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The Hodag & Gene Shepard - Wisconsin's Most Fearsome Critter
Episode 418th October 2023 • Wisconsin Legends Podcast • Mike Huberty and Jeff Finup
00:00:00 00:55:01

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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.

Hodag

Hodag 125th Anniversary

Hodag - wiki

William T Cox

Snallygaster

Capture of the Hodag

Eugene Shepard

Rhinelander

Lakeshore Kearney

PT Barnum

Mishipeshu

Piasa Bird

Whiskey Jack/Wisakedjak

JK Rollins - Hodag

JFK's Hodag

Hidden Headlines of Wisconsin - Chad Lewis

Hodag Country Music Festival

Pioneer Park Historical Complex

The Hodag Store

The Hodag Show

Hodag Heritage

I Saw a Hodag - Kerry Exotic

Carmen San Diego - Hodag Store

Best Highschool Mascot in America

Long Live the Hodag! 

Bumper Music

Spend the Night - Sunspot

Folk Polk 

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.

Transcripts

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Wisconsin, a paranormal paradise with lake

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monsters, dogmen haunted hotels, famous ghosts, and

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deadly killers. It's a lot more than just America's

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dairyland. It's time for a deep dive into the weird,

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wonderful and terrifying that's lying just below the surface of

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reality. From American ghostwalks and Badgerland

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Legends. This is the Wisconsin Legends

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podcast.

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Welcome back to the Wisconsin Legends Podcast. I'm Jeff FinUp

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with Badgerland Legends. And with me, as always is Mike.

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Huberty from American ghostwalks. Today, Mike, we're going

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to hmm all. The way up north. Up in the

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northwoods. Any idea what we might be talking about? Well,

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considering that this is a podcast about legends of

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Wisconsin and we are talking about Rhinelander legends, we talk

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about things like ghosts and mysteries and

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of course, cryptid, rhinelander has the

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most maybe behind the beast of Bay Road, but the second

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most famous at least cryptid in Wisconsin. So I bet

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we're talking about the hodag today. We are talking about the hodag. What

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is a hodag? Good question. According to the book fearsome creatures of the

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Lumberwoods by William T. Cox, 1910, the

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hodag has been variously described by woodsmen from Wisconsin and

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Minnesota. Opinions differ greatly as to the appearance of the

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beast, some claiming it to be covered with horns and spines and having a

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maniacal disposition just like me, the size about

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that of a rhinoceros, somewhat resembling that animal in general

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makeup, the creature is slow in motion, deliberate, and

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unlike the rhinoceros, very intelligent. Its

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hairless body is modeled, striped and checked in a

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striking manner. On the hodag's nose, instead of a horn, there

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is a large spade shaped bony growth with peculiar

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phalanges extending up in front of the eye so that it can only

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see straight up. This probably accounts for the deliberate disposition of

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the animal, which wanders through the spruce woods looking for suitable

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food. This description in that passage varies wildly

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from the beast that we know from Rhinelander today, which means it has

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evolved over the years. Right, but when I think about that one, though, when I

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envision the hodag, I always picture, you know, like the people

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when they do the modern primitive thing and they get like the nose piercing and

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they get the big bone through the nose. They look

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like hodag is what you're trying to say. All of our friends with septum piercing,

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glistening, you look like hodag? I'm not going to say it to their face, but

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I'll say it on the podcast. So what exactly is a

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hodag? Well, let's start first with what it's not. Now,

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you mentioned at the top of the show that it was Wisconsin's maybe

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famous, most famous cryptid. Well, the hodag is not a

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cryptid. What? Jeff, you're blowing my mind. It is

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actually a fearsome critter. Now, it lives in the same

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fictional universe as Paul Bunyan babe, the big blue ox, the

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Jackalope, the Squawk, and the Snelly gaster.

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Wait, hold on. What universe does the Snelly

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gaster live. In in this fictional universe of Paul bunyan and

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lumberjacking lore. Okay, sounds good. Well, we have the gaster, we'll get a

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different episode. Snally gaster. I think that's more of a Maryland

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cryptid. I'm sorry. Fearsome critter. The

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hodag likely originated in the bunk houses of lumber camps in

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the northwoods of wisconsin and Minnesota, maybe stretching into maine. It was

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likely a tall tale created by veteran lumberjacks in camp foreman to

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pass time as well as fill the vital role of a cautionary

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tale. The lumberjack profession, for obvious reasons, was a

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perilous endeavor. Other than the standard occupational hazards like

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tree falls, widowmakers log jams, and work around heavy

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animals, there may have been other unseen hazards

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like attacks from bears and the advantageous cougar. Being on the

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lookout for one of these mythical beasts like the hodag, it may have

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provided a heightened sense of danger to those walking alone through the big

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woods. So, Mike, you may have a little article

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about the origin of the hodag name. Right, the idea

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of the word hodag, where it might come from. This is from

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beachcombers bizarre history blog, and this is written by the guy that

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runs the blog beachcomber as his username, and he's researching

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into the history of the ho dag. He finds the history and directory of kent

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county, Michigan, from 1870, and that's the first place we find the

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word hodag. There is a portable, detached, steam saw

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mill on the west side of section eleven on the little cedar. Erected in june

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1869 by McClure and kidder, this mill cuts 10,000ft

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of lumber, or 15,000 shingles per day. It will be better known as

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the hodag mill. This name was given it from the fact that an

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unknown and mysterious animal was heard, seen, and even

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fired at in the woods near here some years ago. And as no other

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name could be found for it, it was called hodag. And when the

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mill was built, this was the name given to it by the people of Birchville.

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And he goes on to say, this sounds a bit like the way

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boggart was given to haunted buildings and spots in

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northern england. This researcher, beachcomber also found a

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hodag creek in montana. And so this idea

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of people already in 1870 using the word

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hodag to represent some kind of unknown,

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mysterious kind of animal, and he compares it to

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boggart, which is like a little goblin or demon in english

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mythology, and then they just referred to that spot. That's a

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boggart spot kind of thing. Yeah, the hodag spot or the hodag lair. And now

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we have a hodag spot in 1870. And so it's just when

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you were saying that lumberjacks might be using it for some term of,

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hey, be careful out there, you never know the ho dag is going to get

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you for safety and for watching out for animals. We already see an

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example of this kind of thing. 25 years before it shows up in

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Wisconsin. Where does the hodag come

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from? Well, according to the lore, the hodag was said to be born from the

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ashes of cremated oxen, a reincarnation of the

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accumulation of the abuse these animals suffered at the hands of

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their sadistic drivers. The reincarnated ox was a bit of lore

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injected by author Luke Lakeshore Kearney in his

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book The Hodag, which was published in 1929. Now,

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Kearney, he was believed to be one of the originators of the hodag hoax,

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along with Eugene Shepherd back in the late 18 hundreds. Now, from

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the book Hodag, the customary burial ceremony for the

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ox was cremation. So a huge pile of brush was usually

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gathered and the remains of the ox placed carefully in the center.

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The belief of those sturdy woodsmen was that seven years of continuous

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fire was necessary to exterminate the profanity which

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had accumulated in the body of the ox during its life.

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So literally bullshit. A little

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bit of bullshit and a lot of cussing.

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It was at the end of the 7th year of the cremation of an

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ox which had led an unusually hard life that an event

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was to happen which would cast its shadow upon every man who

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witnessed it. As the fire died down, there slowly

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issued from that great pile of ashes a mystical

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animal later to be known as the hodag. Oh, it's

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almost like the phoenix. It's kind of a phoenix rising from. The ashes, except

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the phoenix is like a beautiful creature feeling of

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rebirth. The hodag is a vengeful bastard, right,

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with a penchant for white bulldogs hungry for the

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bulldog. Although a fun piece of lore as an origin story

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for the creation of the beast, these stories may have served the lumber company's

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interest because the improper treatment of these animals could result in

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loss of production due to an exhausted or injured animal. These animals were

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a primary piece of hauling equipment long before the use of

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tractors, trucks and other forms of mechanized equipment.

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So the ox was the workhorse, for lack of a better term. They

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probably had Belgian horses and quarter horses. But the rugged

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ox was probably your best bang for the

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buck for getting an animal. Thousands of logs or

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whatever from the camp to exactly. If you look through some of those old

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lumbering pictures, you will see these snowsleds piled

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high with fresh timber and you're like, how could anybody ever move

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it? A team of ox and some determined lumberjacks.

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Paul Bunyan babe, the blue ox. And now you've explained for me why

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Babe was even around. So I was like, Paul Bunyan's not a farmer. Why does

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he have an ox around there? Maybe just like steak or I didn't know what

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he liked. The beast of burden turns into a hodag if you piss it off

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and burn it.

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Kearney may be where we draw the current resemblance of the

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hodag from. He wrote in that book, the Hodag. The animal's

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back resembled that of a dinosaur, and his tail, which

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extended to an enormous length, had spear like ends, sharp spines.

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One and a half feet apart, they lined the spinal column. The legs were short

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and massive, and the claws were thick and curved, denoting great

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strength. The broad, furrowed forehead was covered with coarse, shaggy

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hair and bore two large horns. From the broad, muscular mouth,

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sharp, glistening white teeth protruded. Kind of looks like a

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dinosaur. Kind of looks like an ox, right. Because it's got the front

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of the ox with the horns and stuff and obviously the septum piercing,

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and then it's got the back of a stegosaurus kind of

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thing. Yeah. And there's also other descriptions that talk about, like, an elephant

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likes body and then a head of a frog or grinning frog. Each telling

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of the tale, it gets more and more absurd. But we've finally

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settled on the Rhinelander hodag that we see

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today on display at the huge statue. Yet another

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description from the time came from a newspaper. The news article

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predated kearney's by about 40 years. In

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1893, newspapers reported the discovery of a

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Hodak near Rhinelander. Timber cruiser eugene

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simeon shepherd was hiking near his home in Rhinelander.

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Shepherd was well aware of the legend of the Hodak, but he had yet to

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spot one. Shepherd stood face to face with a snarling

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beast. It was 7ft long and weighed about 185

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pounds. Its head was larger than its body, and it had two

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horns growing out of its head. Short black hair covered its muscular

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and stout frame. The beast emitted a terrible odor, and flame

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and smoke rolled from its nostrils. Shepard would describe the odor

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as a combination of buzzard meat and skunk

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perfume. Shepard solo, of course,

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retreated back to Rhinelander, which at the time was a bustling lumber

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camp, according to that newspaper report in the publication The New North,

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an article written by the snake editor. We might be able to guess

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who was the snake editor by the end of this. A group

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of Hunters aspired to capture one the best Hunters of Poverty

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Hill. In Logtown districts well armed with heavy rifles and

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large boar squirt guns loaded with poisonous water,

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they came upon their game in a tamarack swamp. Their

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guns commenced a regular fuselaged until their guns

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got too hot to longer hold in their hands. And then they drew

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their knives and sailed in, followed by a great crowd who were

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all well armed. Then men stacked piles of birch bark around the

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beast and threw a few sticks of dynamite. The beast

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thrashed and began slashing timbers, the trees falling in every

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direction. As the explosions, fire, and falling timbers

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settled, the first black hodag was consumed. The

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remains were transported to Rhinelander and displayed the Hunters, unable

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to capture the beast alive right. They had to use dynamite

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on him. Now, that was an actual news article that

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ran next to regular news articles and legal

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notices. We already know the snake editor dropped this little

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nugget in there to either entertain readers

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or to trick them, we're not sure which. The fact that the Rhinelander

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newspaper or whatever at the time had a snake editor. Yeah,

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it's like we have the copy editor, we got the guy that covers the sports

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section, and then we got the gossip pages. And don't

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forget, snakes get their own section in the rhyme snake editor front

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page too. So the story gained so much tension in the northwoods in Central,

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Wisconsin, it was even featured in an ad campaign by the

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Centralia Lumber Company. Centralia, Wisconsin.

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Mike, have you ever heard of Centralia? I have not been there myself.

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You might have. It is actually Wisconsin Rapids. The town I grew up in was

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once called Centralia. I did centralia in Grand Rapids and

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then it merged to Wisconsin Rapids. I have been you bet I've been to

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Centralia. Then there was once a coffee shop called Centralia. I'm not sure if it's

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there anymore, but that was where I first learned of the origins of

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my city's name. And that also that they were running ads for the

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hodag. Yeah, it's really cool to go into newspaper archives and

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find the old ads for Centralia. It has a cartoon in it,

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it might be from Eugene Shepard who drew it. But the ad featured a

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cartoon sketch of the spotted hodag, the bovine

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spiritualis pretty much saying the cow spirit, and spoke about his prowess

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and attributes. The ad was tagged if you desire the

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complete history of this denizen of the pine forest of Wisconsin,

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call on Centralia Lumber Company. So I'm not sure if you went there and they

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gave you a flyer on it, if they regaled you with some lumberjacking tailors,

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they've got a hodag, brochure. What I think is interesting here though, is that in

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the creation of this know, I guess when I refer to it as a mean

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verse is a fearsome critter. I did not realize that the

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hodag was a supernatural creature in its

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origin. Because if it's created out of the ashes of burning

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oxen or whatever, it's born out of those things, then

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created through a fire ritual. Yeah, I never really thought

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about that. For those wondering why is it not cryptid? Well,

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a cryptid is an undiscovered

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animal, animal that people believe exists, but it hasn't been

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documented by science. That's where cryptid would come in, where

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this is more of a legendary creature or a

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mythical creature or I believe in it a Fireborne hodag.

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Well, a lot of people still believe in the hodag.

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Three years after the original capture of the Hodak article ran,

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shepard shocked the world. In 1896, Shepard and a

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group of lumber jacks surprised a hodag in its den and

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asphyxiated the monster with a heavy dose of chloroform.

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The thing is, if you're going to chloroform a hodag, you get like, chloroform, blanket.

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What I've heard was they used a pipe and they

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vaporized the chloroform and blew it into the

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den to put it to sleep. And then they dragged it back to. Some kind

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of like, sleeping gas. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Wow. Before

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we go any further in legend of the Hodag, let's talk about

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Gene Shepherd. He was kind of the godfather or the

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progenitor of the Hodag mythos. Eugene

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Simeon Shepherd was born in 1854 in Fort

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Howard. Do you know where that is, Mike? No, never heard that even in here.

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That was Green Bay before it was Green Bay. Okay. Fort Howard.

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Fort Military Ridge started exactly old Fort Howard. So his

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family ended up moving to New London, where his father operated farm. He

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earned a 6th grade education from New London schools. Unfortunately, his father passed

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when he was only twelve, and Gene had to work as a farm hand and

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a tugboat pilot on the Wolf River. Now, at 16, Gene found his

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true calling as a Timber cruiser or a landlooker when he was hired

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to be an assistant of Albert A. Weber in 1870. Now,

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this job took him all through the northwoods of Wisconsin, assessing standing

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timber and estimating its yield and value. So there was a lot of

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land prospectors from out east. They needed local

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help to find the Timber that was ripe for the picking

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and being able to buy it at a cheap rate and knowing that the

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yield would be worth their purchase. So they hired this

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Weber guy in Gene Shepard to go out and scout this

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Timber and say, hey, this is the best parcel of land that you can

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buy. And then they took a cut, of course. Sure. So he was like a

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tree expert. He was a tree expert, he was a forest expert, and he

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knew the Northwoods like the back of his hand. It was on one of these

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Timber cruising trips where Weber and shepherd camped at the

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confluence of the Pelican in Wisconsin rivers. The place at the time was called

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Pelican Rapids and later became the city of Rhinelander. Now

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the city was founded officially in 1882, and shepherd

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was on hand to witness its first year of growth. Although Timber cruising did

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take a lot of time away from Rhinelander, he became a permanent resident

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in 1886, about four years after its founding. He was up

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and down the Northwoods, and Rhinelander was kind of a place that

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he wanted to settle and grow. And maybe

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become a snake editor. Snake editor of the New North. During the time

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leading up to his residence in Rhinelander, he took a wife, mildred

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Molly Woodworth of New London. That is a very 19th

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century name. Mildred. Mildred. Molly Woodworth. That

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was in 1876. So the following year, the couple had their first son,

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Claude. Claude's only sibling would come 15 years later, a boy

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named Leighton. Apparently, Gene was too busy Timber cruising

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to produce the lot of kids accustomed to families of the time,

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right? But at least he had a 15 year old. So then you got a

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babysitter right. Away thinking at this point

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America was expanding. A flood of European immigrants were hitting the

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shores of the US and moving westward to stake their claims. Now, the

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1868 Homestead Act provided that any adult

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citizen or intended citizen who had never borne arms

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against the US government, so Confederates excluded, could

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claim 160 acres of surveyed government land. It

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was like a land rush. And Wisconsin, 160 acres.

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All you had to do was not. Be part of the Confederacy and you didn't

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even have to be a citizen, just an intended citizen. You settled the land,

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you worked towards citizenship. You got 160 acres on the

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new frontier, right? And you think about all those people who had come over from

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Ellis Island at the time. That was the

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Western Europeans, the German immigrants and everything like that. That's a

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bonanza. Imagine that you grew up poor in some city like

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Hamburg or something, and you're like, okay, we're going to take a shot in America.

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You come over and they're like, here's 160 acres of

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land. It's an embarrassment of riches. It really is. And that's how my

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family made their way from Germany and Prussia and

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made it to central Wisconsin, was through programs like this where they

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could transform the land and turn it into productive land. My

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grandfather's grandfather came over and he did just that. He ended up

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cutting all of the oaks on the property, selling them to a stave

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mill, and then farmed the land. If you go to Rudolph town of

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Siegel, there is still a road with our surname on

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it. You can go to FinUp Lane next time here at Rudolph cheese factory. That's

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pretty nice. Huberty is still a little bit too embarrassing to be a road name,

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so I'm hoping that one of these days. I'll change that Huberty Lane. Yeah, I'll

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change that reputation. So because of

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this land rush, timber demand was soaring and the rich pine forest of

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Wisconsin were ripe for the harvesting. The prairie lands west of Wisconsin being

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settled raised the demand for the natural resource. Now. The town of Stevens Point.

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Mozani. Wasaw, Merrill and Rhinelander were all

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founded and developed by the lumbering industry. In 1890,

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according to the Wisconsin Historical Society, 23,000 men worked

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in more than 450 logging camps. Seeing that the population

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of the state was only about 1.6 million, that means

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that lumberjacks were about 2%. So two out of every

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100 people, every adult men were

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lumberjacks at that time in Wisconsin. Now they just dress like lumberjacks. No,

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they're just hipsters. Well, in 1887, oneida

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county would officially be chartered as a county, taking

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with it land from Lincoln County. Now, Ryan lander would be the county

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seat. The new county board would be appointed and they would appoint

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Shepard. The knowledgeable woodsman. Along with his map making

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abilities. The county's surveyor, Shepard, got the job. He

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mapped a lot of nineta county. He named most of the lakes, including there

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is a lake in Rhinelander called Shepherd Lake. A little favoritism, I imagine, right

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now, he continued the land prospecting business that he started after

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he left Weber and it was called the Northwestern Land Agency.

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Shepherd continued his government role until 1891 when

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he relinquished his duties and turned back to his land prospecting and

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surveying agency full time. At this point, shepherd was heavily

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invested monetarily through the land acquisitions as well as

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psychologically in the success of Rhinelander, shepard

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got involved in boosterism. This was an enthusiastic practice

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by a person or organization to attract people or money to a

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specific town, region, or area. The practice does several things. It's

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an attempt to enhance public perception and attracts people to the area

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for development of tourism. It was like an early form of visitors

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bureaus or chambers of commerce. Right. So he's the head of the

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Rhinelander, the Chamber of Commerce. He's the

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carnival barker for Rhinelander, trying to bring

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in industries, he's trying to bring in business, and then he's trying to bring in

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tourists and he's trying to bring in permanent residents because that's really how you

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get things done is by getting the people there to work the industries. You got

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to get a railroad, you got to get lumber mills. Shepard, in his

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travels, was an avid booster of his new little boomtown,

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Rhinelander. Now, Shepard also had a long term outlook for

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his new town. He understood that lumbering industry and the implications of a

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cutover and what that would have on the economy. He'd already seen the

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boomtown to ghost town cycle after all the resources were

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harvested in order to protect his investments in Rhinelander, he looked to

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attract businesses and entrepreneurs to the area to further develop both population

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and infrastructure. His main aim was to bring railroads to expand the population of

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Rhinelander and set up industry and infrastructure for citizens, bringing both

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prosperity to the economy and attracting tourist dollars. So this

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civic duty may have been where the hodag came in. What better

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way to bring attention to your community than the emergence of a mythical

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beast the world has never seen before? I think every

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town should do that. It's really worked for Rhinelander. It's worked

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for Point Pleasant. Right. I think everybody needs their own

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mascot, whatever it is. The Galloping Ghosts of

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Kakana. They could get on that, right? The Ridgeway phantoms. Yeah.

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Hire the Hubertie FinUp Consulting Group and. We'Ll we will

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bring tourism to your town. Exactly. So Shepard was well known

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as a rock on tour. He often visited lumbercaps during his

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travels and told tall tales. These tales would seemingly grow

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exponentially during each retelling at successive camps.

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Now. Gene Shepard, the P. T. Barnum of the bunkhouse may

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be the reason we know of Paul Bunyan today. Although it's unclear the exact

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origins or who first told the world's largest

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woodsman tale. The bunyan tales were definitely within his

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repertoire. Shepard was also known for a series of pranks at one

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of his resort properties on Ballard Lake. He was known to douse a

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patch of moss with cheap perfume and charge visitors

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a quarter to smell. The exotic scented moss

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only could be found on Ballard lake, only on the shepherd property. He

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also promoted the area and Ballard lake as the greatest

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musculunge fishing in the world. Now, when that fish of 10,000

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cast was not biting, shepard treated downtrodden

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fishermen to another display. Through a series of wires,

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he managed to make a musky leap from the lake as a reminder of the

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one that got away. The simple sleight of hand intrigued fishermen to

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book yet another week at his resort.

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About a week before the inaugural oneida county fair, an

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article ran in the new North Rhinelander's local newspaper.

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They announced black hodag for the fair. The beast

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was captured by Shepard and crew. After it's

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captured, Shepard transported that hodag to the

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fairgrounds and confined it to a pit resembling its

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den. There it stayed in the days leading up to the

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Oneida county fair, 1896. He preps this

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with the story that the hunters captured the hodag. They chloroformed,

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and now they're bringing the dag to the fair. He

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seeded the ground, and now he's got to pay it off. Right? Of course.

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Shepard announced that he would proudly exhibit his captured

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beast. Those who were brave enough could enter a darkened

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tent, drop their dime, and encounter the beast. Separated by a

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tarp fairgoers witnessed the beast move and growl, a

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cunning trick played by his sons. Using their voices and

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wires to animate the beast, very few left the fairgrounds, not

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believing in the authenticity of Shepard's Hodak. From this

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introduction, the Hodak and its boastful owner toured county fairs and

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even the Wisconsin state fair in Milwaukee. Shepard also displayed

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the beast at his home, enticing visitors to layover

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and conducted the same charade to unwitting dupes. So

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he let people know that he's got a real hodag taking around the fairs, and

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then he keeps it in his home. Yeah, he keeps in his backyard and then

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charges people turns the same trick his personal zoo. Yep. So

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legend has it that P. T. Barnum even offered to buy the

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rights. Shepard putting one over on the man that coined

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the phrase, there's a sucker born every minute. Barnum

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historians refute that claim, and it's speculated that this was yet another

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tall tale woven by old shep. Now, in that same vein, it

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was said that the Smithsonian sent men to view and validate

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the existence of the beast. Although this seems plausible, it also falls

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into the category of legend. There's no documentation from the

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Smithsonian showing any interest in the beast. And if there was, they probably would

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have destroyed it. Right, because it had been embarrassing, but. That'S the kind

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of thing that goes on websites. They talk about the hodag and everything. They're like,

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well, you know, even the Smithsonian came down to check it out. Yeah, it's definitely

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been weaved into the general lore of the hodag, is that the

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Smithsonian came calling right. That the hodag was so convincing

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that Washington, DC. Had to try and get it. By the turn of the century,

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it was revealed that the hodag, at least Gene Shepherd's, was indeed a

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hoax. It's not known who revealed the hoax and

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when, but by 1900, a Chicago evening post article

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claimed that Shepard had since fessed up to the ploy. Despite

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being revealed as a hoax, it didn't temper the interest in the beast.

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People still flocked to Rhinelander to view the beast or to learn about

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the creature of the Lumberwoods, much like shep spinning yarns in the bunkhouse

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or around a roaring fire, the stories changing with each telling. So did

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the legend of the hodag. The size, characteristics, and the method

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of capture evolved with each telling. Where did Gene Shepard

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get the inspiration for the mythical beast known as the hodag? Few people know

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that Gene Shepard was actually fluent in the ojibwe language. Well,

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that's interesting. Yeah. So he used it to communicate with the local

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Indians in that area and establish routes and

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converse with people for intel on the pine forest. So he's

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familiar with the native culture. And in ojibwe lore, there was this mythical

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beast called the mishapishu, or the underwater panther. Many

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native cosmologies of the region, they break things into planes of

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existence. They have the earth, the sky, and the underwater or

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underground. Well, mishapishu, or the underwater panther

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lurked in this lowest realm. Pictographs found near lake

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superior show a depiction of mishapishu that looks

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surprisingly like a hodag. Right. Got the horns and everything. Got the

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horns and the spikes. And could this be where Shepard conceived the

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description of the beast and brought it to life in lumberjacking lore? Well,

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much like the piasaw bird in Alton, Illinois,

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that's right next to the Mississippi, there if you see

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the modern redoing of the pictograph, kind of looks

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like a HOD egg with wings. Oh, really? Kind of thing? I haven't seen that.

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I'll put that in the show notes. Right. There's a theory that maybe originally it

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was supposed to be a mishapishu pictograph kind of thing,

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and then later on, they added the wings. Somebody added wings. But anyway,

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the pyasau, it's now on the edge, and you can go there in Alton and

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see this big, giant pictograph on the side of a cliff.

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You see it and you're like, oh, kind of looks like the hodag. So I

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can definitely see how gene Shepard took that. He might be like,

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hey, this is a cool creature in Indian lore,

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and how do I take this a little bit and then use it to

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my advantage and add it. To kind of the mythos of the

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Lumberwoods. And lumberjacks were already doing that with the Indian

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character Wisakachek Whiskey Jack. That was

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a tradition. The lore that surrounded them, the lore that discovered the

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people that were living there they would adapt that to their lumberjack

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universe. Yeah. What do they say? Good artists borrow, great artists steal. It's no

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different when it comes to lumberjacks. So although the Hodag may have been

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native to Rhinelander his influence have been felt throughout pop

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culture. Mike, where else in pop culture can we find a Hodag?

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I gotta say, that probably the most famous place people can see the Hodag be

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in harry Potter. Never heard of it. Right. Who's that guy in

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Fantastic Beasts and where to find them? The Hodag is named a

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couple of times. Here's one in the 1620s. There's an Irish

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witch, Isolt sayer, and a puckwoodgie William.

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I don't know what a Puckwoodgie is. But they took trips together to observe the

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Hodag's hunting in nature during its search for moon

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calves. I don't know what moon calves are, but I assume it's another fantastic beast.

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The Hodag was attracted to Muggle farms at night. That's non

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magical people are the Muggles. So the wizards are the wizards and

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jokers like us are Muggles. The Hodag would go to the Muggle farms

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much like the Snallygaster, just like they have Hogwarts over in

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England. In the US. They had this magical association of

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the USA. There's the Department of no Magic Misinformation

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and they worked hard to convince the people of America that the

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sightings of Hodag were hoaxes. So maybe

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Gene Shepard was right. Maybe Gene Shepard worked for this

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magical association in the United States of America. And so there's this Department of

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Misinformation so that the Muggles wouldn't know who the wizards were. And then the

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Hodag was confined to a protected area around Wisconsin. And so this is

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from, like, the Harry Potter website and the fantastic beats that J. K.

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Rowling before the movie came out. She designed this website about this

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beastiery of all of the magical creatures inside the Harry

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Potter universe. And she placed them in Wisconsin. She placed them in

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Wisconsin. I think this is from a video game associated with Harry Potter. Like the

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Harry Potter video game during the 1988 and 89 school year.

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Rubius Hagrid. Remember Hagrid, the big, huge guy? That giant

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guy? Yeah. Robbie Coltrane played was gifted a Ho dag from a friend

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as it was terrorizing his friend's herd of moon calves. The

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Hodag preferred to bite Hagrid's fingers then eat a special

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feed Hagrid obtained from Wisconsin. Was it cheese? Right.

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That's what it should have been. The hodag. JK. Rowling knows what it

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is. And it also appeared in Scooby Doo, right? Yes. In

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2012. This is from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Cole Levy wrote

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this straight from the northwoods of Wisconsin to the television screen. The

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Hodag, Rhinelander's mystical beast of Yore is making a

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scooby Doo debut next month. An episode of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated

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will feature the Hodag and its discoverer August 3 on Cartoon

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Network. It's a great avenue of free PR, said Laura Reed, the

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executive director of the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce. She's the

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heir of Jean Shepard? Probably. Apparently, we're excited about the attention it

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brings to Rhinelander. Reed hopes the show will inspire viewers to visit the real

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Hodag the fanged, reptilian creature that Eugene Shepard discovered in

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1893. Shepard makes an appearance on the TV show as an entertainer

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traveling with a curio wagon and a seemingly stuffed hodag. So why

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did Scooby Doo's producers choose to showcase the Wisconsin monster and its

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chief proponent, Mitch Watson and Tony Cervone? The writers wanted a

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folkloric monster, the Northwoods River News reported. It didn't hurt that

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legend says the Hodag prefers eating dogs, particularly white

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bulldogs although the cartoon beast finds Scooby just

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as appetizing. Watson and Cervoni, who were unavailable for comment had

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also considered a storyline involving an ancient wheel of cheese with a

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clue to a larger mystery. The connection to Wisconsin was obvious.

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Regardless of whether you believe the state is the Hodag's natural

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habitat you'll agree it's definitely the land of

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cheese. Nice. The Hodag, he was actually

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linked to at least one presidential campaign and may

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have been a totem for an iconic candidate. Well, that's

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right. Even though it may have ended, it in bad luck. So this is from

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the Rhinelander Daily News, July 16, 1960.

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Kennedy prizes, his hodag gift. A Hodag symbol of

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Rhinelander is one of the prized possessions of Senator John F. Kennedy

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who this week was nominated by the Democratic Party to be its candidate for

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president of the United States. The miniature Hodag was given to

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Senator and Mrs. Kennedy when they came here last fall during the course

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of the campaign for delegates to the national convention. The presentation was made

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by Henry J. Berquist, a Democratic county chairman and master of

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ceremonies for the labor temple at which the Massachusetts senator spoke. We

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find The Hodag to be a very provocative conversation piece. Senator

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Kennedy has written Burquest and we are delighted to have so

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interesting a souvenir of our visit to Rhinelander. Nice. So that was my

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very poor Massachusetts Kennedy accent, but yes, and he

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accepted the nomination at the Biltmore Hotel, which we

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discussed the Biltmore really quick in the episode about Frank Lloyd

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Wright when we talk about the Black Dahlia. And that was the last place she

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was seen alive. That was also where JFK

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accepted the Democratic nomination for president in 1960

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because of the Hodag. So his entire success

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we can attribute. To you wonder whatever happened to that Hodag figurine

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that they sent him. Do you think he just tossed it on the campaign

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trail, or do you think it was actually, I think what. Probably happened was

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the CIA had to take it back after they killed him. That's why they

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assassinated him to get the Hodag figurine to get it back. So we

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also think of the Hodag as strictly a

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lumberjack lore, but you've been able to find a couple

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articles from Ohio and even America's

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Southwest that mention the Hodag. Well, that's right. It seems

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like we talked about earlier that the Hodag name, the

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word itself, it said, oh, it's a combination. Some people said it's a combination

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of the word horse and dog, but that doesn't kind of

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go along with the. Description the cow,

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the oxen, oxen, the bulls. But the idea that the Hodag might

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have been a mysterious creature in general, or a word for a mysterious creature

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in general that the lumberjacks might have used, or

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people who were exploring the territories when we get to the mid 19th

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century that maybe it comes from. So, Ohio, we've got this

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place called St. Mary's Lake, and this is from the Lake

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Improvement Association website for this. Grand Lake st. Mary's

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Lake near Lima, Ohio. And it's spelled Ho dag with an

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E-H-O-E-D-A-G-H-O-E-D-A-G. Grand

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Lake St. Mary's was once the world's largest artificial body of water

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dug by 1700 German and Irish immigrants. From

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1837 to 1845, Grand Lake St. Mary's was home to the world's

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first offshore oil well, with waterbound Dereks positioned

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on the lake to pump oil from beneath its water. So

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it's built to connect a couple of rivers in Ohio, and

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then after they're not using steamboats and things

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anymore, they're going to fill it up. They decide not to fill it up and

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instead make it kind of a place that people might want to visit. The other

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thing they had was a lake monster. The Hodag, a monster that reportedly lives in

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Grand Lake St. Mary's, was first reported in 1912. So that's

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a mishapishu? Maybe. What does it look like? The beast was said to be the

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target of many fruitless hunting expeditions and is three quarters the

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size of an elephant. Going back to your hodag. Elephant possesses a

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serpentine body with a back hump, chicken like feet, a green

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eye on the forehead and a red eye and a long tail, and is

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covered in hair and feathers for a lick.

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Monster. Yeah, that's a very interesting monster. Now, what does it eat? The Hodag's

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diet supposedly consists of the farm dogs that once ventured into her native

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cattail habitat, frightened humans. They linked her to several human

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disappearances and her favorite food pumpkin pie. Not

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white bulldogs. Not white bulldogs. She loves the pumpkin pie. What does it sound

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like? The terrible Hodag makes a moaning sound, like a mix between the

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call of a Yahoo bird and the Winnie of a horse, and has also been

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heard cackling and screaming when amused. It is believed that the Hodag

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is lonely and starved for affection. This is from the Lima

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News. Lima, Ohio. October 30, 1930.

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Mardi Gras at St. Mary's to be held Friday. A community

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Halloween celebration will be held in St. Mary's Friday night, October 31, under

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the auspices of the local merchants. The main street of town will be roped off

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for the celebration and Masqueraders will stage a big parade. The hodag

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is to appear in the parade the hunters, Traders and Trappers Organization has

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promised. The hodag is a strange creature which was blamed for years by

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the Htnt's, the hunters, Traders and Trappers Organization

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for the disappearance of pies, cakes and other delicacies at their clubhouse,

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Lake St. Mary's. It has eluded them until recently when they succeeded in

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staging its capture. The animal has feet that are circles resembling

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plates. He is capable of moving backward or forward at an equal rate of

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speed, and it's exceptionally hard to trace because of the circular

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footprints which leave the pursuer in doubt as to which the direction

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the animal has gone. Other strange characteristics of the

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hodag is its long neck, bristling with porcupine like

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quills, its body, which resembles that of a calf. There's your

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cow, its long front legs and short rear legs. Its tail,

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which stands erect and is about 3ft long. So they had

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their own hodag captured. Party nice

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at the Halloween celebration in Lima, Ohio, October 30.

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And this is 1930. So this is 30, 33 years or whatever,

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or longer than that. Then it made its debut at the

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fair. So that's going on in Ohio.

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And this grand Lake St. Mary's has its own hodag, which

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is more like the Mississippi shoe, the Water panther and then going back in

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time. 1913 arizona the Arizona Republic phoenix,

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Arizona a hodag hunt is suggested. Information leaked

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into Phoenix yesterday of the discovery up in Bloody Basin of a

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curious animal which is said to have the ability to run around the side of

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a mountain with peculiar ease. The story was brought to town by a

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prominent apple grower from up the Verde Valley, which proposed the

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parties be organized immediately to go up and hunt the thing. He said that

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as far as his information went, the peculiar animal, which

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seems to be a relative of the New Mexico side hill

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hodag, has a wolf's head, a coyote's body and a

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fox's tail. And the legs on the left side are shorter than the right side,

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which assists the critter to run around the side of a hill with the rapidity

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of a lobo wolf. It was said that there are a number of these things

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and that the steeper the mountain, the shorter the legs are on the left side.

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He said they also always run in one direction so as to give the short

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legs on the left side the greatest play on the upside of the hill.

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Okay, Arizona, this is in January of

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1913. Now a New Mexico paper also

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talks about the hodag horrible hodag in New Mexico. The

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Phoenix Republican is somewhat agitated over the fact that a genuine

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hodag has been reported in new Mexico of a variety different to the

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side hill hodag indigenous to the state of arizona. The Arizona

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paper also doubts the authenticity of the reported New mexico

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find and insists that while the original variety of hodag was

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first seen in new Mexico it had extended its environments well into

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Arizona. And but the one species is known to exist. The

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republican says that's the Phoenix Republic they call it republican under the

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title of quote the hodag or sidewalloper unquote. An

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exchange prints a very captivating account of the discovery of one of the

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strange animals in the salt marshes of new Mexico. So far as

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discovering a hodag on several bowdags in new Mexico is concerned the

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exchange is all right, but when it takes the word of a half witted old

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trapper for the plans and specifications of the animal, it

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oversteps the bounds of veracity. The hodag was originally discovered in new

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Mexico and later found in large numbers in Arizona. It is yet alluded

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capture until the old trapper in question caught one. But he neglects to

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produce a hide or teeth to prove his assertions. The old

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trapper, who claims to be a partner of Kit Carson

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is experienced in the use of every weapon from the latest automatic rifle

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to the primitive bow and arrows of the indians. He says so himself. He's also

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quite likely to be skilled in the use of the long bow. The description

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of the hodag is entirely too fanciful to ring true. He has too many

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frills. It will be remembered that the Arizona species was just

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awful and nothing more. No one was ever venturesome enough to stop

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to verify certain suspicions about the Hodak's general appearance. So those who

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have caught glimpses of the animal have contended themselves with either saying it was

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simply awful or stretching out a flock of imaginary facts

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supplied by a mind scared blank of any real data.

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New mexico is obviously taking Arizona's bait and coming back.

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So all throughout 1913 you have these articles in

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the Arizona Republic public and then there's new Mexico

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newspapers and they're going back and forth until now we get to september. Wisconsin

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hodag is exposed as a hoax. The hodag is exposed that is one

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kind has been dug from its cave of obscurity and presented to the astonished public

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as a hoax while the real one, the Arizona hodag,

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remains as much of a mystery as ever. Joseph p. Dylan, who has always been

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more or less keenly interested in hodag and arizona camels.

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Arizona camels. It's the desert. Yep. Yesterday sent a

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copy of a popular magazine containing the great hodag expose to the

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republican writer who has chronicled the deeds of the animal on the borders of the

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state. The article has been inspected and so far as it regards the Wisconsin

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hodag produced authoritative but the despoiler of many

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ranches in the bloody basin. The beast that was brought to Arizona from New Mexico

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six years ago, along with two of its mates, has not yet been actually

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described nor disproven in the public prints. So they

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have this it's almost like. A pissing match, right. And they're almost doing

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this hodag just the same way Gene Shepard is to

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get attention. But they're not treating it like a parody or anything. They're

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just sticking these stories in the newspaper next to

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whatever announcements going on. So they have their own snake editor?

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Yeah, they're playing it straight at these. You know, watching

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the way they say this and how straightforward it is, it breaks my heart a

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little bit because it makes me think that some of the reports of sea serpents

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that we've had and all these different lakes over. Time charles E.

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Brown said great folklorist archaeologist, historian.

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He said a resort town without a sea serpent

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was behind the times. You kind of let the cat out of the bag with

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that one saying. A lot of these resort guys would say, oh yeah, there's a

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sea serpent here. So then people would come out, rent a boat,

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picnic on the lake shores, stop at the local restaurant watering

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hole. 130 years later, right. I'm still like, looking for the

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Lake Minona monster. He's out there. There's one in each lake in Madison,

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right? Exactly. So when I read these stories, I'm like, oh,

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yeah, now I think of like, well, maybe the newspapers weren't

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100% accurate back then. I don't think they had a lot of fact checkers.

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Clearly not. Especially if somebody by the name of Snake Editor.

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Right. So now I feel I have to question every

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sea serpent article I get or whatever, which hurts. And

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speaking of arcane newspaper articles, I found this one in my

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research. It was from October 1896. So this would have been a

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couple of months after the United County Fair revealing the hodag. And this

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was from the gazette in Stevens Point. John

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N. Pickert spent a day in the vicinity of Nolton this week and

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succeeded in bagging a sand hill gouger. Now, that

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sounded a lot like the side hill gouger. Right. A species of

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game never before captured in these parts. Later on further

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investigation, the animal has been shown to be one of those

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ferocious beasts known as the hodag. There we go. So they found

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him down in Olton too. It's funny, it's just these newspaper

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guys. I don't know if there was not enough going on, you figure with all

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the people that disappeared, the lumber camps, there would have been

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plenty. Just wonder if that news ever got out. Right. They were

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too busy making up creatures to entertain themselves. Yeah. Newspapers

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of that time, if you go back and read them, it's like john

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Smith visited Sally Jane for lunch on

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Sunday afternoon and Jim Brennan was in town from

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Ohio visiting his in laws. So it was like very matter of fact

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happenings of the community and then. To read sneak this stuff in there. To sneak

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this stuff in there. You just have to wonder, even if you look back at

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some of the early UFO flaps from like the 19 hundreds,

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what did they call them? The airships. The airships in Chicago, Madison

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and Milwaukee. Oh, yeah, 1897, there was airships all

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over the Midwest and you kind of. See that and you're like, is there veracity

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to these? Are these legitimate airports or is somebody putting them in there as

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lark to sell newspapers or to just entertain themselves?

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Allah. Jean Shepard. Right. So now you would think we read

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the newspaper and you're like, OK, well, this has to go mean. There's

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journalism school, there's fact checkers and

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legal involved, editorial boards,

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clearance to be able to use these quotes from people

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and everything. When you read the newspaper, you want to believe it. And so we

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have this standard today that was not the standard of the new

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north with the snake editor or the Arizona

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republican back 110 years ago. We got to take the sea

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serpent reports with a grain of salt. And I did not realize that until this

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very moment, this very moment, I was like, hold on, are you saying this

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stuff might not be real? Our friend Chad Lewis has a great book called

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hidden Headlines of Wisconsin, where he features a lot of this stuff,

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pre 1925, that appeared. It's a fun read. If you want to read more

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audacious claims made in newspapers from Wisconsin from that

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era. Right. Don't believe everything you read. And then they say, don't believe

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anything you hear and half of what you see. Yeah, exactly.

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The people of Rhinelander, they're so enthusiastic about their

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hometown critter that they even dedicated a music festival to it. The

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Hodag Country festival. It's the longest running country

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music festival in the world. Wow. It started in

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1978 to a crowd of about 500. It's since attracted

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acts like Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw, Brooks and Dunn jake Owen, toby

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Keith this past year, I think the headliner was hardy. The estimated

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attendance annually has now swelled to 30 to 50,000.

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People descending on Rhinelander for a weekend of music.

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Eugene Shepard would be proud. Yeah. So outside of the northwoods, somebody

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referring to Hodag is probably referring to the country

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music festival where we're talking about this mythical beast.

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Another fun event conceived from the minds of Kerry Bladern of the

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Pioneer Park Historical Complex and Ben Burnell of the Hodag

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store is Hodag Heritage Festival. It's an event held annually

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at Pioneer Park to celebrate the Hodag, the actual beast, with the

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assistance of the Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce. The one day event features

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speakers, vendors, food, beer, of course, green beer, live music,

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and even several reenactments of Gene Shepard's

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sideshow hodag. Oh, man, I would like to see that. That'd be fun.

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I got to attend this past year and I was able to take in

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the show the gentleman they had there. I can't remember his last name for the

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life of me. His name's Jerry. He was a two time mayor of

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Rhinelander and he embodied Gene Shepard as he

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showed off his Hodag along with his assistant,

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Luke Kearney. Luke and Gene have come back for one final

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performance of The Hodag. And it's a lot of fun. There's probably videos

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out there. I'll put a couple photographs that I took in the show notes

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so you can kind of take it in and get the sense of it. But

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it's a fun day of just celebrating the beast. Plenty of

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vendors, food, live music. The hodag king himself.

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Carrie Exotic was there playing. I saw Hodag, one of my

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kids'favorite songs. That's great. It was a great time. We talked about

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our friend Ben Brunel and his Hodag store. Well, an

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interesting suspect was linked to a shoplifting

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incident at the Hodag store last year. Can you tell us more about that? That's

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right. So this is in April of 2022. This is written by T

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Kulos. And this is from Americanghostwalks.com.

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T is our good friend from the Milwaukee Paracon,

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the director director of the Milwaukee Paracon. And he also runs tours

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for American ghostwalks in Milwaukee. And so this is the hodag store

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robbed by Carmen San Diego. Security cameras at the store

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caught something odd. A loudly dressed woman shoplifting at the

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Hodag store stuffing her purse with a bottle of Hodag vodka we

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could use that tonight. And other items. Retail theft is an unfortunate

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reality for mom and pop stores. But when a steal from the security camera footage

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was posted online, people pointed out that the shoplifter was dressed

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similarly to a legendary globetrotting thief, carmen San

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Diego. Where in the world? Where in the world is Carmen San Diego

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debuted as an edutainment video game in 1985.

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Presented on floppy disk format for the Apple II computer, it's had

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many incarnations since, notably as a PBS game show from

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1991 to 1995 and recently as an animated

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Netflix show. San Diego is depicted as having a red wide

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brimmed hat that obscures the upper half of her face and a long

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red jacket. She is, as the theme to the PBS show states,

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a sticky fingered thief filter from Berlin down to

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Belize and that she'll stick them up down under and go

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pickpocket Perth. This Carmen San Diego wannabe

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was not as slippery as the fictional character. Local law enforcement

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quickly picked her up, possibly due to her garish attire, and were

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able to return the stolen merch to the Hodag store. That's

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some good work. Gum shoes, as they say in the Carmen San Diego show.

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Right? So that went viral a little bit last year when the image came out

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and it really was this red wide brimmed hat. He's really stuffing a bottle of

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vodka. I remember the first time I scrolled past it, I thought it was a

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joke. And then I realized it was an actual incident store the

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security camera. Would ben set that up a little promotion? I

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doubt it, because you don't want to encourage people to take stuff

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from the store. But it did let us know that hodag vodka exists. It does.

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And hodag beer and hodag root beer. Rhinelander, they've

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embraced the hodag. The high school mascot is of course, the hodag,

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which recently won best high school mascot in

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America. A scorebooklive.com voting

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poll, and it won in a landslide. So everybody loves the

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hodag. Municipal buildings, the water tower, even police cruisers are

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emblazoned with the beast. The rhinelander area chamber of commerce

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has even sponsored a self led hodag scavenger hunt

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featuring 27 hodag depictions, most of them statues.

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You can find the map online, or you can stop in at the chamber of

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commerce and grab a copy for yourself and go on your own hodag

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hunt fun. Rhinelander got its name from friedrich

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rhinelander of New York. He was a railroad baron who

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operated the milwaukee lakeshore and western

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railroads at the time. The naming rights were part of a bid by two early

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developers to get a spur of that railroad line to service the

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northwoodstown. And they named it ah, a little.

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Flattery there like town after you. Exactly. And it got the

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railroad there, so it accomplished its goal, and it was something that

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gene shepard actually advocated for. But a name like

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shepherdstown would have been a fitting name for the area due to his early

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involvement in Rhinelander's history. Now, regardless of the town name, shepherd's

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name can still be found on the streets and parks throughout the city and even

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shepherd lake, as I mentioned earlier. And the hodag store, it's

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actually on the corner of lincoln street and shepherd street fittingly. And the

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hodag BNB the airbnb that ben operates right behind the store is

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on shepherd street. Eugene simeon shepherd died in

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1923 at the age of 69. He was laid to rest in the

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city's cemetery, but his spirit lives on through the hodag.

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And if there's one place the hodag is real, it's

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rhinelander. Long live the hodag. Long live the

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hodag. I love it. And that concludes another episode of the

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Wisconsin legends podcast. I want to say a special

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shout out to carrie bladern for helping me do some research here. Ben at the

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hodag store can always regale me and a legend of the hodag. I've never

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shepard before. And I pulled a lot of the resource material

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for this episode from a book called long live the

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hodag the life and legacy of Eugene shepard by

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Kurt Kornhoff. Thanks for joining us once again for

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another episode. This is jeff finnap with Badgerland legends.

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Along with mike huberty from american ghostwalks. And you

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can find us online. You can find

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jeff@badgerlandlegends.com or insta at.

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Badgerland legends nice and easy. And you can find

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me@americanghostwalks.com or

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instagram. American ghostwalks.

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The Wisconsin Legends Podcast is presented by American

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ghostwalks, hosted by Mike Huberty and Jeff Finna, recorded

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at Sunspot Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, edited by Jeff

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Finna, audio engineer Mike Cuberty, music by

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Sunspot and various artists. Find out more about the show, including show

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notes@wisconsinlegendspodcast.com. Follow the guys

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at American ghostwalks and Badgerland Legends on Instagram and

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Facebook. We'll see you next time.

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