Aldo Leopold's Fox (and legacy)
 

Another bucket list pilgrimage for me that we just completed -- a visit to Aldo Leopold's farm, his shack, and, as an unexpected treat, a view of his Fox shotgun.

I know there are folks here who appreciate what Leopold has meant to the conservation movement in the U.S. and beyond. The fact that he was a hunter helps to highlight the role that hunters have played in leading this movement. It was a worn out farm in Adams County, Wisconsin that provided Leopold the inspiration for his seminal book, A Sand County Almanac which, if you've not familiar with it, is a must read for all hunters and those that love the land.

I had remembered the Double Gun Journal article about Leopold's Fox, a safety-less XE that was a bird taker. I didn't know the gun was on display at the Leopold Foundation Center, but was delighted to find it and his Winchester there. It's so nice to not see the franchise conservation thinking so prevalent today that assumes hunting and hunters cannot still be a part of conservation.

If you have the chance, you should stop in for a visit.

I believe the gun is on the left; with Gus, near The Shack, 1943.

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shooters/...c/M/Aldo-M.jpg

"The Story of Aldo's Gun"
https://www.aldoleopold.org/blogs/th...y-of-aldos-gun

With the gun outside The Shack
https://savagearms.com/blog/post/who-was-aldo-leopold

https://photos.smugmug.com/Shooters/...of-shack-L.jpg

Thanks, Drew! It was interesting that in some of the virtual tour videos available on the Foundation site, hunting (and the guns) were featured. A small -- but pleasant -- surprise.

Very nice! Garry, my favorite book from AL is "For the Health of the Land". Plenty of in depth conservation practices in that book. You'd enjoy it and put it to use if you don't already have it.

Thanks, Mike. I’ll check it out.

Garry, there’s an even better AL book on habitat. It was used as a text book. “Game Management” is the title of the book.

Thanks, Mike! That one I have.

First rate, Garry;

In his "A Sand County Almanac", Leopold graphically portrays the loss of the last single resident grizzly living atop Escudilla, a well-known mountain near Alpine on the AZ-NM border.
After the loss of the bear to a government trapper, he famously writes of Escudilla as "only a mountain now".

Alpine and Escudilla are just North of my cabin in Greenlee County, Arizona. This border
country was also the Blue-Gila Wilderness area frequented by Ben V. Lilly. It is still wilderness... AL would have liked that.

“Thinking Like A Mountain” is a powerful essay, one of my favorites.

That part of Arizona is amazing.

Thanks for posting the piece on Aldo Leopold. As a career Wildlife Biologist, Aldo's philosophies and writings, in particular Game Management (1933) and A Sand County Almanac (1949), had a profound influence on my life as a wildlife researcher and manager, and lifetime as a hunter. I made my pilgrimage to Aldo's shack on a return fall hunting trip to the mid-west for grouse, woodcock, ducks, and pheasants in 2018. the visit to the shack and A.H. Fox 20 gauge, XE was impressive. Aldo notably served on several commissions with the USF&WS along with Jay "Ding" Darling, Chief, of the Biological Survey, in strong defense of hunting as a wildlife management tool and land stewardship, for conservation. We all owe Aldo Leopold an immense debt of gratitude! http://IMG 9098 JPG; IMG 9090 JPG