Kofa National Wildlife Refuge
Fish and Wildlife Service, Arizona.
Kofa National Wildlife Refuge was established in 1939 for the protection of desert bighorn sheep and other native wildlife following a 1936 campaign by the Arizona Boy Scouts.
Originally designated Kofa Game Range, the refuge was managed jointly by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Land Management for decades. In 1976, control of the refuge was awarded to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, and it was renamed Kofa National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge's name was derived from an acronym for one of the area’s most notable mines, the King of Arizona gold mine.
Kofa Wilderness
Designated in 1990
547,719 acres
The Wilderness Act of 1964 created the National Wilderness Preservation System "in order to assure that an increasing population, accompanied by expanding settlement and growing mechanization, does not occupy and modify all areas in the United States, and its possession, leaving no lands designated for preservation and protection in their natural condition..."
Congress designated 547,719 acres or over 80 percent of Kofa National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness through the 1990 Arizona Desert Wilderness Act. Along with the Kofa Wilderness, the New Water Mountains Wilderness was designated at the same time on 24,600 acres on the north boundary of the Kofa Wilderness.
For more information about Kofa Wilderness please visit: wilderness.net
Nearby Activities
- Backpacking
- Biking
- Birding
- Camping
- Fire Lookouts/Cabins Overnight
- Hiking
- Horseback Riding
- Hunting
- Photography
- Picnicking
- Wilderness
- Wildlife Viewing
Directions
The refuge is located 40 miles north of Yuma, Arizona, on the east side of State Highway 95. The coordinates for the King Valley entrance are 33.24977, -114.21724.
