The Hodag (also known as the Bovine Spiritualis) is native to Wisconsin. In fact, it is the official symbol of Rhinelander, Wisconsin where the first one was captured by Eugene Shepard in 1896. Its name comes from combining the words "horse" and "dog."
The Hodag has the head of a bull, the back of a dinosaur, and the leering features of a giant man. Its legs are short, its claws are long, and its tail is spear-tipped. It is a supernatural beast which, in its first life, took the form of an ox that belonged to Paul Bunyan. Upon its death, the ox was burned for seven years to cleanse it of the profanity of its master. But seven years was not long enough. The soul of the ox emerged from the ashes in the shape of a Hodag, exuding a foul odor. The diet of the Hodag is very simple. It only eats white bulldogs, "and those only on Sundays."
For many years Shepard displayed his Hodag at country fairs. The exhibition usually occurred in dim light, and according to malicious rumors what was actually exhibited was a large dog over which a horse's hide had been stretched, but such rumors have never been substantiated.
Jack Cory, editor of the
Rhinelander Daily News, once hypothesized that the Hodag was "the long-sought missing link between the ichthyosaurus and the mylodoan" of the Ice Age.
Comments
In the late 1800s in Rhinelander WI, a man named Gene Sheppard had people believing he had discovered a creature called a Hodag in the forest. He made up many stories about the beast and built one that he kept in a cave and charged people to see. Only when someone from the Smithsonian came to investigate, did he fess up. To this day, this is the town mascot. Their police cars say home of the Hodag on them.
The Public Radio Station in Rhinelander,WXPR sits in a house that is next
to the old Shepard place and the Hodag is found in many places in
Rhinelander... the legend was cleaned up a bit that is all you have..
the original Hodag hoax-critter was destroyed in a fire, but not before the
Smithsonian and National Geographic sent reporters. The very first version
was a skeletal remains that we "found" in what is now the Novelette
National Forest. There is a lot more to the story than you have on the web
site.
Thanks, Bill
http://www.hodagpress.com
The hodag,a strange creature
Displayed by Eugene Sheppard
Long Live The Hodag!!!
by Eugene Sheppard was just
Dog under horse hide
Something grabs bulldog pulls back
Hodag dissapears
My wife's late Grandfather, owned the lumbercamp where he and several drunk "Jacks" put together the First Hodag after one of the "Jacks"
came running into camp out in the woods swearing that a horrible monster tried to eat him. It was made of a mangy bearskin,a dead dog, part of a moth-eaten Mountain Lion, cow horns and crocodile skin off of an old piece of luggage and various animal teeth. A number of people have claimed to have built it,or caught it, or seen it. My wife actually saw it once as her Grandmother was making her Grandfather take it to the dump. Her Father verified this also.
Sincerely,
Larry Mager
AND PROUD OF IT.........