By Rebecca Gilman
WSO Secretary
Attendees at this year’s WSO Birdathon/Bandathon were greeted with a new green space at our 372-acre Harold and Carla Kruse Honey Creek Nature Preserve. The house that once belonged to David and Hazel Cox and was purchased from surviving members of the Cox family in 2021 has been removed.
The decision to demolish the Cox house was a difficult one for WSO’s Board of Directors. Many WSO members have fond memories of being welcomed to the Baraboo Hills preserve by the Coxes. The Cox family loved to participate in our annual spring bird banding. They loved showing off their land to visitors and often offered coffee and breakfast to those who stopped by. It was their dedication to protecting birds and Honey Creek that led WSO to establish the Cox Nature Center in their honor.
But sadly, the Cox house had fallen into disrepair and was prey to vandalism. It became a safety hazard and a potential liability. Some members of the board advocated for demolishing the structure, while others wanted to restore it. Much of the debate centered around its historical significance. Beneath the more modern siding and an addition to the Cox House was an original log cabin built on the site perhaps as long as 100 years ago.
Ultimately, given the financial liabilities involved in trying to restore the house, the board voted to remove the structure. However, the original log cabin was a preserved in a way. Through the efforts of Executive Director Jennifer Lazewski and Dan Pickarts, who chairs the board’s Honey Creek Committee, WSO received an offer of $4,000 from a local contractor to buy the Cox house in order to repurpose the logs that lay beneath the siding. The house was dismantled in 2022 and the logs were sold to build a new house for another family.
WSO then contracted to have the rest of the building materials buried in the basement excavation at a cost of $3,500 – leaving a net gain of $500 from the project. The removal also leaves a new green space at Honey Creek that could become the site of a picnic shelter or perhaps seeded with native plants for the birds.
WSO would love to hear its members’ thoughts on how best to use the space. On your next visit to Honey Creek, please sign the guest book in the Cox Nature Center and tell us what you would like to see on the site where the Coxes once lived and loved the birds.
