Aldo Leopold Legacy Center

7. tree with skull
8. shack vertical
9. foundation remnant vertical

Left: Cow skull on a tree overlooking the path to the floodplain. Jill Metcoff, 2005.

Center: Leopold Shack, a view from the woods. Jill Metcoff, 2005.

Right: Original farmhouse foundation remnant predates the Leopold purchase. Jill Metcoff, 2005.

Transforming Land, Transforming People

“There are two things that interest me: the relationship of people to each other and the relationship of people to land.”

In a nation where economics had become the highest standard for judging success or potential success, Leopold found a place that had been totally exhausted by the pursuit of profit. On a tract of property with no potential for profit, he was free to pursue an entirely different goal – restoring the health of the land. In the process, he instilled in his own family a fundamental respect for the integrity of the natural world. Today, the Aldo Leopold Foundation continues to explore the relationship between people and land, maintaining the Shack as a focal point for learning and discussion. The Aldo Leopold Legacy Center is an attempt to live up to Leopold’s ideal of “living on a piece of land without spoiling it.”