Hodag: Wisconsin’s Spine-Chilling Cryptid STALKS the Woods – Beast or MYTH

What has spikes down the entire length of its body, a fistful of needle-sharp pointed spears at the end of its tail, and fangs that would rival a saber-tooth tiger as it could easily rip out the belly of the biggest bear? If you ask a few Wisconsin residents about a terrifying creature that seems to be living amongst them but hiding in plain sight, they might share their own Hodag encounters with you. But it’s up to you to decide whether you can believe their tales. After all, the Hodag may be the scariest beast in all of Wisconsin. Or, it may be the biggest hoax they’ve drummed up yet.

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The Illusory Truth Effect

Have you ever heard someone repeat a piece of information you knew was a lie? You ask yourself, “How on earth could people believe this stuff?” I mean, come on! From the outside looking in, the truth seems obvious but to the person on the other end, these beliefs are as real as you or I. But hey, when we surround ourselves with an idea and read or hear it spoken over and over we often begin to believe it. Businesses, politicians, terrorists, and angry family members over holiday dinners have long used this tactic to alter people’s ways of thinking, influencing them to believe their version of the truth. 

One extreme of this I’m sure you have heard of before is brainwashing. By injecting radical ideas and constantly applying mental pressures, the brainwasher can influence their victims beliefs by confusing their thought processes and pushing on their emotional state. This is often done under some form of physical duress causing their mental walls to fall more quickly. On the other side of the emotional dark arts you have subliminal messaging. The idea of sneaking in subtle imagery and ideas into everyday life to nudge people toward a certain mindset or idea. 

And then you have more… accepted forms of mental moulding. Pick your favorite propaganda-I-mean-news station and watch it for a few days. Take a mental note of how many times you hear the exact same message being echoes from the ads to the comments and headlines. Before you know it, you might just find yourself picking up a new world view – one less your own than you probably realize. And don’t even get me started on short form video and the algorithm echo chambers we subject ourselves to daily. Let’s just say I’m a lot happier now that I limit my social media time and removed the apps from my phone. 

They truth is, we can all and most likely have all fallen to what’s known as the “Illusory truth effect”. We hear something repeated so much that we actually start to believe it, even if we know its not true. 

But what if an obvious lie was shared so much that a group of people started to believe in it and then somehow, maybe even through their beliefs, that lie started to come to life? Well, if the tales of the Hodag are to be believed, this hoax crawled right off the pages of folklore and out of the minds of believers into the swamps of Wisconsin where it has terrorized the townsfolk to this very day. 

The Hodag Crawls off the Tabloids

The Hodag. An angry brute of a cryptid that has stolen the hearts of thousands – well, metaphorically. Described by folklorist Charles E. Brown as a “ferocious beast with horns on its head, large bulging eyes, terrible horns, and claws. A line of large sharp spikes ran down the ridge of its back and long tail.” The monster is said to be a dark, blackish green color, claws and horns ivory white, and when it slept, it did so standing up and leaning against its favorite trees for it couldn’t lie down. It was said to eat “mud turtles, water snakes, and muskrats,” though “it did not disdain human flesh.”

From far as I can tell, the first mention of a Hodag, at least in Wisconsin, traces back to 1889 from a paper titled, the Pick and Gad. On page 7, a story titled, “The Hodag was Sick” details a story of a young farmhand who approached a well dressed business man as he waited on his train. The young boy asked, “Sir, isn’t your name French?” To which the businessman replied, “It is”. The boy asked if he was the same man who was running a novelty show in Buffalo last March, the one that cost 25 cents to enter. The man confirmed. 

The boy went on to tell the man he was there. He was drawn in by a big sign that claimed they had a live Hodag on exhibit but when he paid and entered, having never seen a Hodag in person, he realized he’d been subject to, and I quote, an “internal swindle”. There was no Hodag at all. “oh yes, I remember!” The businessman replied, “The Hodag was sick for a few days. That must have been when you came”.

Infuriated at being taken as a fool the farmhand threatened, “give me back my coin or I’ll cut it out of your hide” to which the businessman replied, well, did you at least open the door?” The boy looked confused, stating he only saw one door and it had an exit sign on it to which the man replied, “yes, that’s the one! The Hodag was resting behind that door and others told me it was the best they’d seen! It was as good as four Hodags rolled into one. I can’t help it if you didn’t bother to open the door.”

It seems the history of the Hodag goes a ways back. The way this story reads implies, at least to me, that the Hodag was an idea trickled through tales long before stories found their way into the local papers. Maybe that’s how Eugene S. Shepard picked up the idea; a fancy collection of stories passed down from lumberjack to lumberjack after a hard day’s work. But no matter if it were the verbal tales or the story recounted above that planted the idea in Shepard’s mind, one thing is for certain: he took the Hodag and ran with it full speed – right to the printing press.

Eugene S. Shepard: Surveyor of Stories

Born in Green Bay in 1854, Eugene S. Shepard was as local to Wisconsin as any good cheesehead could be. After spending his early twenties near new London, he found his way to Rhinelander in 1885, taking a job as a land surveyor for local lumber companies. As a timber cruiser – that is, someone who surveys the quality and quantity of a forest to asses its value – Shepard found himself in the good company of lumberjacks that had flocked to the area for work in its thriving lumber mills. 

But what made Shepard stand out wasn’t his exceptional surveying skills, not to say he was bad at his job. But what Shepard was really passionate about, what he was a true professional at, was elaborate pranks. 

Shepard was an avid storyteller. Many recount how at any given time he could be found doodling sketches on napkins, business cards, or local paper advertisements. When asked about what he was drawing he would often go into fantastical stories about well, really, whatever came to his mind – often making up tall tales right there on the spot. 

One of his most fantastic tales spun was that he was personal friends with Paul Bunyan, a fictional lumberjack with a folklore loving fanbase. One article goes into detail of the time he spent in Bunyan’s camp, even recounting fond memories of Mrs. Bunyan calling them all to dinner via a makeshift whistle formed from a hole carved by a woodpecker in a stump. 

Later, Shepard started a mail order perfume business. A new, wild fragrance sure to please the masses! But when the unsuspecting purchaser would receive their envelope and open it up, they would find nothing more than a chunk of moss sprinkled with a bit of fragrance.

Later, during about of financial hard times, Shepard grew tired of dealing with creditors pestering his porch so the next time one came nocking, he quickly rushed to the bathroom where he bit off a chunk of soap, chewed it up and then gargled with water causing his face to erupt with foam. He then stumbled to the door moaning and snarling and as soon as the creditors saw his state, they literally ran off in terror. 

But Shepard’s most famous tale of all was what brought you here today. A large, ox-like beast with Ivory tusks, horns down its, back, and frog like skin. A cryptid we know as the Hodag. 

Eugene S. Shepard Tells the Hodag Tale

Shepard stumbled out of the woods, clothes torn, heart pounding, and gasping for his next breath. Startled, the lumberjacks gathered around him to check and see what happened. Shepard settled down on a log, took a deep, calming breath in and out and recounted the terrifying tale. 

“Spikes all the way down its entire length of its body with a fistful of needle-sharp pointed spears at the end of his tail…fangs that would rival a saber tooth tiger, it could rip out the belly of the biggest bear,” – Eugene S Shepard told the men as he recounted his supposed encounter with the fiercest of critters, the black Hodag. Eugene claimed that as he walked through the forest the beast lumbered up onto a white pine log, looked across the forest at him, and then quickly began to propel its 300 pound body directly at him. Shepard ran with everything in him, catching branches and slogging through mud at top speed all the way back to camp.

After gathering his composure and a change of clothes, he gathered a group of brave men to go and hunt down the monster to bring it to justice! And the hunt was apparently a success because a few days later, in October of 1893, the papers ran a story depicting how the brave lumbermen found and fought the beast. The creature put up a gruesome fight but after a long while, they finally managed to kill the monster with a well tossed stick of dynamite. And right there in typical newspaper fashion was a photo of those lumberjacks holding rifles and pitchforks up at a still, lifeless monster reenacting the gruesome fight. But just because this Hodag had found its final fate didn’t mean that it was the only Hodag roaming the woods. And Eugene S. Shepard made it his mission to prove it. 

Eugene S. Shepard Catches a Black Hodag

He slowly stalked the hillside, watching as the monster groggily crept off into a dark cave. The horned beast let out a bellowing yawn as it drifted into the shadowy crevice in the earth. After months of searching, Shepard knew this was his time to act. He carefully tottered up over the top of the mouth of the cave, placed his explosive, lit the fuse, and ran.

The commotion caused the beast to stir but it was too slow; the explosion caused a cascade of rocks to tumble down, trapping the Hodag in its den. There wasn’t time to waste. Shepard ran down to the rubble, found a crack just wide enough to fit a hand through, and got to work. He grabbed the 10 foot bamboo pole he’d brought with him and carefully unwrapped the sponge dipped in chloroform. Then, he rammed the pole through the hole and placed it against the monsters nose where it soon flopped over fast asleep. Shepard and his team removed the rubble and placed the Black Hodag into a cage where they transported it back to his barn for him to study. 

Eugene watched the Hodag for months, learning how it behaved. Confident with what he’d learned, he began to share Hodag facts with the public via the local paper, specifically on ads for the Centralia Lumber Company. “A free Hodag description with every estimate!” One headline reads. 

But Shepard had bigger dreams for his Hodag. It wasn’t enough to just tell people about it. No, he wanted people to experience it that same way he did. And the best way to do that you might ask? Well, sell tickets of course! 

The line outside his barn would wrap across his property. People were desperate to shovel over 10 cents to finally see the mysterious Hodag for themselves. And a show they got! Onlookers walked away amazed. They would share stories of how upon entering the barn they would hear growls, snarls, and hisses. Then, as their eyes adjusted to the darkness, they would make out a feint, spiny silhouette. The best would thrash and Shepard would rush to get the people out before they got hurt! He would then go back in to calm the beast. Many attendees witnessed him stumble out of the barn, clothes torn and ragged from the ferocious encounter. Word spread quickly and with the fall fair season swiftly approaching, Shepard knew it was time to take this show to a bigger audience. 

Shepard circuited numerous county fairs across Wisconsin. Any given weekend he would have around 5,000 people paying a dime to view the beastly Black Hodag. If you do the math, that means he was raking in around $500 or around $16,000 a weekend adjusted for inflation. And hey, if I could make 16K a weekend showing off a Hodag, well, lets just say my life would be one big Hodag Hoedown. But all this attention came with a price. 

The Hodag frenzy caught wind and word of the monster drifted across state lines. Before Shepard knew it, he’d received letters from both PT. Barnum, the famous showman from New York, as well as the Smithsonian institute desperate to get their hands on a Hodag. Couple this with the fact that his children were quickly growing fed up with spending their evenings making monster sounds behind a curtain and pulling ropes tied to a dimly lit wooden carving of some creature and the gig was up. 

Shepard was forced to admit that the Hodag was nothing more than a cash grab i’m sure based off a short story published in the paper just a few years prior to that first supposed encounter. Now sure, Shepard at first claimed the Hodag tossed him to the ground, broke free of its shackles, and B-lined it back to the swampy woods out back but after a bit of town panic, he had to come fully clean. 

The Hodag horror streak was over. Shepard took his money, retired from the lumber industry, and purchased a resort on the edge of town where he could spend his evenings entertaining folks with tall tales over taller glasses. And the town of Rhinelander watched the Hodag slip off into history never to be heard from again. Well, except they didn’t let that happen at all. 

To Rhinelander, Wisconsin, the Hodag lives on. 

Lumberjacks have been spinning up stories of mysterious monsters for as long as there have been trees, axes, and well, flannel. Ever heard of the Fearsome Critters? It’s a whole book on mysterious creatures that supposedly call North America, specifically the great lakes regions home. These creatures are an integral part of American folklore and man are they fun to learn about! We’ve even covered a few of them here over time, our buddy the Hugh now included! PS. If you’re looking for a fun video just on these lumber woods beasts, check out Wendigoon’s video titled, “The Fearsome Critters of American Mythology. You can find the link below! 

Now, Sometimes these hoaxes slip off into obscurity, like the Abbagoochie I covered not long ago. Sometimes a good hoax becomes a bit more mainstream like the Snallygaster…Which just so happens to be another episode I just covered. 

But holy Hodag, Rhinelander just wouldn’t let this one go! If you visit their website, explorerhinelander.com you will see that their logo is a Hodag print. Their slogan is “live the legend.” They call themselves Hodag county! They have a whole section that gives in depth information on the beast. They have over two dozen Hodag statues, the largest of which lives at their visitor center and is the size of a small bus!. They have radio stations and school mascots and drinks and restaurants and tours and clubs and a country music festival that draws a crowd over over 25,000 people a day with past headliners including Garth Brooks, Glen Campbell, Brooks and Dunn, Merle Haggard, Roy Clark, and Charlie Daniels to name just a handful! 

So I guess that little prank pulled by Eugene Shepard has paid off for the town of Rhinelander. But here’s the thing: if anything, the Hodag encounters of yesteryear, just like the Hodag itself, havn’t faded into the history books. No, people still tell stories of Hodag encounters but this time, at least to them, they aren’t tales to turn a buck. No, these encounters are real.

Actual Hodag Encounters

“It was a nice, sunny day, close to dusk”, she recounted. Desiree French, a local girl from Rhinelander had grown up tracking around the woods just outside of town. It was always nice to get out into the woods, climb a tree, and just listen. – And side note for those of you who didn’t grow up in the woods, yea, kids do this. Most of my childhood was spent around and often up in trees just enjoying nature. – She did this regularly but this late afternoon something was different. “He was black, very black. He had lots of spikes going down his back; two on his head and at least 15 going down to his back” French recounted.

She goes on to show the camera that the claws were about 10 inches long on each paw. And yea, you hear me right. I said camera. See, this encounter wasn’t back in the 1800’s or even 1900’s (for those of us old enough to remember that decade) – This witness statement came from a fantastic documentary on YouTube by Real History in 2022. 

And this wasn’t the only witness to come forward. Jerry Slidell, local tour guide, found his Hodag fascination with his supposed Hodag encounter. “I was out in an area that was fairly swampy”, Jerry shares. “And as I’m walking through the woods, all of the sudden I am stopped short in my tracks because a smell assaulted my nose. So bad it would drive a skunk off a guff pile. I moved forward carefully and I could see this apparition walking down the path. It’s nose was flaring red and all of the sudden it sprung up on a log right in front of me and that’s when I saw the claws.” Jerry said he very carefully backed away until he could turn and hightail it out of there. 

Then there’s local artist, Rod Umlouf’s encounters. Rod recounts how he and his family would often come up to northern Wisconsin when he was a kid to go camping. Rod shares how one night they noticed a shape coming closer to their camp eyes reflecting the red glow of the camp fire. It had a horrid stench and seemed to be covered in horns. At first, Rod actually chalked it up to his uncle playing a prank but after seeing the fear and how the monster had also caught him off guard, Rod knew this was no prank. His uncle promptly picked up a rock and tossed it at the creature causing it to scurry away. 

Rod goes on to share how just 10 years ago he was out snow shoeing when he crossed a hill only to see a family of Hodags in the valley below. These encounters, coupled with local lore have gone on to be a major influence in his paintings – which by the way, are very good! Look him up!

Okay, so maybe a guy who offers local tours, a girl who goes to a school where the Hodag is their mascot, and an artist who paints Hodags aren’t the best sources for Hodag sightings. I mean, the whole town basically took Eugene Shepard’s lead and has absolutely ran with this thing. And sure, there are local stories of the native American Ojibwe people’s beliefs in the Mishipeshu or Water Panther that some claim the Hodag might be but honestly, the overlap is more one of convenience than that of any tangible evidence. Because let’s be honest, the Hodag might as well be called a hoaxdag (that was a lame joke) . 

There’s just not much here. 

Hodag: Fact, Folklore, or Fraud?

So, on a scale of Fact, Folklore, and Fraud, where do I believe to Hodag falls? 

Lets start with the easy one. For Fact I’m giving this one a big ole 0%. There’s just nothing about this thing I find to be real at all. I can’t even conjure up what people THINK they were seeing in the woods. 

For Folklore, I’ll give this one 25%. While we can easily trace the modern love for the Hodag back to Shepards articles and fair tours, the fact remains that the Hodag is the serious face and representation of modern American folklore. It’s easily in the top 3 Fearsome Critters and hey, it looks cool too! And of course there is the slim but true fact that Shepard didn’t invent the word, Hodag. Tales trickled around before he brought it into the limelight. 

Which leaves Fraud with a grand margin of 75%. As far as cryptids go, this is one of the most transparent hoaxes we’ve ever had, historically that is. Many speculate the authenticity of the Patterson-Gimlin film but the truth is we will probably never know if they faked it or not. But the Hodag? The man who published the tale quite literally admitted it!

But no matter the Cryptid legend, I still love the insight we gain into people’s fascinations framed with the magic of a little bit of folklore. 

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