Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm | |
![]() Aldo Leopold Shack in 2014 | |
Nearest city | Lewiston, Wisconsin |
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Coordinates | 43°33′46″N89°39′33″W / 43.56278°N 89.65917°W Coordinates: 43°33′46″N89°39′33″W / 43.56278°N 89.65917°W |
Area | 264 acres (107 ha) |
Built | 1935 |
NRHP reference No. | 78000082 |
Significant dates | |
Added to NRHP | July 14, 1978 [1] |
Designated NHLD | January 16, 2009 [2] |
The Aldo Leopold Shack and Farm is a historic farm on Levee Road in rural Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The property was acquired in the 1930s as a family summer retreat by the noted conservationist and writer Aldo Leopold and is the landscape that inspired his conservation ethic and the writing of his best-known work, A Sand County Almanac . The property is now owned and managed by the Aldo Leopold Foundation, which provides tours and other educational programs on the property and the adjacent visitors center. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and was designated a National Historic Landmark in 2009. [2]
Leopold began buying land here in 1935, acquiring more than 150 acres (61 ha) by the time of his death in 1948. The family continued to acquire land until 1970, including a small island in the river. The family then donated the property to the Aldo Leopold Foundation. The property is about 264 acres (107 ha) on the south bank of the Wisconsin River northeast of Baraboo, Wisconsin. The property is roughly rectangular in shape, extending south from the river, and roughly bisected by Levee Road. The foundation has a visitors' center about 0.5 miles (0.80 km) east of the property at the junction of Levee and Schemp Roads. The farm is biologically diverse, with floodplain forest and marshland and former fields that have been restored to native prairie. The principal built feature of the farm is the former chicken coop, set midway between Levee Road and the river, where Leopold spent his time; there is also a small outhouse nearby. The soil in the region is sandy, the result of deposition during the Cambrian Period that was reworked by the Wisconsin glaciation. [3]
Leopold's writings on conservation and the environment were significantly influenced by this landscape. A Sand County Almanac, a compilation of his writings, is widely regarded as one of the most influential works on conservationism of the 20th century. [2] [3] Leopold wrote the essay, "Marshland Elegy," in 1937 which warned that sandhill cranes could become extinct in Wisconsin and the upper Midwest as the species had dwindled to just 25 breeding pairs in Wisconsin. [4]
Sauk County is a county in Wisconsin. It is named after a large village of the Sauk people. As of the 2020 census, the population was 65,763. Its county seat and largest city is Baraboo. The county was created in 1840 from Wisconsin Territory and organized in 1844. Sauk County comprises the Baraboo, WI Micropolitan Statistical Area and is included in the Madison metropolitan area.
Fairfield is a town in Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 1,023 at the 2000 census. The unincorporated community of Greens Corners is located in the town.
Aldo Leopold was an American author, philosopher, naturalist, scientist, ecologist, forester, conservationist, and environmentalist. He was a professor at the University of Wisconsin and is best known for his book A Sand County Almanac (1949), which has been translated into fourteen languages and has sold more than two million copies.
Baraboo is a city in the Midwest and the county seat of Sauk County, Wisconsin, United States. The largest city in the county, Baraboo is the principal city of the Baraboo Micropolitan Statistical Area. Its 2020 population was 12,556. It is situated on the Baraboo River.
Reedsburg is a city in Sauk County, Wisconsin, along the Baraboo River. It was founded in 1868, and was named for early settler David C. Reed. The city is surrounded by the Town of Reedsburg. It is part of the Baraboo Micropolitan Statistical Area.
The Driftless Area, a topographical and cultural region in the American Midwest, comprises southwestern Wisconsin, southeastern Minnesota, northeastern Iowa, and the extreme northwestern corner of Illinois.
Devil's Lake State Park is a state park located in the Baraboo Range in eastern Sauk County, just south of Baraboo, Wisconsin. It is around thirty-five miles northwest of Madison, and is on the western edge of the last ice-sheet deposited during the Wisconsin glaciation. The state park encompasses 9,217 acres (3,730 ha), making it the largest in Wisconsin. The state park is known for its 500-foot-high (150 m) quartzite bluffs along the 360-acre (150 ha) Devil's Lake, which was created by a glacier depositing terminal moraines that plugged the north and south ends of the gap in the bluffs during the last ice age approximately 12,000 years ago. The sand at the bottom of Devil's Lake is thought to be deposited by glaciers.
A Sand County Almanac: And Sketches Here and There is a 1949 non-fiction book by American ecologist, forester, and environmentalist Aldo Leopold. Describing the land around the author's home in Sauk County, Wisconsin, the collection of essays advocate Leopold's idea of a "land ethic", or a responsible relationship existing between people and the land they inhabit. Edited and published by his son, Luna, a year after Leopold's death, the book is considered a landmark in the American conservation movement.
Wyalusing State Park is a 2,628-acre (1,064 ha) Wisconsin state park at the confluence of the Mississippi and Wisconsin rivers in the town of Wyalusing, just south of Prairie du Chien.
The Badger Army Ammunition Plant or Badger Ordnance Works (B.O.W.) is an excess, non-BRAC, United States Army facility located near Sauk City, Wisconsin. It manufactured nitrocellulose-based propellants during World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It was a large munitions factory during World War II. As of 2013, the facility was in the end stages of demolition and remediation in preparation for property transfer.
Van Hise Rock is a rock monolith located along Wisconsin Highway 136 near Rock Springs, Wisconsin. The rock is a geologically significant outcropping of Baraboo Quartzite.
Sand County Foundation is a non-profit private land conservation organization located in Madison, Wisconsin, United States. Founded in 1965, its work is inspired by world-renowned conservationist Aldo Leopold’s land ethic.
This is a list of the National Register of Historic Places listings in Sauk County, Wisconsin. It is intended to provide a comprehensive listing of entries in the National Register of Historic Places that are located in Sauk County, Wisconsin. The locations of National Register properties for which the latitude and longitude coordinates are included below may be seen in a map.
Estella Bergere Leopold is an American paleobotanist and a conservationist. As a researcher in the United States Geological Survey, she aided in uncovering records of plant life from the Miocene around the Eniwetok and Bikini Atolls in the southern Pacific Ocean and from the Cenozoic era in the Rocky Mountains. As a professor of botany and forest sciences at the University of Washington, she directed the Quaternary Research Center, researched the forest history of the Pacific Northwest, and collaborated with Chinese paleobotanists. Leopold's work as a conservationist includes taking legal action to help save the Florissant Fossil Beds in Colorado, and fighting pollution. She is the daughter and only surviving child of Aldo Leopold.
Ferry & Clas was an architectural firm in Wisconsin. It designed many buildings that are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. George Bowman Ferry and Alfred Charles Clas were partners.
The Man Mound is a prehistoric humanoid earthwork located in Greenfield, Sauk County, Wisconsin, east of the city of Baraboo. Constructed during the Late Woodland period, the mound is the only surviving anthropomorphic effigy mound in North America. The mound depicts a horned humanoid figure and may have held religious or ceremonial significance to its builders. The mound was preserved as a county park in 1908, listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978 and designated a National Historic Landmark in 2016.
Baraboo High School is a high school in Baraboo, Wisconsin, and is a part of the Baraboo School District. It serves more than 900 students in grades 9-12 from Baraboo, West Baraboo, North Freedom, and a portion of Lake Delton. The school's colors are blue and gold.
The International Crane Foundation (ICF) is a non-profit conservation organization that works to conserve cranes and the ecosystems, watersheds, and flyways on which they depend. Founded in 1973, the International Crane Foundation is headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin on a 250-acre property that includes live crane exhibits with 15 crane species, a visitor center, breeding facilities, a research library and nature trails. The foundation works worldwide and in the US with local partners to raise and conserve cranes. The Foundation maintains a regional base in China and shares program offices with partner organizations in Cambodia, India, South Africa, Texas, Vietnam, and Zambia. The International Crane Foundation's approximately 80 staff work with a network of hundreds of specialists in over 50 countries on five continents.
Baraboo School District is a school district headquartered in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
The Manchester Street Bridge is a camelback steel truss bridge in Baraboo Wisconsin in Sauk County. The bridge was constructed in 1884 to carry Manchester Street over the Baraboo River. In 1987 it was moved to Ochsner Park where it was placed on new abutments while still spanning the Baraboo River as pedestrian bridge.