[4] The establishment of the Russell National Wildlife Refuge is closely tied to the construction of Fort Peck Dam.

The dams would not only generate electricity for use by railroads and industry, but they would aid in flood prevention and create large reservoirs which could be used for commercial traffic.

[7] On December 12, 1933, Roosevelt issued Executive Order 6491, which turned federal land over to the United States Army Corps of Engineers for the construction of the Fort Peck Dam.

[8] In 1929, President Herbert Hoover signed into law the Migratory Bird Conservation Act, which authorized the federal government to purchase or lease land for the establishment of waterfowl refuges.

In 1934, President Roosevelt signed into law the Migratory Bird Hunting Stamp Act, which generated revenue for purchase of waterfowl refuge lands by requiring bird hunters using federal land to purchase a "duck stamp" (essentially a permit allowing them to hunt fowl).

Murie's comprehensive report proved critical in convincing the Roosevelt administration that the area around Fort Peck Reservoir should be a wildlife refuge, not merely for birds.

[10] On December 11, 1936, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7509, establishing the Fort Peck Game Range.

On April 13, 1942, President Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9132 which turned over even more Corps-administered land to the game refuge.

[8][12] On March 25, 1969, President Lyndon B. Johnson issued Public Land Order 4588, which established the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge.

The exploitation of the UL Bend National Wildlife Refuge for oil, natural gas, coal, and other minerals was prohibited on May 15, 1970, by Public Land Order 4826.

On September 28, 1993, the Secretary of the Interior issued Public Land Order 6997, which prohibited all mineral exploration within the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge for 20 years.

On December 28 of that same year, the General Services Administration transferred of 6,020 acres (24.4 km2) of land from the Army Corps of Engineers to the wildlife refuge.

[15] Beginning about 100 million years ago, a large inland sea known as the Western Interior Seaway covered most of the middle of the modern-day countries of the United States and Canada.

[16] The combination of extensive prehistoric fauna and a shallow inland sea led to significant preservation and fossilization of animal and plant remains.

These factors left the Russell National Wildlife Refuge rich in readily exposed and recovered fossilized plants and animals.

[19] Native Americans frequently visited the area due to the large number of big game animals which utilized the river.

[23] The members of the expedition began to suffer from swollen and red eyes, boils, and abscesses from the amount of alkali in the river and soil.

The pirogue overturned, throwing nearly all of the expedition's journals, maps, papers, navigational and survey instruments, and medicine into the river.

But Sacagawea, holding her three-month-old child Jean Baptiste, calmly stood in the rushing water and retrieved nearly all the supplies.

Clark saw a fortified Native American lodge a short distance up the creek, believing it to be an Atsina (Gros Ventre) site.

Late that night, a cottonwood tree sheltering the camp caught fire from sparks rising from the expedition campfire.

[40] The far eastern portion of the 80-mile (130 km) long Missouri Breaks National Back Country Byway is also contained within the refuge.

When the 245,000-acre (990 km2) Fort Peck Reservoir is added to the acreage of the Russell Wildlife Refuge, the figure of 1,100,000 acres (4,500 km2) is achieved.

[2] There are four major types of habitat within the refuge: river bottom, riparian zones and wetlands, shoreline, and upland (including forested coulees and prairie).

In 1983, the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled in Schwenke v. Secretary of the Interior, 720 F.2d 571, that wildlife should be given limited priority to the resources on the refuge, rather than livestock grazing.

[44] In April 1986, the National Park Service adopted an environmental impact statement and "decision of record" which established a resource management plan for the refuge.

Montana Highway 24 passes along the eastern boundary, providing access to various wildlife stations located in the refuge.

[51] The Center also features exhibits about the construction of the Fort Peck Dam and the area's cultural history, and offers guided tours of the powerhouse.

[54] Doctoral candidate Mary Schweitzer found heme, a biological form of iron that makes up hemoglobin (the red pigment in blood), within some bones of the fossil.

[59] In November 2010, hunter David Bradt stumbled on an elasmosaur fossil in a canyon on the Russell National Wildlife Refuge.