Meet the Hodag!

Rhinelander (population 7,547 in July 2009) is the home of the Hodag, that mythical monster of incongruous aspect and terrible fangs, that haunts the days and nights of Rhinelander's fishermen (and women, I guess, too). The beast is a marketing device for the town, but there's actually a history behind it (more below).

At first I thought the town had been settled by early German immigrants (i.e. the lands of the river Rhine), but then I realised that it was named after Frederic W. Rhinelander of New York, who was president of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore & Western Road in the 1870's. This was part of a bid by the "town founders" (the Brown brothers) to induce the railroad to extend a spur to that location to further their lumbering business. Ultimately (after over ten years of negotiations) the railroad line from present-day Monico to Rhinelander was completed in 1882, jump starting the development of Rhinelander as the commercial hub of the region (which it remains today). The white pine trees that made it so famous and rich in the 19th century were all gone by the 1920's (yep, another example of human cupidity and stupidity at work), but since then the trees have been regrown (another example of people's intelligence at work) and are now again a source of beauty and income (tourists).

The history behind the Hodag (as presented to us by Rhinelander's Visitors' Center):

In 1986, Rhinelander pionner and timber cruiser Gene Shepard claimed to have snapped a picture of a ferocious Hodag just before the beast sprang on him from a white pine log. The camera caught the most horrible sight: a hairy animal with white horns and menacing tusks. Shepard later admitted that the Hodag was a hoax but it stayed since then in the locals' imagination and is now the town's mascot. When something strange happens in Rhinelander people say, "It was the Hodag!".

(L)