Mississippi
Mississippi River refuge near Onalaska marks 100-year history this weekend
![Mississippi River refuge near Onalaska marks 100-year history this weekend Mississippi River refuge near Onalaska marks 100-year history this weekend](https://www.wizmnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/media-boat-trip-1000x600.jpg)
An area nature refuge is getting ready to celebrate its 100th anniversary with a public event near Onalaska this weekend.
The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge was founded in 1924, to protect the river habitat. There will be an open house from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at the visitor center (map), along with activities at the Fred Funk boat landing (map). It will feature barge tours, as well as nature and history exhibits.
“It’s pretty neat to see all these people out fishing today, and really enjoying it,” Hallie Schulz, the refuge visitor services manager, said. “I always like to say that this is your national wildlife refuge, this is your public land, so come out and enjoy it.”
Schulz and other staffers at the refuge led area reporters on a boat tour in the Lake Onalaska area Tuesday, to promote the centennial events.
In 1923, outdoorsman Will Dilg learned of plans to drain some of the river backwaters for land use, possibly for farming. He headed an effort to create a federal refuge. Congress passed a refuge act on June 7, 1924, largely due to Dilg’s activism.
Schulz said Lake Onalaska is a very popular eating and nesting area for eagles, pelicans and other birds.
“The refuge is like their restaurant,” she said. “It’s really a special place.”
The refuge is 261 miles long, from Wabasha, Minn., south to Rock Island, Ill.
![](https://www.wizmnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/fritz-funk-1024x771.jpg)
Tour guides said that at one point in the 1970s, before the use of DDT was discontinued, just one eagles nest could be found in the refuge area. Now, they count over 300 eagle nests there.
The boat tour was launched from the Fred Funk landing near Onalaska, which honors a local conservationist. Funk’s son Fritz Funk piloted the boat for the special trip.
“Dad was involved in a lot of conservation advocacy issues on the river,” Fritz Funk said. “He didn’t actually like the attention, didn’t really want something named after him, but after he passed away, people came up with the idea, and then the family thought, you know, boat landing? He’d be okay with that.”
![](https://www.wizmnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/plants-on-water-1024x771.jpg)
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Mississippi
Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record
![Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record Mississippi alligator breaks 2 state records and is possibly a world record](https://www.gannett-cdn.com/authoring/authoring-images/2024/09/10/PJAM/75154627007-1000001789.jpg?auto=webp&crop=1078,606,x2,y184&format=pjpg&width=1200)
‘When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons. She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.’
Watch: Texas officer wrangles angry gator from family’s front porch
Body camera footage captured the moment a police officer swiftly removed a small alligator from a home in Texas.
After two frustrating nights on the last weekend of the season, a Mississippi hunter caught the alligator he’d been after, but what he didn’t realize when he pulled it in his boat was that not only did it break two state records, it’s possibly a world record.
Jason Ullendorf said a cousin of his was buying a part at a boat shop last week when he was told about an alligator in the Pascagoula River. The alligator had been spotted near a sandbar and had been making people visiting the location uncomfortable.
“We figured we’d help them out and get it out of there,” Ullendorf said. “We went down there to look at it, and it was a pretty good gator. It’s kind of crazy how it happened.”
Catching it was easier said than done, though. Ullendorf and members of his hunting party repeatedly hooked the alligator, only to have the hooks pull out or break off when the alligator would go under logs.
“We chased it from about 9 o’clock until about 3 o’clock in the morning,” Ullendorf said. “By then we’d lost all our hooks.”
More: Hunters bag Mississippi alligator weighing almost 700 pounds
Another long night of hunting alligators
The following day, Ullendorf bought more hooks and returned to the river with only one other hunter, Joseph Mangano of Richton. Fortunately, they found the alligator in the same spot as the night before. Unfortunately, it was shaping up to be a replay of the night before with the two repeatedly hooking the alligator, only to have the hooks pull free.
“It was frustrating,” Mangano said. “At one point, we got so frustrated we left it and an hour later started again. We knew we would hook it, but we were going to have to get it out of the trees.”
At 4:45 a.m., the hunters got a break. The alligator surfaced in open water near the sandbar. The two hooked the alligator with a rod and reel and then got a hand line on it as the alligator towed the two men and their 18-foot pontoon boat upriver. Everything was going relatively smoothly until they pulled the gator near the boat.
“When she came up she was under the bottom of the boat in between the pontoons,” Ullendorf said. “She was slapping the boat with her tail and all that. I thought she was going to knock my motor off for a minute.”
More: ‘The size and mass of his head is unreal.’ Mississippi alligator hunters bag 800-pound giant
Mississippi hunters suspect their alligator is a female
The two got the alligator in their boat and while Ullendorf referred to it as a “she,” he didn’t think it was a female at the time. This alligator was too big to be a female, and the longest female alligator ever recorded in the state was caught in 2022 by Jim Denson and measured 10 feet, 2 inches.
“As soon as she came up we said, ‘That’s a male,’” Ullendorf said. “We never second-guessed it.”
But then they did. When to two took the alligator to Mangano’s business in Richton, Running M Meat Company, they discovered the alligator didn’t have male sex organs.
“I couldn’t believe it at first,” Ullendorf said. “We called Andrew Arnett to come down and verify it. I didn’t believe it at all.”
Is this Mississippi alligator a world record?
Arnett is the head of the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks Alligator Program. He confirmed it was a female and certified it at 11 feet, 3/4 inches long and 324 pounds. Not only was it a state record for longest female, it was the new state record for heaviest.
However, it may have broken another record, if only it existed. Multiple internet searches came up empty for an official world record for female alligators, but some states keep official records. According to searches by the hunters and Arnett, the longest female alligator on record before Ullendorf’s was 10 feet, 6.75 inches long and it was caught in Florida. If that’s true, Ullendorf has the new world record for longest female alligator.
“Just from what I’ve seen online, I think so,” Arnett said.
Do you have a story idea? Contact Brian Broom at 601-961-7225 or bbroom@gannett.com.
Mississippi
Mississippi Mass Choir new album
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JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – The Mississippi Mass Choir has a new album! We Still Believe is available!
The director and some choir members joined Studio 3 to discuss the songs.
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Mississippi
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