Buck Peterson

Buck “Buck” Peterson is America’s Most Trusted Naturalist and Life Coach. Errant Knight of the Outdoor World, master guide, fisherman up s*ht creek with a paddle, waterfowl hunter who knows skies hold a limit, big game hunter with never a scope eye injury, Rhoades scholar of Game Cookery. Born in Northernmost Minnesota, he grew up on crappie-choked waters of the Land of Lakes, not the butter cooperative. His first boat was his dad’s wood duck boat which, unfortunately, came untied and went over the dam. His first gun was a Daisy Red Ryder and because he wore thick glasses at an early age, he didn’t put his eye out. His first duck dog was a black and tan miniature dachshund undone by a largemouth bass of record size. His second was a happy yellow lab with a stuffed nose. A magical, mystical transition in hunting partner legend occurred when the aged lab welcomed Buck’s new pig, an animal also known for loyalty, cheerfulness, cleanliness, patriotism, and soft mouth, to the family. Named after Dorothy Lamour, another classic beauty, Buck’s new hunting pig quickly became his best friend in the blind and at in-law reunions. It’s reported even Sgt Preston of the Yukon Territory admired Buck’s early adoption of ordinary farm animals as hunting partners. Paul Bunyan’s ox was, of course, blue with envy.

Permeant home for this famous woodsman, an expert best left outstanding in the field is Buck’s Wilderness Lodge and Advanced Plucking Institute in northernmost Minnesota on Big Babe Lake. The lake is one of a string of spring-fed lakes and holds a large population somewhere of crappies, sunfish, northerns, and walleyes. No motorized watercraft are allowed except for Buck’s one-man submarine. His large log lodge is built from old-growth fir trees with spotted owl nesting holes on the north end of the lake near a loon nest and a small bay full of wild rice and colorful turtles. Buck’s personal housing is a log cabin hand-carried by his Norwegian forebears (suitcases were much larger back then) and reassembled upwind of the lodge guest latrines.

The cabin stores a complete collection of George Herter’s cook and guidebooks and a Herter 17’ square stern canoe is outback. Herter’s famous daredevil spoons hang everywhere in the trees where fly-fish casting lessons are held. 

An honors graduate (local women studies) of The College of the Great Loon Spirit, Buck is often invited to speak to groups, off-campus mostly and way off-campus at eastern women’s colleges. His big career break was selection as the first professional big game hunting guide in NYC’s Central Park 1985-87 with an expense account at the King Cole Room at the St. Regis where he often stayed way past closing. His best friends are too unmanageable to be considered a voting block but if they could focus, Sven Stoolsoftnerson would be President. If you are a veteran and a good sport, friendship is guaranteed in this group until the check arrives. Two-for-ones are available in the lodge’s Valhalla Lounge to anyone that takes a child, a vet, a disabled first responder fishing, hunting or just skipping stones on Big Babe Lake. Rare to take corporate money, Buck's only assignment recently was scouting northwestern ocean shorelines for beached whales for large cat-food manufacturers. He is currently petitioning for a Roving Ambassador position in Maker’s Mark® Ambassador Club.

Buck at his Big Babe Lake Cabin