The Hodag

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The Hodag

The Hodag is an mythical animal invented by Gene Shepherd of Rhineland and Star Lake. There is almost as much mythology involved with the story of the hodag hoax as with the story of the mythical animal. Green, harned, and snarling, the hodag would certainly have been a formidable creature had you met it in the woods. Invented by Shepherd, the "captured" specimen was housed in a cave either in Star Lake or in Rhinelander. Many people were fooled, even when the came to the cave to "see" or hear the hodag. One version has the Smithsonian Institution actually sending a scientist to Wisconsin to look into the phenomenon of the hodag.

The hodag survives today as the mascot for the Rhinelander High School athletics teams.

Charles P. Forbes
November 9, 2011
© 2011 Charles P. Forbes

Comprehensive References

Horrible Hodag, Northern Action Magazine, XIX:3, June 2004, p. 51., Tomahawk, 2004. View Full Record
Kearney, et al., Tale of the Hodag, Wis. Tales and Trails, Vol. 2, #2, Summer 1961, pp. 6-7., Madison, 1961. View Full Record
Kortenhof, Kurt, Long Live the Hodag! The Life and Legacy of Eugene Simeon Shepard: 1854-1923, Rhinelander, 1996. View Full Record
Vilas County Historical Museum, Eugene S. Shepard (A Local Legend), Notes and Nostalgia, The Vilas Historical Museum Newsletter, VIII, 3rd Issue, Fall, 2006., Sayner, 2006. View Full Record

Major References

Nicolet to Present 'Hodag Increments', Vilas County News-Review, Nov. 5,, 2003, P. 2B., Eagle River, 2003. View Full Record
Arnold, Caroline, Terrible Hodag and the Animal Catchers, Honesdale, PA, 2006. View Full Record
Arnold, Caroline, Terrible Hodag, New York, 1989. View Full Record
Brown, Charles Edward, Paul Bunyan Natural History, Madison, 1935. View Full Record
Kearney, Lake Shore [Luke Sylvester], Hodag, The, And Other Tales of the Logging Camps, Madison, 1928. View Full Record
Skubal, Michael, Hodag Increments, Play, 2003. View Full Record

The Hodag Increments

The Hodag Increments is a play by Michael Skubal of Rhinelander which purports to tell the story of the invention of the hodag. It premiered at the Green Bay Communty Theater in June of 2003, and was produced at Nicolet College in Rhinelander in Novlember of 2003.