Episode 4
The Hodag & Gene Shepard - Wisconsin's Most Fearsome Critter
Spawned from the lumber camps of the Northwoods comes the Hodag, Wisconsin's most fearsome critter.
From bunkhouse tale to worldwide phenomenon.
Discover who or what created this mythical creature and how it became so popular.
Why is Rhinelander the "Home of the Hodags" and who is carrying on the tradition of the beast.
Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin - Chad Lewis
Pioneer Park Historical Complex
Carmen San Diego - Hodag Store
Best Highschool Mascot in America
Bumper Music
Wisconsin Rapids native, Jeff Finup is the mind behind Badgerland Legends, which explores Wisconsin's mysteries and fascinating history, a post at a time. Legends, lore, history, cryptids ,and more from the Badger State. Find his work on Instagram and Facebook.
Mike Huberty, hailing from the town of Big Bend, near Milwaukee, is the owner of American Ghost Walks, a haunted history tour company with locations in Maine, California, Illinois, Minnesota, Puerto Rico, Hawaii, and started in our very own Badger State of Wisconsin - with tours in Lake Geneva, Milwaukee, Madison, Waukesha, Bayfield, and the Wisconsin Dells. Find out more at AmericanGhostWalks.Com.
Transcript
Wisconsin, a paranormal paradise with lake
Speaker:monsters, dogmen haunted hotels, famous ghosts, and
Speaker:deadly killers. It's a lot more than just America's
Speaker:dairyland. It's time for a deep dive into the weird,
Speaker:wonderful and terrifying that's lying just below the surface of
Speaker:reality. From American ghostwalks and Badgerland
Speaker:Legends. This is the Wisconsin Legends
Speaker:podcast.
Speaker:Welcome back to the Wisconsin Legends Podcast. I'm Jeff FinUp
Speaker:with Badgerland Legends. And with me, as always is Mike.
Speaker:Huberty from American ghostwalks. Today, Mike, we're going
Speaker:to hmm all. The way up north. Up in the
Speaker:northwoods. Any idea what we might be talking about? Well,
Speaker:considering that this is a podcast about legends of
Speaker:Wisconsin and we are talking about Rhinelander legends, we talk
Speaker:about things like ghosts and mysteries and
Speaker:of course, cryptid, rhinelander has the
Speaker:most maybe behind the beast of Bay Road, but the second
Speaker:most famous at least cryptid in Wisconsin. So I bet
Speaker:we're talking about the hodag today. We are talking about the hodag. What
Speaker:is a hodag? Good question. According to the book fearsome creatures of the
Speaker:Lumberwoods by William T. Cox, 1910, the
Speaker:hodag has been variously described by woodsmen from Wisconsin and
Speaker:Minnesota. Opinions differ greatly as to the appearance of the
Speaker:beast, some claiming it to be covered with horns and spines and having a
Speaker:maniacal disposition just like me, the size about
Speaker:that of a rhinoceros, somewhat resembling that animal in general
Speaker:makeup, the creature is slow in motion, deliberate, and
Speaker:unlike the rhinoceros, very intelligent. Its
Speaker:hairless body is modeled, striped and checked in a
Speaker:striking manner. On the hodag's nose, instead of a horn, there
Speaker:is a large spade shaped bony growth with peculiar
Speaker:phalanges extending up in front of the eye so that it can only
Speaker:see straight up. This probably accounts for the deliberate disposition of
Speaker:the animal, which wanders through the spruce woods looking for suitable
Speaker:food. This description in that passage varies wildly
Speaker:from the beast that we know from Rhinelander today, which means it has
Speaker:evolved over the years. Right, but when I think about that one, though, when I
Speaker:envision the hodag, I always picture, you know, like the people
Speaker:when they do the modern primitive thing and they get like the nose piercing and
Speaker:they get the big bone through the nose. They look
Speaker:like hodag is what you're trying to say. All of our friends with septum piercing,
Speaker:glistening, you look like hodag? I'm not going to say it to their face, but
Speaker:I'll say it on the podcast. So what exactly is a
Speaker:hodag? Well, let's start first with what it's not. Now,
Speaker:you mentioned at the top of the show that it was Wisconsin's maybe
Speaker:famous, most famous cryptid. Well, the hodag is not a
Speaker:cryptid. What? Jeff, you're blowing my mind. It is
Speaker:actually a fearsome critter. Now, it lives in the same
Speaker:fictional universe as Paul Bunyan babe, the big blue ox, the
Speaker:Jackalope, the Squawk, and the Snelly gaster.
Speaker:Wait, hold on. What universe does the Snelly
Speaker:gaster live. In in this fictional universe of Paul bunyan and
Speaker:lumberjacking lore. Okay, sounds good. Well, we have the gaster, we'll get a
Speaker:different episode. Snally gaster. I think that's more of a Maryland
Speaker:cryptid. I'm sorry. Fearsome critter. The
Speaker:hodag likely originated in the bunk houses of lumber camps in
Speaker:the northwoods of wisconsin and Minnesota, maybe stretching into maine. It was
Speaker:likely a tall tale created by veteran lumberjacks in camp foreman to
Speaker:pass time as well as fill the vital role of a cautionary
Speaker:tale. The lumberjack profession, for obvious reasons, was a
Speaker:perilous endeavor. Other than the standard occupational hazards like
Speaker:tree falls, widowmakers log jams, and work around heavy
Speaker:animals, there may have been other unseen hazards
Speaker:like attacks from bears and the advantageous cougar. Being on the
Speaker:lookout for one of these mythical beasts like the hodag, it may have
Speaker:provided a heightened sense of danger to those walking alone through the big
Speaker:woods. So, Mike, you may have a little article
Speaker:about the origin of the hodag name. Right, the idea
Speaker:of the word hodag, where it might come from. This is from
Speaker:beachcombers bizarre history blog, and this is written by the guy that
Speaker:runs the blog beachcomber as his username, and he's researching
Speaker:into the history of the ho dag. He finds the history and directory of kent
Speaker:county, Michigan, from 1870, and that's the first place we find the
Speaker:word hodag. There is a portable, detached, steam saw
Speaker:mill on the west side of section eleven on the little cedar. Erected in june
Speaker:1869 by McClure and kidder, this mill cuts 10,000ft
Speaker:of lumber, or 15,000 shingles per day. It will be better known as
Speaker:the hodag mill. This name was given it from the fact that an
Speaker:unknown and mysterious animal was heard, seen, and even
Speaker:fired at in the woods near here some years ago. And as no other
Speaker:name could be found for it, it was called hodag. And when the
Speaker:mill was built, this was the name given to it by the people of Birchville.
Speaker:And he goes on to say, this sounds a bit like the way
Speaker:boggart was given to haunted buildings and spots in
Speaker:northern england. This researcher, beachcomber also found a
Speaker:hodag creek in montana. And so this idea
Speaker:of people already in 1870 using the word
Speaker:hodag to represent some kind of unknown,
Speaker:mysterious kind of animal, and he compares it to
Speaker:boggart, which is like a little goblin or demon in english
Speaker:mythology, and then they just referred to that spot. That's a
Speaker:boggart spot kind of thing. Yeah, the hodag spot or the hodag lair. And now
Speaker:we have a hodag spot in 1870. And so it's just when
Speaker:you were saying that lumberjacks might be using it for some term of,
Speaker:hey, be careful out there, you never know the ho dag is going to get
Speaker:you for safety and for watching out for animals. We already see an
Speaker:example of this kind of thing. 25 years before it shows up in
Speaker:Wisconsin. Where does the hodag come
Speaker:from? Well, according to the lore, the hodag was said to be born from the
Speaker:ashes of cremated oxen, a reincarnation of the
Speaker:accumulation of the abuse these animals suffered at the hands of
Speaker:their sadistic drivers. The reincarnated ox was a bit of lore
Speaker:injected by author Luke Lakeshore Kearney in his
Speaker:book The Hodag, which was published in 1929. Now,
Speaker:Kearney, he was believed to be one of the originators of the hodag hoax,
Speaker:along with Eugene Shepherd back in the late 18 hundreds. Now, from
Speaker:the book Hodag, the customary burial ceremony for the
Speaker:ox was cremation. So a huge pile of brush was usually
Speaker:gathered and the remains of the ox placed carefully in the center.
Speaker:The belief of those sturdy woodsmen was that seven years of continuous
Speaker:fire was necessary to exterminate the profanity which
Speaker:had accumulated in the body of the ox during its life.
Speaker:So literally bullshit. A little
Speaker:bit of bullshit and a lot of cussing.
Speaker:It was at the end of the 7th year of the cremation of an
Speaker:ox which had led an unusually hard life that an event
Speaker:was to happen which would cast its shadow upon every man who
Speaker:witnessed it. As the fire died down, there slowly
Speaker:issued from that great pile of ashes a mystical
Speaker:animal later to be known as the hodag. Oh, it's
Speaker:almost like the phoenix. It's kind of a phoenix rising from. The ashes, except
Speaker:the phoenix is like a beautiful creature feeling of
Speaker:rebirth. The hodag is a vengeful bastard, right,
Speaker:with a penchant for white bulldogs hungry for the
Speaker:bulldog. Although a fun piece of lore as an origin story
Speaker:for the creation of the beast, these stories may have served the lumber company's
Speaker:interest because the improper treatment of these animals could result in
Speaker:loss of production due to an exhausted or injured animal. These animals were
Speaker:a primary piece of hauling equipment long before the use of
Speaker:tractors, trucks and other forms of mechanized equipment.
Speaker:So the ox was the workhorse, for lack of a better term. They
Speaker:probably had Belgian horses and quarter horses. But the rugged
Speaker:ox was probably your best bang for the
Speaker:buck for getting an animal. Thousands of logs or
Speaker:whatever from the camp to exactly. If you look through some of those old
Speaker:lumbering pictures, you will see these snowsleds piled
Speaker:high with fresh timber and you're like, how could anybody ever move
Speaker:it? A team of ox and some determined lumberjacks.
Speaker:Paul Bunyan babe, the blue ox. And now you've explained for me why
Speaker:Babe was even around. So I was like, Paul Bunyan's not a farmer. Why does
Speaker:he have an ox around there? Maybe just like steak or I didn't know what
Speaker:he liked. The beast of burden turns into a hodag if you piss it off
Speaker:and burn it.
Speaker:Kearney may be where we draw the current resemblance of the
Speaker:hodag from. He wrote in that book, the Hodag. The animal's
Speaker:back resembled that of a dinosaur, and his tail, which
Speaker:extended to an enormous length, had spear like ends, sharp spines.
Speaker:One and a half feet apart, they lined the spinal column. The legs were short
Speaker:and massive, and the claws were thick and curved, denoting great
Speaker:strength. The broad, furrowed forehead was covered with coarse, shaggy
Speaker:hair and bore two large horns. From the broad, muscular mouth,
Speaker:sharp, glistening white teeth protruded. Kind of looks like a
Speaker:dinosaur. Kind of looks like an ox, right. Because it's got the front
Speaker:of the ox with the horns and stuff and obviously the septum piercing,
Speaker:and then it's got the back of a stegosaurus kind of
Speaker:thing. Yeah. And there's also other descriptions that talk about, like, an elephant
Speaker:likes body and then a head of a frog or grinning frog. Each telling
Speaker:of the tale, it gets more and more absurd. But we've finally
Speaker:settled on the Rhinelander hodag that we see
Speaker:today on display at the huge statue. Yet another
Speaker:description from the time came from a newspaper. The news article
Speaker:predated kearney's by about 40 years. In
Speaker:1893, newspapers reported the discovery of a
Speaker:Hodak near Rhinelander. Timber cruiser eugene
Speaker:simeon shepherd was hiking near his home in Rhinelander.
Speaker:Shepherd was well aware of the legend of the Hodak, but he had yet to
Speaker:spot one. Shepherd stood face to face with a snarling
Speaker:beast. It was 7ft long and weighed about 185
Speaker:pounds. Its head was larger than its body, and it had two
Speaker:horns growing out of its head. Short black hair covered its muscular
Speaker:and stout frame. The beast emitted a terrible odor, and flame
Speaker:and smoke rolled from its nostrils. Shepard would describe the odor
Speaker:as a combination of buzzard meat and skunk
Speaker:perfume. Shepard solo, of course,
Speaker:retreated back to Rhinelander, which at the time was a bustling lumber
Speaker:camp, according to that newspaper report in the publication The New North,
Speaker:an article written by the snake editor. We might be able to guess
Speaker:who was the snake editor by the end of this. A group
Speaker:of Hunters aspired to capture one the best Hunters of Poverty
Speaker:Hill. In Logtown districts well armed with heavy rifles and
Speaker:large boar squirt guns loaded with poisonous water,
Speaker:they came upon their game in a tamarack swamp. Their
Speaker:guns commenced a regular fuselaged until their guns
Speaker:got too hot to longer hold in their hands. And then they drew
Speaker:their knives and sailed in, followed by a great crowd who were
Speaker:all well armed. Then men stacked piles of birch bark around the
Speaker:beast and threw a few sticks of dynamite. The beast
Speaker:thrashed and began slashing timbers, the trees falling in every
Speaker:direction. As the explosions, fire, and falling timbers
Speaker:settled, the first black hodag was consumed. The
Speaker:remains were transported to Rhinelander and displayed the Hunters, unable
Speaker:to capture the beast alive right. They had to use dynamite
Speaker:on him. Now, that was an actual news article that
Speaker:ran next to regular news articles and legal
Speaker:notices. We already know the snake editor dropped this little
Speaker:nugget in there to either entertain readers
Speaker:or to trick them, we're not sure which. The fact that the Rhinelander
Speaker:newspaper or whatever at the time had a snake editor. Yeah,
Speaker:it's like we have the copy editor, we got the guy that covers the sports
Speaker:section, and then we got the gossip pages. And don't
Speaker:forget, snakes get their own section in the rhyme snake editor front
Speaker:page too. So the story gained so much tension in the northwoods in Central,
Speaker:Wisconsin, it was even featured in an ad campaign by the
Speaker:Centralia Lumber Company. Centralia, Wisconsin.
Speaker:Mike, have you ever heard of Centralia? I have not been there myself.
Speaker:You might have. It is actually Wisconsin Rapids. The town I grew up in was
Speaker:once called Centralia. I did centralia in Grand Rapids and
Speaker:then it merged to Wisconsin Rapids. I have been you bet I've been to
Speaker:Centralia. Then there was once a coffee shop called Centralia. I'm not sure if it's
Speaker:there anymore, but that was where I first learned of the origins of
Speaker:my city's name. And that also that they were running ads for the
Speaker:hodag. Yeah, it's really cool to go into newspaper archives and
Speaker:find the old ads for Centralia. It has a cartoon in it,
Speaker:it might be from Eugene Shepard who drew it. But the ad featured a
Speaker:cartoon sketch of the spotted hodag, the bovine
Speaker:spiritualis pretty much saying the cow spirit, and spoke about his prowess
Speaker:and attributes. The ad was tagged if you desire the
Speaker:complete history of this denizen of the pine forest of Wisconsin,
Speaker:call on Centralia Lumber Company. So I'm not sure if you went there and they
Speaker:gave you a flyer on it, if they regaled you with some lumberjacking tailors,
Speaker:they've got a hodag, brochure. What I think is interesting here though, is that in
Speaker:the creation of this know, I guess when I refer to it as a mean
Speaker:verse is a fearsome critter. I did not realize that the
Speaker:hodag was a supernatural creature in its
Speaker:origin. Because if it's created out of the ashes of burning
Speaker:oxen or whatever, it's born out of those things, then
Speaker:created through a fire ritual. Yeah, I never really thought
Speaker:about that. For those wondering why is it not cryptid? Well,
Speaker:a cryptid is an undiscovered
Speaker:animal, animal that people believe exists, but it hasn't been
Speaker:documented by science. That's where cryptid would come in, where
Speaker:this is more of a legendary creature or a
Speaker:mythical creature or I believe in it a Fireborne hodag.
Speaker:Well, a lot of people still believe in the hodag.
Speaker:Three years after the original capture of the Hodak article ran,
Speaker:shepard shocked the world. In 1896, Shepard and a
Speaker:group of lumber jacks surprised a hodag in its den and
Speaker:asphyxiated the monster with a heavy dose of chloroform.
Speaker:The thing is, if you're going to chloroform a hodag, you get like, chloroform, blanket.
Speaker:What I've heard was they used a pipe and they
Speaker:vaporized the chloroform and blew it into the
Speaker:den to put it to sleep. And then they dragged it back to. Some kind
Speaker:of like, sleeping gas. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Wow. Before
Speaker:we go any further in legend of the Hodag, let's talk about
Speaker:Gene Shepherd. He was kind of the godfather or the
Speaker:progenitor of the Hodag mythos. Eugene
Speaker:Simeon Shepherd was born in 1854 in Fort
Speaker:Howard. Do you know where that is, Mike? No, never heard that even in here.
Speaker:That was Green Bay before it was Green Bay. Okay. Fort Howard.
Speaker:Fort Military Ridge started exactly old Fort Howard. So his
Speaker:family ended up moving to New London, where his father operated farm. He
Speaker:earned a 6th grade education from New London schools. Unfortunately, his father passed
Speaker:when he was only twelve, and Gene had to work as a farm hand and
Speaker:a tugboat pilot on the Wolf River. Now, at 16, Gene found his
Speaker:true calling as a Timber cruiser or a landlooker when he was hired
Speaker:to be an assistant of Albert A. Weber in 1870. Now,
Speaker:this job took him all through the northwoods of Wisconsin, assessing standing
Speaker:timber and estimating its yield and value. So there was a lot of
Speaker:land prospectors from out east. They needed local
Speaker:help to find the Timber that was ripe for the picking
Speaker:and being able to buy it at a cheap rate and knowing that the
Speaker:yield would be worth their purchase. So they hired this
Speaker:Weber guy in Gene Shepard to go out and scout this
Speaker:Timber and say, hey, this is the best parcel of land that you can
Speaker:buy. And then they took a cut, of course. Sure. So he was like a
Speaker:tree expert. He was a tree expert, he was a forest expert, and he
Speaker:knew the Northwoods like the back of his hand. It was on one of these
Speaker:Timber cruising trips where Weber and shepherd camped at the
Speaker:confluence of the Pelican in Wisconsin rivers. The place at the time was called
Speaker:Pelican Rapids and later became the city of Rhinelander. Now
Speaker:the city was founded officially in 1882, and shepherd
Speaker:was on hand to witness its first year of growth. Although Timber cruising did
Speaker:take a lot of time away from Rhinelander, he became a permanent resident
Speaker:in 1886, about four years after its founding. He was up
Speaker:and down the Northwoods, and Rhinelander was kind of a place that
Speaker:he wanted to settle and grow. And maybe
Speaker:become a snake editor. Snake editor of the New North. During the time
Speaker:leading up to his residence in Rhinelander, he took a wife, mildred
Speaker:Molly Woodworth of New London. That is a very 19th
Speaker:century name. Mildred. Mildred. Molly Woodworth. That
Speaker:was in 1876. So the following year, the couple had their first son,
Speaker:Claude. Claude's only sibling would come 15 years later, a boy
Speaker:named Leighton. Apparently, Gene was too busy Timber cruising
Speaker:to produce the lot of kids accustomed to families of the time,
Speaker:right? But at least he had a 15 year old. So then you got a
Speaker:babysitter right. Away thinking at this point
Speaker:America was expanding. A flood of European immigrants were hitting the
Speaker:shores of the US and moving westward to stake their claims. Now, the
Speaker:1868 Homestead Act provided that any adult
Speaker:citizen or intended citizen who had never borne arms
Speaker:against the US government, so Confederates excluded, could
Speaker:claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. It
Speaker:was like a land rush. And Wisconsin, 160 acres.
Speaker:All you had to do was not. Be part of the Confederacy and you didn't
Speaker:even have to be a citizen, just an intended citizen. You settled the land,
Speaker:you worked towards citizenship. You got 160 acres on the
Speaker:new frontier, right? And you think about all those people who had come over from
Speaker:Ellis Island at the time. That was the
Speaker:Western Europeans, the German immigrants and everything like that. That's a
Speaker:bonanza. Imagine that you grew up poor in some city like
Speaker:Hamburg or something, and you're like, okay, we're going to take a shot in America.
Speaker:You come over and they're like, here's 160 acres of
Speaker:land. It's an embarrassment of riches. It really is. And that's how my
Speaker:family made their way from Germany and Prussia and
Speaker:made it to central Wisconsin, was through programs like this where they
Speaker:could transform the land and turn it into productive land. My
Speaker:grandfather's grandfather came over and he did just that. He ended up
Speaker:cutting all of the oaks on the property, selling them to a stave
Speaker:mill, and then farmed the land. If you go to Rudolph town of
Speaker:Siegel, there is still a road with our surname on
Speaker:it. You can go to FinUp Lane next time here at Rudolph cheese factory. That's
Speaker:pretty nice. Huberty is still a little bit too embarrassing to be a road name,
Speaker:so I'm hoping that one of these days. I'll change that Huberty Lane. Yeah, I'll
Speaker:change that reputation. So because of
Speaker:this land rush, timber demand was soaring and the rich pine forest of
Speaker:Wisconsin were ripe for the harvesting. The prairie lands west of Wisconsin being
Speaker:settled raised the demand for the natural resource. Now. The town of Stevens Point.
Speaker:Mozani. Wasaw, Merrill and Rhinelander were all
Speaker:founded and developed by the lumbering industry. In 1890,
Speaker:according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, 23,000 men worked
Speaker:in more than 450 logging camps. Seeing that the population
Speaker:of the state was only about 1.6 million, that means
Speaker:that lumberjacks were about 2%. So two out of every
Speaker:100 people, every adult men were
Speaker:lumberjacks at that time in Wisconsin. Now they just dress like lumberjacks. No,
Speaker:they're just hipsters. Well, in 1887, oneida
Speaker:county would officially be chartered as a county, taking
Speaker:with it land from Lincoln County. Now, Ryan lander would be the county
Speaker:seat. The new county board would be appointed and they would appoint
Speaker:Shepard. The knowledgeable woodsman. Along with his map making
Speaker:abilities. The county's surveyor, Shepard, got the job. He
Speaker:mapped a lot of nineta county. He named most of the lakes, including there
Speaker:is a lake in Rhinelander called Shepherd Lake. A little favoritism, I imagine, right
Speaker:now, he continued the land prospecting business that he started after
Speaker:he left Weber and it was called the Northwestern Land Agency.
Speaker:Shepherd continued his government role until 1891 when
Speaker:he relinquished his duties and turned back to his land prospecting and
Speaker:surveying agency full time. At this point, shepherd was heavily
Speaker:invested monetarily through the land acquisitions as well as
Speaker:psychologically in the success of Rhinelander, shepard
Speaker:got involved in boosterism. This was an enthusiastic practice
Speaker:by a person or organization to attract people or money to a
Speaker:specific town, region, or area. The practice does several things. It's
Speaker:an attempt to enhance public perception and attracts people to the area
Speaker:for development of tourism. It was like an early form of visitors
Speaker:bureaus or chambers of commerce. Right. So he's the head of the
Speaker:Rhinelander, the Chamber of Commerce. He's the
Speaker:carnival barker for Rhinelander, trying to bring
Speaker:in industries, he's trying to bring in business, and then he's trying to bring in
Speaker:tourists and he's trying to bring in permanent residents because that's really how you
Speaker:get things done is by getting the people there to work the industries. You got
Speaker:to get a railroad, you got to get lumber mills. Shepard, in his
Speaker:travels, was an avid booster of his new little boomtown,
Speaker:Rhinelander. Now, Shepard also had a long term outlook for
Speaker:his new town. He understood that lumbering industry and the implications of a
Speaker:cutover and what that would have on the economy. He'd already seen the
Speaker:boomtown to ghost town cycle after all the resources were
Speaker:harvested in order to protect his investments in Rhinelander, he looked to
Speaker:attract businesses and entrepreneurs to the area to further develop both population
Speaker:and infrastructure. His main aim was to bring railroads to expand the population of
Speaker:Rhinelander and set up industry and infrastructure for citizens, bringing both
Speaker:prosperity to the economy and attracting tourist dollars. So this
Speaker:civic duty may have been where the hodag came in. What better
Speaker:way to bring attention to your community than the emergence of a mythical
Speaker:beast the world has never seen before? I think every
Speaker:town should do that. It's really worked for Rhinelander. It's worked
Speaker:for Point Pleasant. Right. I think everybody needs their own
Speaker:mascot, whatever it is. The Galloping Ghosts of
Speaker:Kakana. They could get on that, right? The Ridgeway phantoms. Yeah.
Speaker:Hire the Hubertie FinUp Consulting Group and. We'Ll we will
Speaker:bring tourism to your town. Exactly. So Shepard was well known
Speaker:as a rock on tour. He often visited lumbercaps during his
Speaker:travels and told tall tales. These tales would seemingly grow
Speaker:exponentially during each retelling at successive camps.
Speaker:Now. Gene Shepard, the P. T. Barnum of the bunkhouse may
Speaker:be the reason we know of Paul Bunyan today. Although it's unclear the exact
Speaker:origins or who first told the world's largest
Speaker:woodsman tale. The bunyan tales were definitely within his
Speaker:repertoire. Shepard was also known for a series of pranks at one
Speaker:of his resort properties on Ballard Lake. He was known to douse a
Speaker:patch of moss with cheap perfume and charge visitors
Speaker:a quarter to smell. The exotic scented moss
Speaker:only could be found on Ballard lake, only on the shepherd property. He
Speaker:also promoted the area and Ballard lake as the greatest
Speaker:musculunge fishing in the world. Now, when that fish of 10,000
Speaker:cast was not biting, shepard treated downtrodden
Speaker:fishermen to another display. Through a series of wires,
Speaker:he managed to make a musky leap from the lake as a reminder of the
Speaker:one that got away. The simple sleight of hand intrigued fishermen to
Speaker:book yet another week at his resort.
Speaker:About a week before the inaugural oneida county fair, an
Speaker:article ran in the new North Rhinelander's local newspaper.
Speaker:They announced black hodag for the fair. The beast
Speaker:was captured by Shepard and crew. After it's
Speaker:captured, Shepard transported that hodag to the
Speaker:fairgrounds and confined it to a pit resembling its
Speaker:den. There it stayed in the days leading up to the
Speaker:Oneida county fair, 1896. He preps this
Speaker:with the story that the hunters captured the hodag. They chloroformed,
Speaker:and now they're bringing the dag to the fair. He
Speaker:seeded the ground, and now he's got to pay it off. Right? Of course.
Speaker:Shepard announced that he would proudly exhibit his captured
Speaker:beast. Those who were brave enough could enter a darkened
Speaker:tent, drop their dime, and encounter the beast. Separated by a
Speaker:tarp fairgoers witnessed the beast move and growl, a
Speaker:cunning trick played by his sons. Using their voices and
Speaker:wires to animate the beast, very few left the fairgrounds, not
Speaker:believing in the authenticity of Shepard's Hodak. From this
Speaker:introduction, the Hodak and its boastful owner toured county fairs and
Speaker:even the Wisconsin state fair in Milwaukee. Shepard also displayed
Speaker:the beast at his home, enticing visitors to layover
Speaker:and conducted the same charade to unwitting dupes. So
Speaker:he let people know that he's got a real hodag taking around the fairs, and
Speaker:then he keeps it in his home. Yeah, he keeps in his backyard and then
Speaker:charges people turns the same trick his personal zoo. Yep. So
Speaker:legend has it that P. T. Barnum even offered to buy the
Speaker:rights. Shepard putting one over on the man that coined
Speaker:the phrase, there's a sucker born every minute. Barnum
Speaker:historians refute that claim, and it's speculated that this was yet another
Speaker:tall tale woven by old shep. Now, in that same vein, it
Speaker:was said that the Smithsonian sent men to view and validate
Speaker:the existence of the beast. Although this seems plausible, it also falls
Speaker:into the category of legend. There's no documentation from the
Speaker:Smithsonian showing any interest in the beast. And if there was, they probably would
Speaker:have destroyed it. Right, because it had been embarrassing, but. That'S the kind
Speaker:of thing that goes on websites. They talk about the hodag and everything. They're like,
Speaker:well, you know, even the Smithsonian came down to check it out. Yeah, it's definitely
Speaker:been weaved into the general lore of the hodag, is that the
Speaker:Smithsonian came calling right. That the hodag was so convincing
Speaker:that Washington, DC. Had to try and get it. By the turn of the century,
Speaker:it was revealed that the hodag, at least Gene Shepherd's, was indeed a
Speaker:hoax. It's not known who revealed the hoax and
Speaker:when, but by 1900, a Chicago evening post article
Speaker:claimed that Shepard had since fessed up to the ploy. Despite
Speaker:being revealed as a hoax, it didn't temper the interest in the beast.
Speaker:People still flocked to Rhinelander to view the beast or to learn about
Speaker:the creature of the Lumberwoods, much like shep spinning yarns in the bunkhouse
Speaker:or around a roaring fire, the stories changing with each telling. So did
Speaker:the legend of the hodag. The size, characteristics, and the method
Speaker:of capture evolved with each telling. Where did Gene Shepard
Speaker:get the inspiration for the mythical beast known as the hodag? Few people know
Speaker:that Gene Shepard was actually fluent in the ojibwe language. Well,
Speaker:that's interesting. Yeah. So he used it to communicate with the local
Speaker:Indians in that area and establish routes and
Speaker:converse with people for intel on the pine forest. So he's
Speaker:familiar with the native culture. And in ojibwe lore, there was this mythical
Speaker:beast called the mishapishu, or the underwater panther. Many
Speaker:native cosmologies of the region, they break things into planes of
Speaker:existence. They have the earth, the sky, and the underwater or
Speaker:underground. Well, mishapishu, or the underwater panther
Speaker:lurked in this lowest realm. Pictographs found near lake
Speaker:superior show a depiction of mishapishu that looks
Speaker:surprisingly like a hodag. Right. Got the horns and everything. Got the
Speaker:horns and the spikes. And could this be where Shepard conceived the
Speaker:description of the beast and brought it to life in lumberjacking lore? Well,
Speaker:much like the piasaw bird in Alton, Illinois,
Speaker:that's right next to the Mississippi, there if you see
Speaker:the modern redoing of the pictograph, kind of looks
Speaker:like a HOD egg with wings. Oh, really? Kind of thing? I haven't seen that.
Speaker:I'll put that in the show notes. Right. There's a theory that maybe originally it
Speaker:was supposed to be a mishapishu pictograph kind of thing,
Speaker:and then later on, they added the wings. Somebody added wings. But anyway,
Speaker:the pyasau, it's now on the edge, and you can go there in Alton and
Speaker:see this big, giant pictograph on the side of a cliff.
Speaker:You see it and you're like, oh, kind of looks like the hodag. So I
Speaker:can definitely see how gene Shepard took that. He might be like,
Speaker:hey, this is a cool creature in Indian lore,
Speaker:and how do I take this a little bit and then use it to
Speaker:my advantage and add it. To kind of the mythos of the
Speaker:Lumberwoods. And lumberjacks were already doing that with the Indian
Speaker:character Wisakachek Whiskey Jack. That was
Speaker:a tradition. The lore that surrounded them, the lore that discovered the
Speaker:people that were living there they would adapt that to their lumberjack
Speaker:universe. Yeah. What do they say? Good artists borrow, great artists steal. It's no
Speaker:different when it comes to lumberjacks. So although the Hodag may have been
Speaker:native to Rhinelander his influence have been felt throughout pop
Speaker:culture. Mike, where else in pop culture can we find a Hodag?
Speaker:I gotta say, that probably the most famous place people can see the Hodag be
Speaker:in harry Potter. Never heard of it. Right. Who's that guy in
Speaker:Fantastic Beasts and where to find them? The Hodag is named a
Speaker:couple of times. Here's one in the 1620s. There's an Irish
Speaker:witch, Isolt sayer, and a puckwoodgie William.
Speaker:I don't know what a Puckwoodgie is. But they took trips together to observe the
Speaker:Hodag's hunting in nature during its search for moon
Speaker:calves. I don't know what moon calves are, but I assume it's another fantastic beast.
Speaker:The Hodag was attracted to Muggle farms at night. That's non
Speaker:magical people are the Muggles. So the wizards are the wizards and
Speaker:jokers like us are Muggles. The Hodag would go to the Muggle farms
Speaker:much like the Snallygaster, just like they have Hogwarts over in
Speaker:England. In the US. They had this magical association of
Speaker:the USA. There's the Department of no Magic Misinformation
Speaker:and they worked hard to convince the people of America that the
Speaker:sightings of Hodag were hoaxes. So maybe
Speaker:Gene Shepard was right. Maybe Gene Shepard worked for this
Speaker:magical association in the United States of America. And so there's this Department of
Speaker:Misinformation so that the Muggles wouldn't know who the wizards were. And then the
Speaker:Hodag was confined to a protected area around Wisconsin. And so this is
Speaker:from, like, the Harry Potter website and the fantastic beats that J. K.
Speaker:Rowling before the movie came out. She designed this website about this
Speaker:beastiery of all of the magical creatures inside the Harry
Speaker:Potter universe. And she placed them in Wisconsin. She placed them in
Speaker:Wisconsin. I think this is from a video game associated with Harry Potter. Like the
Speaker:Harry Potter video game during the 1988 and 89 school year.
Speaker:Rubius Hagrid. Remember Hagrid, the big, huge guy? That giant
Speaker:guy? Yeah. Robbie Coltrane played was gifted a Ho dag from a friend
Speaker:as it was terrorizing his friend's herd of moon calves. The
Speaker:Hodag preferred to bite Hagrid's fingers then eat a special
Speaker:feed Hagrid obtained from Wisconsin. Was it cheese? Right.
Speaker:That's what it should have been. The hodag. JK. Rowling knows what it
Speaker:is. And it also appeared in Scooby Doo, right? Yes. In
Speaker:2012. This is from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Cole Levy wrote
Speaker:this straight from the northwoods of Wisconsin to the television screen. The
Speaker:Hodag, Rhinelander's mystical beast of Yore is making a
Speaker:scooby Doo debut next month. An episode of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated
Speaker:will feature the Hodag and its discoverer August 3 on Cartoon
Speaker:Network. It's a great avenue of free PR, said Laura Reed, the
Speaker:executive director of the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce. She's the
Speaker:heir of Jean Shepard? Probably. Apparently, we're excited about the attention it
Speaker:brings to Rhinelander. Reed hopes the show will inspire viewers to visit the real
Speaker:Hodag the fanged, reptilian creature that Eugene Shepard discovered in
Speaker:1893. Shepard makes an appearance on the TV show as an entertainer
Speaker:traveling with a curio wagon and a seemingly stuffed hodag. So why
Speaker:did Scooby Doo's producers choose to showcase the Wisconsin monster and its
Speaker:chief proponent, Mitch Watson and Tony Cervone? The writers wanted a
Speaker:folkloric monster, the Northwoods River News reported. It didn't hurt that
Speaker:legend says the Hodag prefers eating dogs, particularly white
Speaker:bulldogs although the cartoon beast finds Scooby just
Speaker:as appetizing. Watson and Cervoni, who were unavailable for comment had
Speaker:also considered a storyline involving an ancient wheel of cheese with a
Speaker:clue to a larger mystery. The connection to Wisconsin was obvious.
Speaker:Regardless of whether you believe the state is the Hodag's natural
Speaker:habitat you'll agree it's definitely the land of
Speaker:cheese. Nice. The Hodag, he was actually
Speaker:linked to at least one presidential campaign and may
Speaker:have been a totem for an iconic candidate. Well, that's
Speaker:right. Even though it may have ended, it in bad luck. So this is from
Speaker:the Rhinelander Daily News, July 16, 1960.
Speaker:Kennedy prizes, his hodag gift. A Hodag symbol of
Speaker:Rhinelander is one of the prized possessions of Senator John F. Kennedy
Speaker:who this week was nominated by the Democratic Party to be its candidate for
Speaker:president of the United States. The miniature Hodag was given to
Speaker:Senator and Mrs. Kennedy when they came here last fall during the course
Speaker:of the campaign for delegates to the national convention. The presentation was made
Speaker:by Henry J. Berquist, a Democratic county chairman and master of
Speaker:ceremonies for the labor temple at which the Massachusetts senator spoke. We
Speaker:find The Hodag to be a very provocative conversation piece. Senator
Speaker:Kennedy has written Burquest and we are delighted to have so
Speaker:interesting a souvenir of our visit to Rhinelander. Nice. So that was my
Speaker:very poor Massachusetts Kennedy accent, but yes, and he
Speaker:accepted the nomination at the Biltmore Hotel, which we
Speaker:discussed the Biltmore really quick in the episode about Frank Lloyd
Speaker:Wright when we talk about the Black Dahlia. And that was the last place she
Speaker:was seen alive. That was also where JFK
Speaker:accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 1960
Speaker:because of the Hodag. So his entire success
Speaker:we can attribute. To you wonder whatever happened to that Hodag figurine
Speaker:that they sent him. Do you think he just tossed it on the campaign
Speaker:trail, or do you think it was actually, I think what. Probably happened was
Speaker:the CIA had to take it back after they killed him. That's why they
Speaker:assassinated him to get the Hodag figurine to get it back. So we
Speaker:also think of the Hodag as strictly a
Speaker:lumberjack lore, but you've been able to find a couple
Speaker:articles from Ohio and even America's
Speaker:Southwest that mention the Hodag. Well, that's right. It seems
Speaker:like we talked about earlier that the Hodag name, the
Speaker:word itself, it said, oh, it's a combination. Some people said it's a combination
Speaker:of the word horse and dog, but that doesn't kind of
Speaker:go along with the. Description the cow,
Speaker:the oxen, oxen, the bulls. But the idea that the Hodag might
Speaker:have been a mysterious creature in general, or a word for a mysterious creature
Speaker:in general that the lumberjacks might have used, or
Speaker:people who were exploring the territories when we get to the mid 19th
Speaker:century that maybe it comes from. So, Ohio, we've got this
Speaker:place called St. Mary's Lake, and this is from the Lake
Speaker:Improvement Association website for this. Grand Lake st. Mary's
Speaker:Lake near Lima, Ohio. And it's spelled Ho dag with an
Speaker:E-H-O-E-D-A-G-H-O-E-D-A-G. Grand
Speaker:Lake St. Mary's was once the world's largest artificial body of water
Speaker:dug by 1700 German and Irish immigrants. From
Speaker:1837 to 1845, Grand Lake St. Mary's was home to the world's
Speaker:first offshore oil well, with waterbound Dereks positioned
Speaker:on the lake to pump oil from beneath its water. So
Speaker:it's built to connect a couple of rivers in Ohio, and
Speaker:then after they're not using steamboats and things
Speaker:anymore, they're going to fill it up. They decide not to fill it up and
Speaker:instead make it kind of a place that people might want to visit. The other
Speaker:thing they had was a lake monster. The Hodag, a monster that reportedly lives in
Speaker:Grand Lake St. Mary's, was first reported in 1912. So that's
Speaker:a mishapishu? Maybe. What does it look like? The beast was said to be the
Speaker:target of many fruitless hunting expeditions and is three quarters the
Speaker:size of an elephant. Going back to your hodag. Elephant possesses a
Speaker:serpentine body with a back hump, chicken like feet, a green
Speaker:eye on the forehead and a red eye and a long tail, and is
Speaker:covered in hair and feathers for a lick.
Speaker:Monster. Yeah, that's a very interesting monster. Now, what does it eat? The Hodag's
Speaker:diet supposedly consists of the farm dogs that once ventured into her native
Speaker:cattail habitat, frightened humans. They linked her to several human
Speaker:disappearances and her favorite food pumpkin pie. Not
Speaker:white bulldogs. Not white bulldogs. She loves the pumpkin pie. What does it sound
Speaker:like? The terrible Hodag makes a moaning sound, like a mix between the
Speaker:call of a Yahoo bird and the Winnie of a horse, and has also been
Speaker:heard cackling and screaming when amused. It is believed that the Hodag
Speaker:is lonely and starved for affection. This is from the Lima
Speaker:News. Lima, Ohio. October 30, 1930.
Speaker:Mardi Gras at St. Mary's to be held Friday. A community
Speaker:Halloween celebration will be held in St. Mary's Friday night, October 31, under
Speaker:the auspices of the local merchants. The main street of town will be roped off
Speaker:for the celebration and Masqueraders will stage a big parade. The hodag
Speaker:is to appear in the parade the hunters, Traders and Trappers Organization has
Speaker:promised. The hodag is a strange creature which was blamed for years by
Speaker:the Htnt's, the hunters, Traders and Trappers Organization
Speaker:for the disappearance of pies, cakes and other delicacies at their clubhouse,
Speaker:Lake St. Mary's. It has eluded them until recently when they succeeded in
Speaker:staging its capture. The animal has feet that are circles resembling
Speaker:plates. He is capable of moving backward or forward at an equal rate of
Speaker:speed, and it's exceptionally hard to trace because of the circular
Speaker:footprints which leave the pursuer in doubt as to which the direction
Speaker:the animal has gone. Other strange characteristics of the
Speaker:hodag is its long neck, bristling with porcupine like
Speaker:quills, its body, which resembles that of a calf. There's your
Speaker:cow, its long front legs and short rear legs. Its tail,
Speaker:which stands erect and is about 3ft long. So they had
Speaker:their own hodag captured. Party nice
Speaker:at the Halloween celebration in Lima, Ohio, October 30.
Speaker:And this is 1930. So this is 30, 33 years or whatever,
Speaker:or longer than that. Then it made its debut at the
Speaker:fair. So that's going on in Ohio.
Speaker:And this grand Lake St. Mary's has its own hodag, which
Speaker:is more like the Mississippi shoe, the Water panther and then going back in
Speaker:time. 1913 arizona the Arizona Republic phoenix,
Speaker:Arizona a hodag hunt is suggested. Information leaked
Speaker:into Phoenix yesterday of the discovery up in Bloody Basin of a
Speaker:curious animal which is said to have the ability to run around the side of
Speaker:a mountain with peculiar ease. The story was brought to town by a
Speaker:prominent apple grower from up the Verde Valley, which proposed the
Speaker:parties be organized immediately to go up and hunt the thing. He said that
Speaker:as far as his information went, the peculiar animal, which
Speaker:seems to be a relative of the New Mexico side hill
Speaker:hodag, has a wolf's head, a coyote's body and a
Speaker:fox's tail. And the legs on the left side are shorter than the right side,
Speaker:which assists the critter to run around the side of a hill with the rapidity
Speaker:of a lobo wolf. It was said that there are a number of these things
Speaker:and that the steeper the mountain, the shorter the legs are on the left side.
Speaker:He said they also always run in one direction so as to give the short
Speaker:legs on the left side the greatest play on the upside of the hill.
Speaker:Okay, Arizona, this is in January of
Speaker:1913. Now a New Mexico paper also
Speaker:talks about the hodag horrible hodag in New Mexico. The
Speaker:Phoenix Republican is somewhat agitated over the fact that a genuine
Speaker:hodag has been reported in new Mexico of a variety different to the
Speaker:side hill hodag indigenous to the state of arizona. The Arizona
Speaker:paper also doubts the authenticity of the reported New mexico
Speaker:find and insists that while the original variety of hodag was
Speaker:first seen in new Mexico it had extended its environments well into
Speaker:Arizona. And but the one species is known to exist. The
Speaker:republican says that's the Phoenix Republic they call it republican under the
Speaker:title of quote the hodag or sidewalloper unquote. An
Speaker:exchange prints a very captivating account of the discovery of one of the
Speaker:strange animals in the salt marshes of new Mexico. So far as
Speaker:discovering a hodag on several bowdags in new Mexico is concerned the
Speaker:exchange is all right, but when it takes the word of a half witted old
Speaker:trapper for the plans and specifications of the animal, it
Speaker:oversteps the bounds of veracity. The hodag was originally discovered in new
Speaker:Mexico and later found in large numbers in Arizona. It is yet alluded
Speaker:capture until the old trapper in question caught one. But he neglects to
Speaker:produce a hide or teeth to prove his assertions. The old
Speaker:trapper, who claims to be a partner of Kit Carson
Speaker:is experienced in the use of every weapon from the latest automatic rifle
Speaker:to the primitive bow and arrows of the indians. He says so himself. He's also
Speaker:quite likely to be skilled in the use of the long bow. The description
Speaker:of the hodag is entirely too fanciful to ring true. He has too many
Speaker:frills. It will be remembered that the Arizona species was just
Speaker:awful and nothing more. No one was ever venturesome enough to stop
Speaker:to verify certain suspicions about the Hodak's general appearance. So those who
Speaker:have caught glimpses of the animal have contended themselves with either saying it was
Speaker:simply awful or stretching out a flock of imaginary facts
Speaker:supplied by a mind scared blank of any real data.
Speaker:New mexico is obviously taking Arizona's bait and coming back.
Speaker:So all throughout 1913 you have these articles in
Speaker:the Arizona Republic public and then there's new Mexico
Speaker:newspapers and they're going back and forth until now we get to september. Wisconsin
Speaker:hodag is exposed as a hoax. The hodag is exposed that is one
Speaker:kind has been dug from its cave of obscurity and presented to the astonished public
Speaker:as a hoax while the real one, the Arizona hodag,
Speaker:remains as much of a mystery as ever. Joseph p. Dylan, who has always been
Speaker:more or less keenly interested in hodag and arizona camels.
Speaker:Arizona camels. It's the desert. Yep. Yesterday sent a
Speaker:copy of a popular magazine containing the great hodag expose to the
Speaker:republican writer who has chronicled the deeds of the animal on the borders of the
Speaker:state. The article has been inspected and so far as it regards the Wisconsin
Speaker:hodag produced authoritative but the despoiler of many
Speaker:ranches in the bloody basin. The beast that was brought to Arizona from New Mexico
Speaker:six years ago, along with two of its mates, has not yet been actually
Speaker:described nor disproven in the public prints. So they
Speaker:have this it's almost like. A pissing match, right. And they're almost doing
Speaker:this hodag just the same way Gene Shepard is to
Speaker:get attention. But they're not treating it like a parody or anything. They're
Speaker:just sticking these stories in the newspaper next to
Speaker:whatever announcements going on. So they have their own snake editor?
Speaker:Yeah, they're playing it straight at these. You know, watching
Speaker:the way they say this and how straightforward it is, it breaks my heart a
Speaker:little bit because it makes me think that some of the reports of sea serpents
Speaker:that we've had and all these different lakes over. Time charles E.
Speaker:Brown said great folklorist archaeologist, historian.
Speaker:He said a resort town without a sea serpent
Speaker:was behind the times. You kind of let the cat out of the bag with
Speaker:that one saying. A lot of these resort guys would say, oh yeah, there's a
Speaker:sea serpent here. So then people would come out, rent a boat,
Speaker:picnic on the lake shores, stop at the local restaurant watering
Speaker:hole. 130 years later, right. I'm still like, looking for the
Speaker:Lake Minona monster. He's out there. There's one in each lake in Madison,
Speaker:right? Exactly. So when I read these stories, I'm like, oh,
Speaker:yeah, now I think of like, well, maybe the newspapers weren't
Speaker:100% accurate back then. I don't think they had a lot of fact checkers.
Speaker:Clearly not. Especially if somebody by the name of Snake Editor.
Speaker:Right. So now I feel I have to question every
Speaker:sea serpent article I get or whatever, which hurts. And
Speaker:speaking of arcane newspaper articles, I found this one in my
Speaker:research. It was from October 1896. So this would have been a
Speaker:couple of months after the United County Fair revealing the hodag. And this
Speaker:was from the gazette in Stevens Point. John
Speaker:N. Pickert spent a day in the vicinity of Nolton this week and
Speaker:succeeded in bagging a sand hill gouger. Now, that
Speaker:sounded a lot like the side hill gouger. Right. A species of
Speaker:game never before captured in these parts. Later on further
Speaker:investigation, the animal has been shown to be one of those
Speaker:ferocious beasts known as the hodag. There we go. So they found
Speaker:him down in Olton too. It's funny, it's just these newspaper
Speaker:guys. I don't know if there was not enough going on, you figure with all
Speaker:the people that disappeared, the lumber camps, there would have been
Speaker:plenty. Just wonder if that news ever got out. Right. They were
Speaker:too busy making up creatures to entertain themselves. Yeah. Newspapers
Speaker:of that time, if you go back and read them, it's like john
Speaker:Smith visited Sally Jane for lunch on
Speaker:Sunday afternoon and Jim Brennan was in town from
Speaker:Ohio visiting his in laws. So it was like very matter of fact
Speaker:happenings of the community and then. To read sneak this stuff in there. To sneak
Speaker:this stuff in there. You just have to wonder, even if you look back at
Speaker:some of the early UFO flaps from like the 19 hundreds,
Speaker:what did they call them? The airships. The airships in Chicago, Madison
Speaker:and Milwaukee. Oh, yeah, 1897, there was airships all
Speaker:over the Midwest and you kind of. See that and you're like, is there veracity
Speaker:to these? Are these legitimate airports or is somebody putting them in there as
Speaker:lark to sell newspapers or to just entertain themselves?
Speaker:Allah. Jean Shepard. Right. So now you would think we read
Speaker:the newspaper and you're like, OK, well, this has to go mean. There's
Speaker:journalism school, there's fact checkers and
Speaker:legal involved, editorial boards,
Speaker:clearance to be able to use these quotes from people
Speaker:and everything. When you read the newspaper, you want to believe it. And so we
Speaker:have this standard today that was not the standard of the new
Speaker:north with the snake editor or the Arizona
Speaker:republican back 110 years ago. We got to take the sea
Speaker:serpent reports with a grain of salt. And I did not realize that until this
Speaker:very moment, this very moment, I was like, hold on, are you saying this
Speaker:stuff might not be real? Our friend Chad Lewis has a great book called
Speaker:hidden Headlines of Wisconsin, where he features a lot of this stuff,
Speaker:pre 1925, that appeared. It's a fun read. If you want to read more
Speaker:audacious claims made in newspapers from Wisconsin from that
Speaker:era. Right. Don't believe everything you read. And then they say, don't believe
Speaker:anything you hear and half of what you see. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker:The people of Rhinelander, they're so enthusiastic about their
Speaker:hometown critter that they even dedicated a music festival to it. The
Speaker:Hodag Country festival. It's the longest running country
Speaker:music festival in the world. Wow. It started in
Speaker:1978 to a crowd of about 500. It's since attracted
Speaker:acts like Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Brooks and Dunn jake Owen, toby
Speaker:Keith this past year, I think the headliner was hardy. The estimated
Speaker:attendance annually has now swelled to 30 to 50,000.
Speaker:People descending on Rhinelander for a weekend of music.
Speaker:Eugene Shepard would be proud. Yeah. So outside of the northwoods, somebody
Speaker:referring to Hodag is probably referring to the country
Speaker:music festival where we're talking about this mythical beast.
Speaker:Another fun event conceived from the minds of Kerry Bladern of the
Speaker:Pioneer Park Historical Complex and Ben Burnell of the Hodag
Speaker:store is Hodag Heritage Festival. It's an event held annually
Speaker:at Pioneer Park to celebrate the Hodag, the actual beast, with the
Speaker:assistance of the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce. The one day event features
Speaker:speakers, vendors, food, beer, of course, green beer, live music,
Speaker:and even several reenactments of Gene Shepard's
Speaker:sideshow hodag. Oh, man, I would like to see that. That'd be fun.
Speaker:I got to attend this past year and I was able to take in
Speaker:the show the gentleman they had there. I can't remember his last name for the
Speaker:life of me. His name's Jerry. He was a two time mayor of
Speaker:Rhinelander and he embodied Gene Shepard as he
Speaker:showed off his Hodag along with his assistant,
Speaker:Luke Kearney. Luke and Gene have come back for one final
Speaker:performance of The Hodag. And it's a lot of fun. There's probably videos
Speaker:out there. I'll put a couple photographs that I took in the show notes
Speaker:so you can kind of take it in and get the sense of it. But
Speaker:it's a fun day of just celebrating the beast. Plenty of
Speaker:vendors, food, live music. The hodag king himself.
Speaker:Carrie Exotic was there playing. I saw Hodag, one of my
Speaker:kids'favorite songs. That's great. It was a great time. We talked about
Speaker:our friend Ben Brunel and his Hodag store. Well, an
Speaker:interesting suspect was linked to a shoplifting
Speaker:incident at the Hodag store last year. Can you tell us more about that? That's
Speaker:right. So this is in April of 2022. This is written by T
Speaker:Kulos. And this is from Americanghostwalks.com.
Speaker:T is our good friend from the Milwaukee Paracon,
Speaker:the director director of the Milwaukee Paracon. And he also runs tours
Speaker:for American ghostwalks in Milwaukee. And so this is the hodag store
Speaker:robbed by Carmen San Diego. Security cameras at the store
Speaker:caught something odd. A loudly dressed woman shoplifting at the
Speaker:Hodag store stuffing her purse with a bottle of Hodag vodka we
Speaker:could use that tonight. And other items. Retail theft is an unfortunate
Speaker:reality for mom and pop stores. But when a steal from the security camera footage
Speaker:was posted online, people pointed out that the shoplifter was dressed
Speaker:similarly to a legendary globetrotting thief, carmen San
Speaker:Diego. Where in the world? Where in the world is Carmen San Diego
Speaker:debuted as an edutainment video game in 1985.
Speaker:Presented on floppy disk format for the Apple II computer, it's had
Speaker:many incarnations since, notably as a PBS game show from
Speaker:1991 to 1995 and recently as an animated
Speaker:Netflix show. San Diego is depicted as having a red wide
Speaker:brimmed hat that obscures the upper half of her face and a long
Speaker:red jacket. She is, as the theme to the PBS show states,
Speaker:a sticky fingered thief filter from Berlin down to
Speaker:Belize and that she'll stick them up down under and go
Speaker:pickpocket Perth. This Carmen San Diego wannabe
Speaker:was not as slippery as the fictional character. Local law enforcement
Speaker:quickly picked her up, possibly due to her garish attire, and were
Speaker:able to return the stolen merch to the Hodag store. That's
Speaker:some good work. Gum shoes, as they say in the Carmen San Diego show.
Speaker:Right? So that went viral a little bit last year when the image came out
Speaker:and it really was this red wide brimmed hat. He's really stuffing a bottle of
Speaker:vodka. I remember the first time I scrolled past it, I thought it was a
Speaker:joke. And then I realized it was an actual incident store the
Speaker:security camera. Would ben set that up a little promotion? I
Speaker:doubt it, because you don't want to encourage people to take stuff
Speaker:from the store. But it did let us know that hodag vodka exists. It does.
Speaker:And hodag beer and hodag root beer. Rhinelander, they've
Speaker:embraced the hodag. The high school mascot is of course, the hodag,
Speaker:which recently won best high school mascot in
Speaker:America. A scorebooklive.com voting
Speaker:poll, and it won in a landslide. So everybody loves the
Speaker:hodag. Municipal buildings, the water tower, even police cruisers are
Speaker:emblazoned with the beast. The rhinelander area chamber of commerce
Speaker:has even sponsored a self led hodag scavenger hunt
Speaker:featuring 27 hodag depictions, most of them statues.
Speaker:You can find the map online, or you can stop in at the chamber of
Speaker:commerce and grab a copy for yourself and go on your own hodag
Speaker:hunt fun. Rhinelander got its name from friedrich
Speaker:rhinelander of New York. He was a railroad baron who
Speaker:operated the milwaukee lakeshore and western
Speaker:railroads at the time. The naming rights were part of a bid by two early
Speaker:developers to get a spur of that railroad line to service the
Speaker:northwoodstown. And they named it ah, a little.
Speaker:Flattery there like town after you. Exactly. And it got the
Speaker:railroad there, so it accomplished its goal, and it was something that
Speaker:gene shepard actually advocated for. But a name like
Speaker:shepherdstown would have been a fitting name for the area due to his early
Speaker:involvement in Rhinelander's history. Now, regardless of the town name, shepherd's
Speaker:name can still be found on the streets and parks throughout the city and even
Speaker:shepherd lake, as I mentioned earlier. And the hodag store, it's
Speaker:actually on the corner of lincoln street and shepherd street fittingly. And the
Speaker:hodag BNB the airbnb that ben operates right behind the store is
Speaker:on shepherd street. Eugene simeon shepherd died in
Speaker:1923 at the age of 69. He was laid to rest in the
Speaker:city's cemetery, but his spirit lives on through the hodag.
Speaker:And if there's one place the hodag is real, it's
Speaker:rhinelander. Long live the hodag. Long live the
Speaker:hodag. I love it. And that concludes another episode of the
Speaker:Wisconsin legends podcast. I want to say a special
Speaker:shout out to carrie bladern for helping me do some research here. Ben at the
Speaker:hodag store can always regale me and a legend of the hodag. I've never
Speaker:shepard before. And I pulled a lot of the resource material
Speaker:for this episode from a book called long live the
Speaker:hodag the life and legacy of Eugene shepard by
Speaker:Kurt Kornhoff. Thanks for joining us once again for
Speaker:another episode. This is jeff finnap with Badgerland legends.
Speaker:Along with mike huberty from american ghostwalks. And you
Speaker:can find us online. You can find
Speaker:jeff@badgerlandlegends.com or insta at.
Speaker:Badgerland legends nice and easy. And you can find
Speaker:me@americanghostwalks.com or
Speaker:instagram. American ghostwalks.
Speaker:The Wisconsin Legends Podcast is presented by American
Speaker:ghostwalks, hosted by Mike Huberty and Jeff Finna, recorded
Speaker:at Sunspot Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, edited by Jeff
Speaker:Finna, audio engineer Mike Cuberty, music by
Speaker:Sunspot and various artists. Find out more about the show, including show
Speaker:notes@wisconsinlegendspodcast.com. Follow the guys
Speaker:at American ghostwalks and Badgerland Legends on Instagram and
Speaker:Facebook. We'll see you next time.
