Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge
IUCN category IV (habitat/species management area)
Show map of Northern Virginia Show map of Virginia Show map of the United States
Location	Prince William County, Virginia, United States
Nearest city	Woodbridge, Virginia
Coordinates	38°38′39″N 77°14′09″W / 38.64417°N 77.23583°W / 38.64417; -77.23583
Area	644 acres (261 ha)
Established	1998
Governing body	U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Website	Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge

The Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge is a National Wildlife Refuge located where the Occoquan River meets the Potomac River in Woodbridge, Virginia, United States between Belmont Bay and Occoquan Bay. The 644-acre (2.61 km²) site, about half of which is wetlands, was a popular tourist spot known as Dawson Beach until the 1940s, after which it was used for military research by the U.S. Army's Harry Diamond Laboratories from the 1960s to the 1990s.^[1] When the land was purchased from the military, it was temporarily called the Marumsco National Wildlife Refuge. The refuge was formally established and renamed in 1998, and is now managed by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service as part of the Potomac River National Wildlife Refuge Complex.^[2]