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This one comes straight out of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  I was surprised about how big and popular this monster was after I starting looking around.  So, what is a Hodag?

First, let’s talk about the Hodag’s origin.  It is considered a monster of American folklore from the 1800’s.  It was supposedly spotted by a lumberjack, which associated it with the forest and even early Paul Bunyan stories.  The Hodag remained low key until the late 1800’s when Eugene Shephard sent out a picture of one that him and some people hunted down.  They shot it with poison water and then used dynamite.  Three years later, he traveled around with a ‘captured Hodag’, which people could ‘see’ and hear in a darkened tent.  He would admit to it being a fake when scientists were on their way to take a look, but the legend still existed prior to Shephard and had locked itself in place.

Keep in mind that Shephard’s Hodag looked very similar to the mishipeshu or underwater panther.  This is an important mythical water being from the tribes of the Great Lakes and the Northeastern Woodlands.  Both creatures resembled a cat covered in scales and having spikes running along its back and tail.  The odd thing is that the description I gave and the one of the picture doesn’t even seem to match how Shephard described it or even his photograph:

Now, the Hodag is supposed to be large . . . Doesn’t look that way.  Shephard claimed it had the head of a frog, the face of a giant elephant, thick short legs with claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long spiked tail.  The first picture looks closer to what he described, but not exact.  In fact, the Hodag looks more like a demonic ox, which makes sense.  It was aid to be born from the ashes of cremated oxen and be the living embodiment of the abuse they endured as beasts of burden.

It was also said that they went extinct after their favorite food became scarce.  What did these carnivores eat?  All white bulldogs.  This is why you really get a sense that this is all a hoax.  I mean, it seemed clear from the hunted one and live one, but we’re looking at it with modern eyes.  You would think that it being declared a hoax would make it lose its power.

Nope!  The Hodag is the official symbol of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.  Their high school’s mascot is the Hodag.  They have an annual music festival named after the creature.  The same goes for various businesses.  There are Hodag statues at the Chamber of Commerce and the ice arena.  They definitely leaned into the creature’s fame and made it their own, which is very impressive.  At this point, it doesn’t matter if the Hodag is a hoax.  Then again, maybe it isn’t and this whole thing is being done to protect a heavily endangered species that lives in secret.