15,000 years ago, north-central Montana was covered with glaciers, the prairie grasses non-existent, no wildlife roaming the ground or soaring in the sky. The glaciers slowly reshaped the landscape, leaving mountains, canyons, gorges, and other magnificent sights in their wake. Here, after the glaciers melted, depressional wetlands were left, a mix of habitat types including saline and freshwater wetlands, a perfect home for birds and wildlife.

In 1936, Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge was established to preserve and enhance resting, feeling, and breeding habitat for migratory birds and other wildlife. The refuge is located in the Central Flyway, an extensively used flight path for thousands of waterfowl, marsh and shore birds, many of which remain to nest in the area on the 15,551 acres that make up the refuge. Resident wildlife include pronghorn antelope, sharp-tailed grouse, beaver, muskrat, white-tailed deer, and coyotes, along with bald eagles, piping plovers, ducks, geese, grassland songbirds, and colonial nesting waterbirds. Occasionally, peregrine falcons soar through the skies, above the wheatgrass and silver sagebrush.

The wetlands of Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge are fed by rain, snowmelt, irrigation return flows, and occasional spring flooding of Beaver Creek, though the primary source of precious water is the Milk River, which flows into the refuge through a system of canals, and supplements the twelve inches of precipitation this region receives per year.

To get up close and personal with many of the wildlife species at the refuge, visitors can embark on a fifteen-mile self-guided auto-tour. During the fall, designated areas are open to waterfowl and upland game bird hunting. Bowdoin National Wildlife Refuge is one of the most important migratory bird refuges in the state of Montana, a place, under boundless skies, where waterfowl, shorebirds, songbirds, and native wildlife species thrive.