$24.95 U.S. (trade discount)
E-book TBD.
Softcover with gatefold flaps
128 pages (an increase of 32 pages from the 96-page 2011 edition), 161 historic and contemporary photographs, maps, drawings, and documents (an increase of 38 illustrations from the 2011 edition that had 123 illustrations)
9.0″ x 10″ portrait/upright
ISBN: 978-1-960521-05-7
Published in April 2025
Distributed by Casemate/IPM
www.casemateipm.com
Published in association with SAGE (Sunny Adler Generosity for Empowerment Fund) and the Center for the Study of Place.
Events and Exhibitions
December 11, 2025 6pm (MST)
Presentation, Aldo Leopold Foundation
(register here)
August 6, 2025
Storyhour
Land O’Lakes Public Library
August 5, 2025
Book signing
Fish & Game Club, Land O’Lakes
June 26, 2025
Book talk & signing
June 27
Storyhour
Blanchardville Public Library
May 8, 2025
Book presentation and signing
Vista West, Madison, WI
May 2, 2025
Book Launch
Aldo Leopold Foundation
A New Edition
by Nancy Nye Hunt
foreword by Nina Leopold Bradley (daughter of Aldo and Estella Leopold)
Designated as the State of Wisconsin’s selection for the Library of Congress’s 2013 National Book Festival’s “52 Great Reads,” which featured one book per state, the U.S. Territories, and Washington, D.C.
In Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story, Nancy Nye Hunt tells the remarkable tale of the famous Leopold family’s efforts to restore a worn-out farm along the lower Wisconsin River near Baraboo in the 1930s during the Great Depression and into the 1940s. Aldo Leopold, the world-renowned ecologist and conservationist—along with his wife, Estella, and their five children and two dogs, Gus and Flick—spent most weekends and vacations living and working at their Sand County farm that they called the Shack, now a National Historic Landmark that is also listed on both the National and Wisconsin Registers of Historic Places.
Told through the eyes of Nina, the eldest daughter, details of life at the Shack unfold seasonally. Along the way, readers learn about the family’s many experiences and adventures: healing the land and converting an old chicken coop into a cabin (the “Shack”); restoring prairies and improving woodlands; planting gardens, collecting firewood, and tending orchards; observing animal tracks, bird migrations, and times when plants bloom; cooking meals over an open fire; singing the family’s old Spanish songs from New Mexico, where Estella was born and raised and had deep Spanish roots, and having great fun walking, swimming, canoeing, cross-country skiing, and playing tracking games.
While at the Shack, Aldo and his family also recorded scientific observations in their “Shack journals.” These journals became the basis of Aldo’s 1949 landmark book, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. That book continues to inspire people today with its call for a land ethic in everyday life. Visiting the Shack, as thousands of people from all over the world do every year, is the equivalent of seeking out Henry David Thoreau’s Walden Pond as a pilgrimage site and source of inspiration.
Using interviews with Nina and the Leopold family and relying on the original Shack journals, historic family photographs, and her extensive field experiences over dozens of years, Hunt has captured the spirit of this special place as no other book previously has. Here, readers discover Nina’s story of growing up at the Shack and learn about the family’s favorite recipes and songs as well as genealogical information all that go back centuries. And the blending of Nina’s story with 161 historic and contemporary photographs of life at the Shack, maps, and original pencil drawings of wildlife all provide for a transformative reading experience.
First published in 2011 and now presented in an updated and greatly expanded new edition, including 38 new illustrations, 32 additional pages, and a new field trip to the Shack, readers will be able to appreciate and better understand Aldo’s famous concepts—the land ethic and phenology—that continue to influence our lives today. This book is a unique tribute and introduction to one of the world’s greatest conservationists and his family and how one place—the Shack—can help shape the world.
About
About the Author
Nancy Nye Hunt was born and raised in Wisconsin near the shores of Lake Michigan. She spent her childhood exploring and observing nature on her grandparents’ land near Cedarburg. After receiving a B.S. degree in agricultural education from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she worked as a legislative liaison for the governor, attorney general, and state legislature of Wisconsin. She then was a children’s literature specialist at Madison’s Pooh Corner Bookstore and a volunteer and substitute teacher for Monona, Wisconsin’s elementary schools. She currently volunteers as a researcher, writer, and tour guide at the award-winning Driftless Historium Museum in Mount Horeb, Wisconsin. Nancy lives and writes from her home in Wisconsin’s Driftless Area with her husband, Tom, a professor emeritus of restoration ecology. They enjoy exploring the land with their two daughters, three grandsons, and numerous animals and pets. Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story received the high honor of being designated the State of Wisconsin’s selection for the Library of Congress’s 2013 National Book Festival’s “52 Great Reads,” which featured one book per state, the U.S. Territories, and Washington, D.C.
About the Contributor
Nina Leopold Bradley (1917–2011), the oldest daughter of Aldo and Estella Leopold, was a well-known American conservationist, researcher, and writer. She was instrumental in developing the Aldo Leopold Nature Center in Monona, Wisconsin, and the Aldo Leopold Foundation in Baraboo, Wisconsin.
Slide Show
The Shack is the place where Aldo Leopold, the world-renowned ecologist and conservationist, and his family helped to restore a worn-out 80-acre farm along the Wisconsin River near Baraboo during the 1930s and 1940s. This is the place where Aldo penned his famous book, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There (1949). Shaped by his early career as a U.S. Forest ranger in New Mexico, where he met his wife, Estella, he developed the innovative idea called a land ethic. Here are some photographs that will give you a sense of Aldo’s life in New Mexico and why the Shack, a National Historic Landmark, is still a special place to visit today.
Praise
“My mother, Nina, commented often that, more than any other publication, Nancy Nye Hunt’s book became her favorite, because it captures the spirit of our beloved Shack. This new edition deepens and expands the understanding of a family’s love for a very special place.”
—Trish Stevenson, Nina’s daughter
“Aldo Leopold is well-known throughout the world for his many scientific achievements, not least of which is providing a foundation for the field of landscape ecology. Many of his ideas were formulated at ‘The Shack,’ a place where the Leopolds—father, mother, and their five children who also became famous scientists and conservationists—began working, almost nine decades ago, to reclaim and restore 80 acres of depleted farmland along the lower Wisconsin River. In this engaging, delightful account, now issued in a greatly expanded 32 pages new edition featuring new text and 38 new illustrations, Nancy Nye Hunt tells the story of how the Shack—now a National Historic Landmark and conservation area encompassing more than 16,000 acres—served as a family retreat and later as an iconic symbol of environmental ethics and values.”
—Arnold R. Alanen, Professor Emeritus of Planning and Landscape Architecture, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and author of The Scenic Route: Building Minnesota’s North Shore
“Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story by Nancy Nye Hunt, now presented in a greatly expanded new edition, introduces whole new generations to the story of the Leopold family’s adventures. Every child will wish they were a part of the Leopold family’s experiences! This new edition is a must read for anyone who is interested in sharing with young readers a love of the land, a strong sense of place, and the fun that families can have enjoying nature together.”
—Kathe Crowley Conn, former President and Executive Director, Aldo Leopold Nature Center, and education consultant
“Historical photographs bring to life a sweet tale, told from Nina Leopold Bradley’s perspective, of growing up at the ‘Shack,’ the tiny former chicken coop on a barren 80 acres that inspired her father, Aldo Leopold, to pen A Sand County Almanac and introduce the world to the ‘land ethic’ concept. . . . Using family photographs, often juxtaposed with modern snapshots of the same scenes, Hunt brings to vivid life the tale of the close-knit Leopold family and their dedication to bringing back their land to a thriving condition.”
—Judy Ettenhofer, The Capital Times
“Nancy Nye Hunt’s Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story, now presented in a new edition,is an outstanding piece of children’s literature. Throughout this gorgeous book, a gentle story and loving portrait emerge. I was transported to a special, magical, and peaceful place. What a phenomenal learning opportunity this new edition provides.”
—Renice Konik, retired teacher, University School of Milwaukee
“This book gives the legacy of the Leopold Shack and family a new energy … It introduces whole new generations to the story of the Leopold family’s adventures on the land, the land itself, and the people involved in restoration and ecology. It’s a wonderful, energetic read no matter your age.”
—Jeanie Lewis, The Dodgeville Chronicle
“Nancy Nye Hunt’s book is a wonderful addition to the growing literature about Aldo Leopold and his literary and philosophical contributions to land conservation. That it is meant for young people makes it even more important, for through the stories of his daughter, Nina, we are shown how a true “land ethic” can be expressed not only in words, but also in action—and by children at that. What a privilege it is to have such an intimate view of this famous family living out the precepts of an exemplary life on the land. No wonder the Leopold children went on to become famous scientists and conservationists in their own right.”
—Charles E. Little, author of Hope for the Land and Discover America: The Smithsonian Books of the National Parks
“The experience of the Leopold family at their worn-out Sand County farm in Wisconsin during the 1930s and 1940s would have an enduring impact on millions of readers of Aldo Leopold’s classic book, A Sand County Almanac and Sketches Here and There. The farm and its unassuming ‘Shack’ also played a powerful role in the lives of the five children of Estella and Aldo. In the new edition of Aldo Leopold’s Shack: Nina’s Story, now presented in a greatly expanded new edition, Nancy Nye Hunt offers readers of all ages the opportunity to share in their experiences. Through daughter Nina’s recollections, we learn all about what the Leopolds brought to this special place—and all that they carried from it.”
—Curt Meine, Senior Fellow at the Aldo Leopold Foundation and the Center for Humans and Nature and author of Aldo Leopold: His Life and Work
“We love Nancy Nye Hunt’s new book about the outdoor childhood of Nina Leopold Bradley and what it meant to grow up with her father, Aldo Leopold, UW professor and a founder of the American environmental movement. The book is aimed at kids, but it’s a wonderful primer about the land ethic for adults, too.”
—77 Square (The Capital Times)
My Place: Wisconsin
My Place: Connection
My earliest sense of place predates language. Under a hot summer sun, my eighteen-month-old self, being held skyward, sees Lake Michigan’s sparkling waters and hears breaking waves roll glacial stones on the beach. Pure joy and happiness. And, later, my teenage self is captivated by full-moon rises, reflections reaching across the water from the horizon to my perch on the lake’s red-clay bluffs, sometimes sharing that space with elusive red foxes. My touchstone. Primal. My earliest sense of place.
My Place: Foundation
Nearly every Sunday was spent at my grandparents’ home in rural Cedarburg where I was turned loose to play, explore, and observe life in the wooded hills above the Milwaukee River. My grandfather taught me ways to build things and how to tend the apple orchard and gardens. We cleaned the martin houses each spring and burned bonfires each fall. With my grandmother, a naturalist and artist, I discovered great-horned owls, red-headed woodpeckers, chickadees, and spring ephemerals like yellow lady’s slipper orchids, wild ginger, and native columbine. She fed my imagination as we searched for woodland fairy dwellers at the base of hollow tree trunks. She taught me the art of seeing beauty everywhere. The time I had to learn, to dream, and to imagine on the land is one of the greatest gifts my parents and grandparents gave me.
My Place: Ancestry
Wisconsin’s boreal forest—primeval—is where I loved to hike in search of Indian pipe, bunchberry, and lichen, especially reindeer moss. Sometimes I’d veer off a particular trail to reach my small secret pond, the scent of ferns and Labrador tea rising with each footstep from the floating sphagnum bog. There, I hoped to see the playful otter family, continuously turning and twisting, their fur matching the tannin-stained water. And, there, I discovered the wonder of carnivorous pitcher plants! I swam in the cold, clear glacial lakes at eye level with loons, hoping the muskies weren’t lured by my toes. Bald eagles and osprey soared overhead. Through the pines, firs, and birches, a million stars would shine at night. My place for renewal.
My Place: Exploration
The beauty of Madison’s chain of glacial lakes captured my heart. In every season, walking along the Lakeshore path behind UW-Madison’s Memorial Union is a delight. Hugging the shores of Lake Mendota, wondering about ancient Indigenous settlements, I walk in dreamtime on the same land as the effigy-mound builders. I pause at the sacred springs of Lake Wingra while hiking in the UW’s Arboretum, which Aldo Leopold helped to establish. Working on Madison’s Isthmus, my place is interior: Wisconsin’s beautiful State Capitol building sits atop a glacial drumlin and is constructed from marble, granite, limestone, and other rocks from around the world. Further west, the swift, hard-working Wisconsin River, with its ever-shifting sandy islands and beaches, carved wide valleys on its journey to the Upper Mississippi River. Surprisingly, atop the steep rocky bluffs are native prickly pear cactus. Hilltop goat prairies blaze with shooting stars and spiderwort. And, of course, there are the memories of canoeing the river to Aldo Leopold’s Shack near Baraboo.
My Place: Home
Wisconsin’s Driftless Area is a region that improbably escaped glaciation as the Green Bay Lobe of the continental ice sheet began its final retreat about 12,000 years ago. Every day I walk on 450-million-year-old fossil-laden limestone bedrock formed in ancient shallow seas. The Driftless Area, characterized by steep-sided hills, springs, snug valleys, oak savannas, and mixed central hardwood trees provides a variety of habitats for diverse bird, mammal, insect, reptile, and amphibian species. Spring-fed creeks form the headwaters for cold-water trout streams. Their runs and riffles glint in the sun as they form tributaries of the bigger waters downstream. Our farm, with several springs and creeks, shows its own history of earlier inhabitants drawn to this same place. Like those before us, gardens and fruit trees keep us well fed all winter long. The Milky Way dusts the night sky. Peaceful. Quiet. My kind of place.
These Wisconsin landscapes and waterways have deeply shaped my life, stirred my curiosity, enlivened my imagination, and stimulated my pursuit of knowledge about history and the natural world. These places have informed my inner life and given me a sense of place in the world.
Copyright © 2024 Nancy Nye Hunt. All rights reserved.