Do you know the legend of the Rhinelander Hodag?
This month’s issue of Milwaukee Magazine explores the lore of the hideous green beast and how it’s become a symbol of pride for the northern Wisconsin city.
To learn more about the Hodag, Lake Effect’s Xcaret Nuñez spoke with local writer Tea Krulos about his article for Milwaukee Magazine’s October issue.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
For people who aren’t familiar with the Hodag creature and its lore, can tell me what it is exactly?
The Hodag is this terrifying beast that lives in the woods of Rhinelander, Wis. The origin of this [legend] dates back to 1893 — there was a character named Eugene Shepard, and he was a land surveyor for the lumber companies. He comes into town one day and he has a photograph of what he says is a monster that he saw in the woods and a lot of people believe him, even though, he's sort of got a reputation as a town prankster.
And if you see this photo, you're kind of like, wow. How would anyone get fooled by this? But you gotta remember, this is an era long before CGI, photoshop or even movies. And a lot of people believe that the camera doesn't lie. And that's true, but the person behind the camera can lie. So it turns out that he had made this monster out of carved wood, some old bull horns, fangs and a row of spines down his back. And to people at the time, it was very believable and frightening.
So the Hodag kind of looked like a Loch Ness monster?
Yeah, along those lines. You know, [the Hodag] was intentionally a hoax. [Eugene Shepard] kept this going for a while. Three years later, in 1896 he says, ‘I actually caught a Hodag. We put a chloroform silk rag on a long stick, and we knocked it out, and I captured one.’ And he actually displayed this at the Oneida County Fair in a dark tent. People would walk in, he had the sculpture in a cage, and then he had an assistant hiding underneath the cage that would move it around and make growling noises, and people again, believe this was real.
And word got to the Smithsonian Institute, and were like, 'Oh, a new animal. We're going to go up to Wisconsin and check this out.' And that's kind of when the hoax was over. He had to admit he'd been fooling everyone.
How did something that was meant to be this scary beast become a symbol of pride for Rhinelander?
Well, it’s really great because now the Hodag has become the town symbol of Rhinelander. They realized this would be a good way to draw in tourists and just sort of a symbol of Rhinelander pride. So the high school football team is called the Hodags. They have a big Hodag statue outside of their tourist office, and they have a Hodag festival. There's even, a Hodag store which specializes in souvenirs and merchandise. So it's just kind of fun that they've really embraced this monster as their town symbol.
The great thing about the Hodag is it's a uniquely Wisconsin thing and there's other towns across the country like this, for example, Point Pleasant, West Virginia. [This city] has a story of the Mothman. In the 60s, there was a wave of these Mothman sightings, and so they've embraced this [legend] with a festival and a Mothman museum. So it's very similar to that. And I love it when these towns are like, ‘Well, here's something we have going for us, even though it's a little strange. This is something that can draw in tourists and we can have celebrations.’ So it's just really fun, especially this time of year.
You can read more about the Hodag, Rhinelander’s mythical creature, in Milwaukee Magazine’s October Issue, which is out now.
