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19 September 2022
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge is protected land in Arizona in the southwestern United States, northeast of Yuma and southeast of Quartzsite. Over 665,400 acres (2,693 km2) of the Yuma Desert region of the Sonoran Desert make up the refuge.
Located in the rugged haven are broad, gently sloping foothills and sharp, needlepoint peaks of the Kofa Mountains. The small, widely scattered waterholes attract a surprising number of water birds for a desert area. The name “Kofa” comes from an Arizona mine that was active in this area from 1897 to 1910.
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In 1934, Founder of Scouting and noted frontiersman turned conservationist Major Frederick Russell Burnham became interested in the bighorn sheep that lived in the now protected lands. According to Burnham, fewer than 150 of these sheep lived in the Arizona mountains. So he called George F. Miller, then scout executive of the Boy Scout council headquartered in Phoenix, to save the sheep. According to Burnham:
“I want you to save this majestic animal, not only because it is in danger of extinction, but of more importance; someday, it might provide domestic sheep with a strain to save them from disaster at the hands of a yet unknown virus.”
And with that, the Boy Scouts of America started a statewide campaign to help save the desert bighorn sheep.
Other prominent Arizonans joined the movement, and a poster contest was started in schools across the state to save the bighorns. Burnham provided prizes and appeared in store windows from one end of Arizona to the other. The winning bighorn emblem was made into neckerchief slides for 10,000 Boy Scouts, and school assemblies and radio dramatizations were performed. This effort was supported by the National Wildlife Federation, the Izaak Walton League, and the Audubon Society.
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Combined, Kofa and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuges set aside over 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2), and a civilian conservation corps side camp was set up to build high mountain waterholes for sheep. The Kofa National Wildlife Refuge was officially opened on April 2, 1939, and Burnham gave the dedication speech. Arizona Boy Scouts now use the desert bighorn sheep as their official mascot, and thanks to them, the number of sheep in these parks is booming.
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