When I'm traveling, I always look for chances to dig a bit deeper into the world of whitetails. This can mean pulling off the interstate to snap a photo of a specific type of deer forage or taking as tasteful a shot of a road kill as possible. (That can bring some curious stares, to say the least.) But more than anything, I keep my eyes open for chances to visit spots that hold important places in whitetail history.
Colleen Sutton (l) and Michele Rhode assemble Cuddeback Digital scouting cameras at the company's plant in Park Falls, Wisconsin.
Anyone who's serious about monster bucks knows that in 1914 (the morning of Nov. 20, 1914, to be exact), in Burnett County, Wisconsin, James Jordan used his .25-20 Winchester to down one of the most famous whitetails of all time. The Jordan buck is the biggest, most symmetrical and most massive 10-pointer ever, and for many years he ranked as the overall world-record typical in the Boone and Crockett record book. Even today he ranks No. 2, trailing only Milo Hanson's 213 5/8-inch 6x6 shot near Biggar, Saskatchewan, in 1993.
Over the years I'd spent a fair bit of time in Wisconsin, but before last week, none in that particular corner of the state. So when I saw that one route between the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport and Park Falls, Wisconsin, passed within a few miles of Burnett County, I decided this would be my best chance yet to mark that off my life list.
I was going to Park Falls to participate in the first-ever "Cuddy Fest," an event put on by the folks at Non-Typical, Inc. Founded by local whitetail fanatic Mark Cuddeback, the company has grown into the world's biggest manufacturer of automatic scouting cameras, the majority of which are used mainly (if not exclusively) for photographing whitetails. Cuddy Fest was in many ways a grand company picnic, with plenty of good food, a friendly archery tournament and an informative tour of the manufacturing facility.
For North American Whitetail Television and several other hunting shows sponsored by Cuddeback Digital, it was a great chance to meet everyone behind the brand and to see the cameras being assembled. Likewise, I really enjoyed learning more about the company's history. Since Mark's first forays into trying to build scouting cameras for his own use back in the '80s, Non-Typical Inc. has grown into a signicant local employer. As we drove around the area over the weekend, Mark showed me the house in which he grew up and the small creek he and his childhood buddies explored whenever they could sneak away.
Nearly a century ago, the valley of the Yellow River in Burnett County, Wisconsin, was home to the legendary James Jordan buck.
Once Cuddy Fest was over, I decided to drive through Burnett County on my way back to the airport. When I left Park Falls at a little before 7 a.m., the sky was clear, and a great day for photography seemed to be shaping up. But before I'd driven an hour, the sky had begun to darken. By the time I hit the Burnett County line in mid-morning, it was getting downright gloomy. And as I approached the small, unincorporated town of Danbury, the bottom fell out.
I sat in my rental car for about a half-hour, waiting for the wind-blown rain to let up enough for photos. It just kept pouring. Finally deciding it was now or never, I stepped out of the vehicle just far enough to snap several photos, including a couple of the Yellow River. It was somewhere near this pretty stream that Jordan shot his monster buck back in 1914, and it was from the icy river itself that he pulled the dead deer to shore. I'm not sure just where it happened along this small waterway, but it probably wasn't far from where I stood. Even in a July thunderstorm, I could practically feel the history. I'm really glad I stopped in.
Upon returning to NAW's office here in Georgia a couple of days ago, I resumed editing a special issue that will bring the Jordan story and a number of other classics to life. This publication will be called Great Deer Tales, and it will be available on newsstands nationwide in late September. In this collector's issue, we'll be highlighting our choices for some of the very best deer stories that have appeared in NAW over its first 25 years. If you're a hardcore trophy whitetailer, it's one publication you'll definitely want to read . . . and keep.
North American Whitetall North American Whitetail is designed for the serious trophy hunter. It provides authoritative coverage of world-class whitetails, the latest approaches to deer management and advanced hunting techniques.
