The International Crane Foundation: Saving the World's Cranes
Near Baraboo, Wisconsin
On the meadows north of Baraboo lives an organization devoted to saving some of the most magnificent and endangered birds on Earth. The International Crane Foundation was founded in nineteen seventy-three by two young ornithology students from Cornell University, George Archibald and Ron Sauey. The Sauey family rented their horse farm to the pair for one dollar a year, and from that modest start grew the only place in the world where you can see all fifteen species of crane.
The foundation's most famous story is that of a whooping crane named Tex. To coax the rare bird into breeding condition, George Archibald spent parts of three years acting as her mate, walking, calling, and dancing beside her day after day. His devotion worked.
With the help of artificial insemination, Tex eventually laid a fertile egg, a small miracle for a species that had nearly vanished from the wild. From this Wisconsin campus, scientists now work across the globe to protect cranes and the wetlands they depend upon. Wander the trails here and you may hear the wild, trumpeting call of birds that stand nearly five feet tall, brought back from the very edge of extinction by people who simply refused to give up.
