Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Mathews Brake National Wildlife Refuge
Like Morgan Brake, this refuge is difficult for the birder to access. Mathews Brake is a
very small refuge consisting mostly of a shallow lake with cypress and tupelo trees. It is heav-
ily used by local fishermen, and renting a boat is about the only way to get into the refuge;
standing at the boat ramp will not reveal much in the way of birds.
To reach the refuge, follow the signs from Sidon. Go west from US 49E at a triangle in-
tersection; Melvin's One-Stop Center is in the middle of the triangle. Turn left onto School
Street; then go south, west, then south again, and then the road turns west yet again. This is
LeFlore County Road 511. Take a left turn, south, onto County Road 250; at the fork, take the
righthand fork onto County Road 249 (there is a sign for the refuge). Drive past fields until
you reach the woods on the right side of the road, and from where the woods start, everything
on the right side of the road is part of the refuge. The boat ramp is ahead on the right. It is a
pretty lake and cypress swamp, but a boat is necessary to explore it.
NOXUBEE NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE
About 20 miles south of Starkville lies the 47,000-acre Noxubee National Wildlife Refuge;
here is the best opportunity for seeing red-cockaded woodpeckers in the states of Mississippi
and Alabama, and perhaps anywhere in the South. If coming from Starkville, get on SH 25
and head south; just past the campus of Mississippi State University there will be a sign
pointing the way to Noxubee. Turn left (south) onto paved Oktoc Road. Follow the signs to
Noxubee at a fork in the road. After 17 miles or so, just before Oktoc Road dead-ends, it will
become a dirt road. At the intersection where Oktoc Road dead-ends, turn right, or west, onto
Bluff Lake Road, and drive to the main area of the refuge. Bluff Lake Road is dirt and crosses
a number of one-lane bridges; the road is passable by any car, but take your time, particularly
when rain has made the road muddy and slippery. After entering the refuge, the road passes a
number of swampy areas with wood duck houses in them. After crossing the Noxubee River,
the road reaches Bluff Lake and goes along the dam that forms the lake, which covers ap-
proximately 1,200 acres. Bluff Lake and Loakfoma Lake, which is just south of Bluff Lake,
form the core area of about 3,225 acres where hunting is not allowed; this area around these
two lakes provides the main birding territory on the refuge. After crossing the dam, the road
going straight leads to Loakfoma Lake; the road to the right leads to an area between the two
lakes and on to the refuge headquarters.
