The Wisconsin Hodag

Just over a century ago, a tale started to spread around Wisconsin logging camps. There was a creature living in the northwoods. A beast with the head of a frog, grinning face of an elephant, back of a dinosaur, and a long tail tipped with spikes. This horned, fanged monster also had eyes that glowed green in the thick timber. At 7 feet long, it was estimated to weigh approximately 200 pounds. Any logger who got close enough to catch a sniff of a hodag would be hit with a combination of buzzard meat and skunk perfume. 

Attempts to hunt and capture the beast began. Rhinelander’s Gene Shepard led a group of local lumberjacks on an expedition that resulted in a hodag death at the hand of dynamite and a live capture a few years later. Wisconsinites came from all over the state to enter a darkened tent and meet the hodag’s glowing eyes, face-to-face. 

The fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster ever to set razor-sharp claws on Wisconsin continues to roam the northwoods. Hodag dens are widely believed to be located in the Rhinelander area. If you stumble across one, proceed with extreme caution. It’s always best to carry some extra dynamite. Just in case.