The refuge straddles 35 miles (56 km) of the picturesque Souris River valley in northern North Dakota.

The Souris River basin figures prominently in the cultural and natural history of the North American mid-continent plains and prairies.

The 32,092-acre (129.87 km2) refuge includes a narrow band of river bottom woodlands, fertile floodplains, native mixed-grass hills, and steep, shrub-covered coulees.

The focal point of the refuge is the 9,600-acre (39 km2) Lake Darling, a reservoir created by the Lake Darling Dam, which was constructed in 1936 to provide water to downstream marshes on J. Clark Salyer and Upper Souris National Wildlife Refuges.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.