WHAT'S NEW

Hunters Will Want to Visit the Buck Barn

Thee is a new business in the Cook Forest area. It is located at the Double Diamond Deer Ranch. It is a new building attached to their gift shop and is known as the Buck Barn. It contains over 80 mounted animals, 65 of them are full body mounts. Plus over 70 racks and skulls. They are all shown to you in an educational taxidermy display. There is everything from a Mouse to a Moose. There is a 700 pound black bear. A replica of Punxsutawney airport buck, the Breen Buck, the Jordan Buck, and the current world record, the Milo Hanson Buck.

There are also two sections the kids will especially enjoy, Dracula's Den and the Touch Me Wall. This contains animal pelts, antlers, and feathers. The barn also contains full body mounts of the deer that have lived out their lives on the deer ranch and passed away of old age.

This year the deer ranch has 17 bucks, 4 adult doe and one 6 month old white doe. Blitzen, our white 7 1/2 year old, has 23 points and weighs over 300 pounds. His son Marty is a piebald buck and is 2 1/2 years old. He has a 26 inch spread and 8 typical points. See pictures with this story. We are using our buck Adam as our breeder buck for this year. He is 7 1/2 years old and has a 25 inch spread, with 10 typical points.

We are located 3 miles south of Cook Forest State Park on route 36. We will be open 7 days a week 10 am to 5 pm until Thanksgiving. We will be closed Thanksgiving Day, and then open weekends only through the winter months. There is a small admission to each attraction. Both are open the same hours.

The Double Diamond had the opportunity to show off their buck barn the weekend of November 14, 15, and 16. A Christmas Open House was being held in the Forest in cooperation with other businesses: Beverly's This-and-That, Briar Hill Rustic Furniture, Cooksburg Dry Goods, Ishkabibbles, Cook Forest Sawmill Center, site 2, Sher Lynn's Crown Mercantile, The Country Store, Stone Crest Cabins, Cook Riverside Cabins, MacBeths's Cabins, Clarion River Lodge, Trail's End, and Vince's Tavern. All were featuring different specials for shopping, dining, and accomodations. Some of the people visiting the Buck Barn were state representative Sam Smith; Mike Pence, of Pence's Outdoor Connection Taxidermy in Sigel, PA; Rich and Kris Fowler and Glen and Gloria Adams of the PA Outdoor Journal; Dave Morris, Joni Sadley, Carla Wehler, all of the Northwest PA Great Outdoors Visitor's Bureau; Brian and Kim Dubosky of The Dragon's Cache in Cook Forest; Dan and Cindy Lee of Jesse's Dream, Golf Driving Range and The Mysterious Maze in Cook Forest; and Mary Gomolka of Shopper's Guide and the Indiana Gazette. Light refreshments were served and everyone could visit both the deer park and the buck barn.

It snowed, so that put everyone in a Christmas kind of mood. We all hope you have a safe and happy holiday season. From "Our Deer Family" to "Your Dear Family."