 459 on July 4, 1901 -- the same day he opened the KCA land lottery; the refuge was reorganized under the FWS in 1936. Three CCC camps and multiple WPA projects operated at the refuge through the 1930s; by March 1938, CCC labor had constructed 46 concrete dams, 14 rubble masonry dams, 50 miles of improved roads, 46 miles of big-game fencing, and a hydroelectric system; the WPA built the Holy City of the Wichitas between 1935 and 1936 at a cost of $147,000; Roosevelt's April 1905 wolf hunt in the adjacent Big Pasture, which included Quanah Parker as a participant, is documented as a direct political catalyst for the congressional appropriation that created the preserve; the Quanah Artillery Range (15,850 acres) has been operational along the refuge's southern boundary since 1957, with a 3,800-acre strip between the refuge and Fort Sill closed to the public.
Ecology: Mixed-grass and shortgrass prairie; cross timbers; American bison herd (reintroduced 1907, ~650 animals); longhorn cattle; Rocky Mountain elk; prairie dogs.
Hydrology: Parallel streams draining east; Lake Elmer Thomas; Quanah Parker Lake; Comanche County watershed.
Acreage: 59,020 acres
GPS: 34.7690° N, 98.6730° W

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 1 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0630.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 2 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0635.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 3 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0636.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 4 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0638.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 5 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0639.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 6 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0652.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 7 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0653.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 8 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0655.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 9 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0656.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 10 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0664.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 11 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0666.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 12 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0668.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 13 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0669.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 14 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0670.jpg

Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge 15 · 2026-01-07 _DSF0673.jpg