The Baker-Curry tree is named for John Baker and J. Arthur Curry, whose unlikely partnership helped save Corkscrew and establish it as an Audubon Sanctuary. Passionate citizens first came together to stop the logging of the last remaining old-growth bald cypress forest in the world, forming the Corkscrew Cypress Rookery Association in 1954 and enlisting Baker, president of the National Audubon Society, to lead the effort against Lee Tidewater Cypress Company. Baker petitioned Curry, president of Lee Tidewater, arguing for the swamp’s value, negotiating its sale, and ultimately gaining his support. Curry then gave a square mile of the most valuable old-growth forest as a Christmas present. With roots deep in the peat, the Baker-Curry tree stands as a testament to how individuals can make a significant and lasting difference. Old-growth cypress trees also serve as favored nesting sites for threatened wood storks; in one spring in the early 1900s, ornithologist T. Gilbert Pearson estimated that the Corkscrew colony held 100,000 storks, though regional development pressures have since sharply reduced their numbers.