Deer hunting plays an important role in rural life across much of North America, and annual trips to deer camp are the cultural norm in places like Maine. Friends and family come together and bonds are forged over the years at camp, some that last for decades. Few families have upheld the deer camp tradition for as long as Dean Bennett’s, and his latest book “Ghost Buck” tells their story from the start.
Dean’s family history is rich, well documented, and centered in the small settlement of Locke’s Mills, in the town of Greenwood, Maine. He comes from a long line of farmers and factory workers, many working in the E.L. Tebbetts Spool Company mill, which closed for the opening of deer season each year.
The history of the town of Greenwood is fascinating in itself, and particularly interesting as it pertains to the Bennett family story. It goes back to when Calvin Cole acquired a deed of land in 1832, and his grandson Ransom Cole was born in 1842. Ransom was a successful farmer, businessman and sawmill owner. His grandson Jason Bennett, born around 1890, wasn’t just Dean’s grandfather. He was a friend and role model throughout Dean’s life, and played a central role in the family’s deer camp tradition from the beginning.
As a teenager, Jason Bennett shot two bucks in 1906, at a time when whitetails were relatively rare in Maine. They provided valuable meat for the family, and also sparked in him the excitement for deer hunting that would continue throughout his life. Later, as a young man, Jason purchased around 200 acres of cut-over land just outside of town. It was land once owned by Ransom Cole, and he got it cheap, since it wouldn’t produce sellable timber for decades. Little did he know how valuable that land would become to him, and the pain it would cause him to someday have to sell much of it.
After getting acquainted with the land, Jason and a bunch of family and friends built a camp there in 1936. It was named “Camp Sheepskin”, after the oddly named bog nearby, and became the center of a rich history of family deer hunting that would go on for decades. In fact, Dean and family still hunt out of “Sheepskin” today.
So many stories of successful hunts, mishaps, practical jokes, great celebrations and sad moments are recorded in the “Camp Sheepskin” register, a log of all recorded activity at the camp since its construction. The place played an important role in many lives, probably none more so than Jason and Dean Bennett. There was also a touch of mystery around deer hunting around the bog, with the ever-surfacing story of a legendary ghost buck.
As you might imagine, a lot has changed since the 1930’s when the family camp was built, most notably the increase and fluctuation in deer populations, law changes, advancements in hunter safety, and the slow, annoying creep of residential development that’s so common in the southern half of Maine. Through relayed entries from the camp register and captivating stories of deer hunting over the years, Dean Bennett artfully captures his family legacy of deer hunting that many hunters can relate to in “Ghost Buck”.
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