Badger Boys State adopted a program based upon the experience of the Illinois Boys State which was sponsored by the Illinois American Legion and had been in operation since 1935. Four hundred eighty-four high school juniors attended the first session of Badger Boys State at St. John's Military Academy in Delafield, Wisconsin, June 16–23, 1939. The project proved very successful and was unanimously authorized to proceed as a state program by the Wisconsin American Legion Convention in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The individuals responsible for founding the Badger Boys State program officially on April 8, 1939 were: Due to the limited capacity of St. John's
American badger with brown or blackish "badges" marking the cheeks and a white stripe extending from the nose to the base of the head. In the subspecies "T. t. berlandieri", the white head stripe extends the full length of the body, to the base of the tail. The American badger is a fossorial carnivore. It preys predominantly on pocket gophers (Geomyidae), ground squirrels ("Spermophilus"), moles (Talpidae), marmots ("Marmota"), prairie dogs ("Cynomys"), pika ("Ochotona"), woodrats ("Neotoma"), kangaroo rats ("Dipodomys"), deer mice ("Peromyscus"), and voles ("Microtus"), often digging to pursue prey into their dens, and sometimes plugging tunnel entrances with objects. The American badger