I live in the little mountain town of Kingston, New Mexico. Our latest census (conducted over coffee) showed our current population to be the highest in twenty five years or more, 43 residents. Covid has had a positive effect on our community by dropping the median age tremendously. The influx of younger people working remotely has been a very welcome change to our “Sun City” past.
I am now retired here after a 35 year career in Landscape Architecture. Something about having over three million acres of forest and wilderness out my back gate that appeals. The Aldo Leopold Wilderness is only three miles from my home. Though much of that paradise has burned recently, it is still a wild land. It will be forever changed but it will recover to provide habitat once again.
It was fortuitous that we purchased a home so near the Wilderness. An added bonus to living in a beautiful rural, natural setting. Inspired by a friend who had performed as Aldo Leopold, and another who performs as John Muir, I gave my first performance as Aldo Leopold almost ten years ago. I have since been performing Chautauquas or Living History at venues in Arizona and New Mexico. I recently returned from one of the most memorable trips of my lifetime: nine days in Wisconsin and Iowa. We think of the southwest as being the breeding ground for so much of Leopold’s thinking that he expressed in his classic “The Sand County Almanac.” But, he was born in Iowa and spent the last 24 years of his life in Wisconsin. I was given the opportunity to perform twice at the University of Wisconsin, Eau Claire, and once at the Burlington, Iowa Public Library. I spent Easter Sunday at the “Shack” in Baraboo, WI with twenty members of the Leopold family. It was a tremendous opportunity to walk through much of the landscape that Leopold had known.
So, my writing is mainly about observations. Leopold said, “There are two things that really interest me, one is the relationship of people to people. The other is that of people to the land.” I try to relay the stories that fascinate me in a manner that is sometimes humorous and sometimes tragic, it is life.
My goal in performing as Aldo Leopold is to teach; to open peoples’ eyes through conveying his words of wisdom in ways that entice people to look at the world a bit differently, with care and respect. My writings are for the same reasons. If people are intrigued by the picture created by my words, then I hope they will be curious enough to venture out and explore this incredible natural world that surrounds us.
My upcoming articles will be about the Black Range Mountains, their natural history and the life our communities lead nestled into this still wild land.
Thank you.