Liven A. Peterson, Jr., was born February 19, 1917, in Virginia, MN, a mining town on the Mesaba Iron Range in the wild Arrowhead Country of that state. Little "Pete" took off on his kiddy car to explore the woods when he was four years old and he has been doing so ever since. He spent a large part of his spare time hunting, fishing, and enjoying nature. When he enrolled at the University of Minnesota in 1936, he selected wildlife biology as his major. After graduation in 1939 and Army service during WWII, he joined the River Basin Studies Branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. He was stationed at Billings, Montana; Grand Island, Nebraska; Minneapolis, Minnesota; and Boise, Idaho before retiring in 1972. He traveled across the Midwest and Northwest doing field work on many water development projects during his professional career. These are his collected stories and recollections of 97-years.