Fly like an eagle Profile: MaryBeth Garrigan’s vision took flight on the Mississippi River in Wabasha
MaryBeth Garrigan
"In the wake of the world now, what I wish to leave my daughters and their daughters is the vision of hope."
- MaryBeth Garrigan
by Jaime L. Benshoff
MaryBeth Garrigan would rather soar with eagles than get to know turkeys. Eight years ago she faced a career decision: stay with her steady paycheck in poultry research at the University of Minnesota and then at the University's Raptor Center, or take a gamble on her longtime vision to establish an environmental learning center for our national symbol, the American bald eagle. The dream won out.
Vision realized
If you passed her on the street, you would notice Garrigan-a silver-haired woman dressed in black, wearing an Irish coin on her necklace, and carrying a 10-pound bald eagle on her left arm. This is not an unusual sight in her adopted home of Wabasha, Minn. Garrigan's infectious laugh and engaging manner make her popular with school kids, senior citizens and avian enthusiasts in the small, Mississippi River community. Because of the lock and dam system there, the river stays open all year, making it a haven for eagles.
Garrigan has combined her love of birds of prey with her passion for Native American spirituality, and the result is the $4.5 million National Eagle Center in Wabasha. The center opened in September 2007 and by November 2008 had passed its 100,000-visitor mark.
She followed her heart
The vision for working with birds of prey had its beginnings early in Garrigan's life. As a high school student she was interested in Native American culture and spirituality and birds of prey, especially eagles. "In the Dakota culture the eagle bears prayers on his back to heaven. He is the only one strong enough to carry the weight of the prayers," Garrigan said. Although she didn't know at the time exactly where this might lead, "I was 15 and knew I would follow what was in my heart," she recalled. At that time she also volunteered at the Como Park Zoo. Her interest in birds led her to pass the rigorous requirements for her falconry license. But the shape of her commitment was not something even a young, big dreamer could have imagined.
As a wife, mother, researcher and Raptor Center staffer, her dream of working with eagles grew. Garrigan had to balance career choices against the needs of her family-her husband, Mark, and their two teenaged daughters, Rowan and Becca. "As the sole wage earner in our family I weighed the risks with what I envisioned could be an incredible future when deciding to even attempt a project this large," she said. For the first three months after deciding to take the risk of leaving her steady employment to take on this adventure, Garrigan commuted from the Twin Cities to Wabasha. After she secured grant money and found a house there, her husband and daughters packed up the family home and moved everything to support her dream.
'Citizen science'
Her vision for an eagle center was to engage people with all levels of interest in birds, as well as to intersect with a diversity of cultures. Garrigan wanted a place for "citizen science. You don't need a degree in ornithology to appreciate being here," she said.
As the program director of the National Eagle Center, Garrigan has overseen its growth from a deck and back room in the Chamber of Commerce building-the place local bird enthusiast, Mary Rivers, organized eagle watches in the 1990s.
With the initial grant money, Garrigan rented a former bar for the first phase of building. And with elbow grease, her training as a master falconer, and a group of volunteers, she designed aviaries to house educational birds.
"The bald eagle is an incredible comeback story," Garrigan said. "From the legislation that extended protection to the banning of pesticides that nearly caused their extinction, the sight of a wild eagle is a testament to the belief we can do things right on this planet."
In addition to viewing eagles in the wild, Garrigan felt having nonreleasable eagles-for people to see up close-would give more meaning to visitors' experiences at the environmental center. The first nonreleasable eagle acquired was an injured bird named Harriet. Garrigan taught herself how to handle the eagle whose talons can apply up to 400 pounds of pressure per square inch. "I'd worked with eagles at the Raptor Center in St. Paul," she explained. "So I used that knowledge, plus the training from falconry, to acclimate Harriet."
At first Harriet merely responded, then she began to thrive. Named by school children for Harriet Tubman, Harriet the eagle was soon joined by Angel, another nonreleasable bald eagle. To stimulate community involvement, Garrigan offered area schools the opportunity to pick and vote on names for the eagles.
Woman crusader
As the fledgling eagle center was outgrowing its space in the renovated bar, Garrigan was incubating a larger vision. "We had 150 square feet of retail space and would get bus tours of up to 75 people," she said. She began to imagine a full-scale, multi-educational center with viewing decks and lecture halls, a facility that could house her clutch of eagles and be culturally diverse in its reach.
"Throughout history the eagle has been significant ... whether you are Native American, Hmong, Hispanic, old or young. Whether you are an immigrant or American born, from whatever walk of life, to see [an eagle] is uplifting. I wanted to share that with as many people as possible," she said.
Legacy of hope
In the spirit of Native American tradition, Garrigan thinks of the legacy she wishes to leave for seven generations of daughters ahead. "In the wake of the world now, what I wish to leave my daughters and their daughters is the vision of hope," she said.
As a girl who dreamed of working with eagles, the shape of her commitment was not something she could have imagined. But because Garrigan stayed true to her dream, she is now able to be a voice of encouragement to her daughters and their dreams.
"My daughters wanted to pursue music and we began, for a lark, playing traditional Irish music together. My husband home-schools our kids, so," she flashed a grin, "what better model for teaching marketing and business than encouraging the three of us to form a band?" And the band's name? "A true Irish family business!" she replied, 'Garrigan's Quarrel.'"
