Ghost Buck

In Ghost Buck, outdoorsman Dean Bennett takes readers along to the place where he feels most connected to nature and his family––Camp Sheepskin. Guided by his family’s camp register, photos, and letters ranging from the 1800s to the present, Bennett reflects on his annual visits to his Western Maine camp since his boyhood. Through intimate narrative, he recalls hunting triumphs and defeats, including the elusive Ghost Buck that haunts the camp’s surrounding forest. This multi-generational tale combines memoir, history, and politics as it illustrates the environmental and cultural changes that have altered hunting and the rural culture of the Maine woods. Ghost Buck is not a book about how to hunt, but rather a story of how a tradition like hunting in Maine can forge unshakeable family bonds.