A Visit From Will Dilg

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 only son in the early 1920's, Dilg rose from the depths of depression to lead an extraordinary national crusade by forming the Izaak Walton League. Then, with the support of the General Federation of Women's Clubs of America they saved a 261 mile stretch of Mississippi River backwaters from agricultural drainage by forming a great national preserve, The Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge.

Director's statement:
This was our country's first successful large scale environmental grass roots campaign. It became the tipping point from filling in wetlands to preserving wetlands. Will Dilg should be synonymous with John Muir and Aldo Leopold. He sold our modern conservation movement to the American People.
When I started working for American Cruise Lines, 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 below Davenport and Rock Island. And on the Lower Mississipppi River there isn't even aquatic vegetation to be found due to constantly shifting water levels in a river pressed between levees. The levees have turned a magnificent ecosystem into an industrial shipping corridor, with little regard for Mother Nature. Even with its many ecological issues, the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish 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.

Steven Marking holds a Masters Degree in Vocal Performance from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, and a Bachelors Degree from Viterbo University in his hometown of La Crosse, Wisconsin. He brings more than three decades of professional production and performance experience to his latest creation, A Visit From Will Dilg, and his ongoing masterpiece, Our Mighty Mississippi.