His name is James-Robert Curtis. It appears on page C4 of the June 2 edition of the Bangor Daily News, one of 1,200 winners in the 1994 Maine moose lottery.

The hunt began Monday and ends today. For James-Robert Curtis of Bucksport, it came to a triumphant end at 7:45 a.m. Monday when he shot his moose near the Ragmuff Road north of Millinocket.

What caught my attention when I received this information from the hunter’s father, Gerald, is James is just 15, a junior hunter. His moose was no junior. Field dressed, it weighed nearly 1,000 pounds.

I had no idea trying to locate James on Friday would be such fun. There was no one at home or at school since Friday was an in-service day for Bucksport High School where he is a freshman.

Figuring the town was small enough that it should make pretty good hometown news, I struck gold when I called the Bucksport Town Office to see if anyone there had heard of a local youngster shooting a 1,000-pound moose. The lady who answered the phone is a relative.

Darla Crawford knew James had the permit, and that the family was going to have the head stuffed and mounted. She also knew I might be able to reach him at his grandparent’s home. He wasn’t there, but his grandmother told me I might find him at the home of his uncle, Richard Eaton, in Millinocket, where he had gone to retrieve his moose from the slaughterhouse.

I didn’t reach James then, but I talked with Uncle Richard who said this was one excited young man. He spotted the moose out the window of Uncle Richard’s truck, just beyond a clearcut. He shot it cleanly, in the heart, with his .270 Browning. Father, son and uncle were aided by three passing bird hunters in getting this monster of a moose out of the woods, I was told.

Friday, James took home 845 pounds of meat, and learned the head weighed 235 pounds. Uncle Richard said the moose was so heavy it couldn’t be accurately weighed. They were told at the slaughterhouse it must have field-dressed at 1,100 pounds. The taxidermist is checking to see if the rack meets the 170-inch trophy requirement.

I’m happy for James and his family. This is a memorable year for them. That fact, for me, pretty much sums up what this hunting business is all about.

It is not necessarily about the hunt itself. It is about culture, tradition and family relationships. If you doubt that, just ask someone in Bucksport about James Curtis and his moose.

According to the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, 15,824 juniors – hunters between the ages of 10 and 15 who must be acompanied by an adult – obtained all-purpose licenses last year.

That statistic tells me there is a strong likelihood that, at least once a year, 15,824 children are following in the footsteps of their elders, keeping alive a Maine tradition.

Carl Lusby, principal of the Gardner Middle School in Bucksport, has watched youngsters participate in this activity for 20 years now. “We have students here who are outdoorsmen and outdoorswomen,” he said of the tradition he found even stronger when he worked in Gouldsboro. He respects the activity and the family decisions that surround it.

He would not consider it normal for a youngster to take a day off just to hunt, with one exception: if someone had a moose permit. That, he said, is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. But he also considers a hunting trip no different than a family vacation to Disney World.

“If they go,” he said of hunters, “it’s usually a short week for us, like Thanksgiving or Veteran’s Weekend. It’s not uncommon for a family to go to camp to hunt. It is quality family time.”

Terry Daigle, principal at Stearns High School in Millinocket, has seen a lot of changes in his 33 years in education. Hunting is just one.

Kids today, he said, are more “stretched in school activities.” They have difficult choices to make, especially to participate in this cultural event. But lights have made a difference, he said. And not the kind of lights that first come to mind.

“What literally has helped (hunting) is night football,” said Daigle of Friday night football games under the lights. “With Saturday games, kids who played football didn’t have any chance (to hunt) unless we weren’t in the playoffs.” At Stearns, 100 of the 200 male students play football.

When talking of student-hunters, Daigle believes it is important “to see the big picture” and used the same analogy as Lusby.

“It’s just as important for that father and son to go on a hunting trip to continue the culture as it is to take that son to Disney World.”

James is one of the lucky ones. He plays freshman football and he got his moose.

Thanks to a call from Uncle Richard, James reached me just before deadline. He told me he was “really excited” after he realized he had actually shot the moose.

And he’s pretty proud of the fact his is the biggest of the four shot by Bucksport permitees.