Great Places: Montezuma Wildlife Refuge

When I was a little girl and my grandmother took me for drives across western New York, we always passed signs that said “Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge.” My grandmother always pointed out the place. I thought it extremely odd that anything in New York would be called “Montezuma.” I also thought it odd that my grandmother expressed interest in it. Years later, I realized that my great-great grandfather helped create the Montezuma marshes into park, and that the name “Montezuma” was the name given by Dr. Peter Clark; he’d named his estate that because he liked the Aztec leader Montezuma.

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