Joe Steinbring 
More charging infrastructure in northern Wisconsin is always a good thing.
Airports BotRhinelander Oneida County Airport - Rhinelander, United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinelander-Oneida_County_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/45.631199/-89.467499
#KRHI #RHI #Rhinelander #UnitedStates #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS
Rhinelander Oneida County Airport - Rhinelander, United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinelander-Oneida_County_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/45.631199/-89.467499
#KRHI #RHI #Rhinelander #UnitedStates #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS
PanethosTiptoeing thru the land of Hodags, oh my!
We were extra careful while passing through the great Northwoods of Wisconsin. Every move we made and every step we took was with extra caution. We wanted to be sure to maintain a respectful low profile.
Why, you may ask? Well…this scenic region is the homeland of Hodags and you do not want to mess with them.
A HodagThe West Coast may have Bigfoot, Scotland the Loch Ness Monster, and Northern Michigan the Dogman, but none can match the legend of the Hodag!
Rhinelander, Wisconsin is the epicenter of Hodag country…even naming their high school team mascot after Hodags to garner more respect by the creatures, as well as fear from their school’s opponents. Likewise, the Hodag is the official mascot of the city. Good and prudent move, Rhinelander!
As can be seen in these accompanying photos, Hodags are creatures not to be taken lightly. As a wary and prudent precaution, the good citizens of Northern Wisconsin always pay respectful homage to the Hodags in order to maintain the peace and tranquility of the region.
So, as visitors to the area, the last thing we wanted to do is upset this delicate equilibrium and bother the local Hodag population. Who knows what kind of calamities might occur!!!
Next time you are in the Northwoods of Wisconsin, be sure to always show proper and due respect to the Hodags. Otherwise, you may become their latest guest for supper…as the main course.
Peace and beware!
#creatures #culture #Folklore #fun #history #Hodag #Hodags #Monsters #mythology #Northwoods #Rhinelander #tourism #travel #Wisconsin
Global Weather & EAS SocietySPOTTED IN ILLINOIS:
We found some of our GWES Staff team heading up to #SirenCon2025 in Rhinelander, Wisconsin on an EarthCam in Rochelle.
Learn more about SirenCon and the official livestream by going to https://gwes.link/sirencon25
Rhinelander Oneida County Airport - Rhinelander, United States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinelander-Oneida_County_Airport
https://www.openstreetmap.org/#map=13/45.631199/-89.467499
#KRHI #RHI #Rhinelander #UnitedStates #airport #aviation #avgeeks #GIS
Modern CryptozoologyThe premise of Pop Goes the Cryptid is that the view of doubtful animals (cryptids) has shifted from being a potentially scientific effort of zoological discovery called “cryptozoology” to that of being a media-driven, cultural and commercialized pop culture phenomenon. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t still efforts to find hidden mystery creatures but, more often, the cryptid has a more “folk” importance. An excellent example of a pop cryptid, and one that is currently exploding in popularity, is the Hodag, the mascot of Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
Modernly depicted as a stocky, aggressive, green-black, feline-frog-dinosaur mash-up with red eyes, huge claws, a spiny-ridged back, and fearsome saber-teeth, the Hodag’s origin is obscure. Existing historically, and orally, as a tale of lumberjack folklore in the northwoods, the Hodag legend was reimagined, and solidified, by storyteller and jokester Gene Shepard in the closing decade of the 1800s. Shepard brought various pieces together from tall tales and Ojibwa legends, and, using wood, ox hide, and some accomplices, created a wondrous piece of fakelore.
The ancestor of the Hodag is considered to be Mishipeshu, the spirit creature of the native tribes of the Great Lakes area and northwoods. This “great lynx” was depicted as powerful, and dangerous, with a spiky back and tail, and it lived in the deepest parts of lakes and rivers. Mishipeshu is commonly referred to as the water panther. Some historians believe that the mishipeshu figure had a part to play in the Hodag heritage that Shepard (who spoke Ojibwa) used to bring the modern Hodag legend to life.
Mishipeshu pictograph on Agawa Rock at Lake Superior Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada.In William Cox’s Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods (1910) (see the 100th Anniversary hypertext edition), the Hodag’s appearance is ridiculous, giving us ample foundation to conclude this creature was a made-up story from the Wisconsin and Minnesota lumber camps. Cox notes that it was reportedly rhinoceros-like, hairless and intelligent, and that its body color may be plaid, like the lumberjack coat. Its nose has a spade-shaped horn that grows in an outward direction, blocking the creature’s line of vision so that it can only look up. It searches for porcupines in the trees. When it finds one, it digs around the host tree (with its shovel-nose) so that it falls over, dislodging the porcupine, which is then eaten by the Hodag. For the winter, the Hodag covers itself in pine pitch, rolls in the leaves, and stays warm.
Depiction of Hodag by Cox’s illustrator Coert DuBoisOther legends also indicate the Hodag was some 7 feet long and the reincarnated spirit of the study oxen that dragged logs from the forest (and thus “scientifically named Bovine spiritualis). Early tales never indicated it was a genuine zoological animal. However, it’s not inconceivable that its aggressive nature might have been influenced by the wolverine – which was killed off in those parts by around the 1870s.
From Philadelphia Inquirer, 1897While the tale was known prior to 1893, Eugene Shepard, from Rhinelander, crafted the mythical Hodag into a creature for his own greater purposes. He claimed to have found one in 1893 in the swamplands. He wrote for the local newspaper detailing his account and it was a hit.
In 1895, he created a model out of wood and real animal parts, staging a photo with local men playing along to depict its capture. This is the Hodag we know and love.
In 1896, he staged a side-show “display” of the creature for the Oneida fair and then traveled with it. There was no real animal in the display, but that was not the point – it was the great story that people wanted to see and hear. Check out these pieces to learn about Shepard’s creation and how he was like the P.T. Barnum of Rhinelander.
The Hodag: How Fakelore Became Real | Flyover Culture
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6zprRsGgLEo
Hodag: The Fearsome Creature Roaming American Wilderness – Real History channel
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpkMlzJxgfs
The Hodag now had a specific form and was known to be very dangerous and stinky, but it wasn’t only the creature that smelled funny. The newspapers spreading Shepard’s story sometimes led readers outside the Northwoods to believe that outrageous animal tales like this were true. Some people may have thought the Hodag was real. Shepard continued the ruse by leaving his motives unclear. He suggested that he had really found a Hodag but let it go and said it was a hoax in order to protect it.
What a great logo for the local high school team!But for Rhinelander, Wisconsin residents, it was no hoax. It is an important part of their heritage. They adopted the Hodag as the town mascot in 1918. Even though there was a dispute in the town about how much to embrace the “fakelore” Hodag, ultimately, the creature won the hearts of the town. As sometimes happens, the “fakelore” was widely accepted and morphed into real folklore. As UW-Madison folklore professor Lowell Brower noted (in the Flyover Culture video above), the Hodag created by Shepard was “folkloresque” – based on folklore and drew its power from that. Rhinelander “lovingly appropriated and commercialized” the legend. It appears everywhere in the town and draws visitors that would otherwise never look twice at the small town in Northern Wisconsin.
Today’s Hodag is based on Shepard’s tale, not the lumberjack tale memorialized in Cox’s 1910 volume. In some depictions, the Hodag now resembles the original Chupacabra (spiky back, red eyes, sharp teeth and claws, and a lizard tongue). The ambiguity of the hodag invites participation, and people are happy to act out the legend (called “ostention) by pretending it’s real and even hunting for the creature. The fact that the Hodag was a known hoax did not stop people from wanting to see it.
The latest claims to fame for the Hodag is its appearance in a 2012 Scooby-Doo episode, where “Gene Shepard” appears as a showman with a traveling cabinet of curiosities.
The Hodag also has an entry in the Harry Potter universe book Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them where their horns were said to have magical properties to keep people awake for days and be unaffected by alcohol.
You can find lots of Hodags in the Hodag store in Rhinelander, where the owner Ben Brunell says the symbol brings the community together. He opened the store because people wanted Hodag souvenirs. A traveling Hodag exhibit appeared at the 2024 Mothman festival and at many other places across the US. And you can stay at the Hodag AirBnB which is also crawling with the creatures. So while the legend of the Hodag is flourishing, a real flesh and blood creature will, by its non-nature, be impossible to find.
Bibliography and More:
- The Rhinelander Visitors Page – https://explorerhinelander.com/
- The Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce – About the Hodag https://www.rhinelanderchamber.com/about-the-hodag/
- Wisconsin Historical Society – The Hodag: Learn the history of the Hodag, Rhinelander’s mystical menace https://wisconsinhistory.org/Records/Article/CS16353
- Pioneer Park Historical Complex https://rhinelanderpphc.com/hodags/
https://moderncryptozoology.wordpress.com/2024/10/10/hodag-wisconsins-homegrown-and-beloved-monster/
#cryptid #Cryptozoology #GeneShepard #Hodag #lumberjackTales #mascot #Mishipeshu #monster #Ojibwe #PopCryptid #Rhinelander #tallTales #Wisconsin
SamKalenskyThe Hodag. - [Fearsome Critter] - Vicariously described among lumbermen & most famously attributed to Rhinelander Wisconsin. - "Hodags" are usually noted for their ugliness, ferocity & stench. Whenever an Ox is cremated in the woods, a hodag is born... 🍋 Full post: https://samkalensky.com/products/hodag
#cryptids #folklore #rhinelander #hodag #rosevelt #mythology #MastoArt
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