MARQUETTE — A new Keweenaw-based podcast is taking a shot at preserving the history of the Upper Peninsula in the most Yooper of ways: hunting tales.

The podcast, Bucks & Booze, is hosted by Keweenaw outdoorsman and business owner George Twardzik, who says that the podcast is a way to preserve the history and culture of the U.P. through the medium of the hunting story.

“I’ve been trying to find a way to capture and preserve my family’s hunting history because it has been a really big part of our family for generations,” Twardzik said. “Last year I bought a voice recorder to record the stories that my family tells gathered around a coffee or a beer.”

Like many hunting camps, the Twardziks kept journals that told the stories of those inhabitants of the camp. Unfortunately, those journals were tragically lost last fall.

“Last fall, our hunting camp burnt right to the ground. We had kept those journals for years and we ended up losing all of that,” Twardzik said. “I had been listening to more and more podcasts so I wanted to do this to capture the things we had lost as best we could. I thought, there are so many other people and other families that hunt and that it would be fun to create a podcast, put it out there and just see how it goes.”

Twardzik says that hunting stories are not only a great way to be entertained, but can also be a way to capture precious oral histories of the U.P.

“When you get someone to talk about something in their comfort zone, whether that’s hunting, sports, reading or whatever, you will have other things creep in and pretty soon you are getting a history of the area,” Twardzik said.

Making sure that the guests on Bucks & Booze are relaxed and comfortable shouldn’t be a problem, as the name implies, the podcast will also focus on different libations to go along with the hunting stories — a well-made match.

“Our hunting group has gone down this path of trying craft beers and craft distilleries,” Twardzik said. “We try all kinds of different spirits, everyone brings something different for us to sample and talk about.”

Twardzik says the goal is for the podcast to come out weekly, with three episodes already published.

Bucks & Booze can be found on most major podcast platforms, such as Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Randy Crouch can be reached at 906-228-2500, ext. 242. His email address is rcrouch@miningjournal.net.