Steven Marking plays Will Dilg in an inspiring one-man stage production entitled A Visit From Will Dilg. After suffering from the drowning death of his son in the early 1920s, Dilg rose from the depths of depression to lead an extraordinary national crusade to stop the drainage of our Upper Mississippi River backwaters by forming a great national preserve, our Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

One hundred years ago, in 1924, the passionate crusade of a man by the name of Will Dilg paid off in the creation of the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge: 261 river miles and 244,000 acres of protected wetland habitat, extending from Wabasha, Minnesota to Rock Island, Illinois.  

One hundred years later, Steven Marking’s passion for this same Refuge inspired him to bring Dilg’s story to life, to give us hope and inspire us all to contribute to its protection and restoration.  Marking is a Riverlorian by profession, singing songs and telling stories about the river for American Cruise Lines on the Mississippi River. The refuge was Steve’s back yard growing up just north of La Crosse, Wisconsin, on Pool #7.  He created A Visit From Will Dilg in celebration of the Centennial of the refuge. 

Will Dilg was a Chicago businessman and an avid sportsman and nature lover, who claimed to spend upwards of 60 days a year fishing the Upper Mississippi backwaters.  He watched with growing alarm as the habitats he treasured were degraded and drained en masse for commercial purposes.  Dilg lived in the era of the extinction and near-extinction of charismatic species like the Passenger Pigeon, the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker, and the American Bison and he wanted to prevent a similar fate from befalling the fish, waterfowl and other riparian wildlife that lived in or migrated over these wetlands. Dilg saw that the reclaiming of the river’s lands for farming was moving upstream from the Mississippi Delta, and he knew that if someone didn’t act fast the entire river would lose it’s floodplain habitat to developers. 

Director’s statement:

When I started working for the cruise industry, I thought the whole Mississippi River must look somewhat like where I grew up along the refuge. But I was very wrong. The significance, beauty and unique ecosystem we are blessed with diminishes greatly below Davenport and Rock Island. And on the Lower Mississippi River there isn’t even aquatic vegetation. The levees have turned a magnificent ecosystem into an industrial canal. Even with it’s many ecological issues, the refuge remains a paradise compared to the river below it. 

When I started out to tell this story, I didn’t realize it would have all the elements of our greatest of American stories. The downfall and loss of his only child to drowning in the Mississippi river, the challenge of reversing the political and economic juggernaut that was taking our wetlands, the rallying of the sportsmen across the country, the speedy alliance he made with the American women, and the successful passage of legislation that everyone said could not be passed. This was our nations first successful large scale grass roots conservation movement. Getting the government to buy back land for habitat, the size of the refuge, and the amount of money allocated were all unprecedented in our nations history. 

When I started out to tell this story, I didn’t realize it would have all the elements of our greatest of American stories. The downfall and loss of his only child to drowning in the Mississippi river, the challenge of reversing the political and economic juggernaut that was taking our wetlands, the rallying of the sportsmen across the country, the speedy alliance he made with the American women, and the successful passage of legislation that everyone said could not be passed. This was our nations first successful large scale grass roots conservation movement. Getting the government to buy back land for habitat, the size of the refuge, and the amount of money allocated were all unprecedented in our nations history.