The Minnesota monarch was found in Mexico by Dr. Fred Urquhart, the scientist who invented monarch tagging. He found the monarch on his first trip to see the sanctuaries he had worked 40 years to discover.

While Dr. Urquhart stared in wonder, a branch filled with butterflies broke and crashed to the earth. He stooped to see the monarchs that had spilled from the branch:

"There, to my amazement, was one bearing a white tag! By incredible chance I had stumbled on a butterfly tagged by one Jim Gilbert, far away in Chaska, Minnesota."

Dr. Urquhart announced this discovery in the 1976 issue of National Geographic. One of the world's most incredible migrations had been found.