The Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce welcomes you to the Northwoods of Wisconsin!

Directory

1-800-236-4FUN

Hodag Book
Excerpt

The Rhinelander area has a rich and unique history. From its logging start to its mysterious hodag, Rhinelander's history is both educational and entertaining for the entire family.

Rhinelander City History
The town was born in the boom days of logging. Settled in 1880, it was first called Pelican Rapids. It was granted a charter two years later and named after a man who probably never saw it--F.W. Rhinelander of New York. Rhinelander was president of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroad (now the Chicago and North Western), and grateful residents renamed their community in his honor after the railroad agreed to come there.
Rhinelander was made to order for the logging industry, lying in a belt of 700 million feet of pine and 300 million feet of hemlock and other timber. With the completion of the railroad, the city became a terminal and supply point for the dozens of logging camps to the north towards the Michigan border. By 1890 trains were moving over four lines of track owned by three great railroad companies.
Logging hit its peak in the lumberjack town during the 1890's. The demand for Wisconsin pine was seemingly insatiable--the forest vanished at the rate of millions of feet a year. By the time of World War I, the industry was virtually at an end. The last drive for a downstream mill on Pelican River occurred in April, 1923.

The Hodag-A Brief History

What is a Hodag? Just the fiercest, strangest, most frightening monster ever to set razor sharp claws on the earth, that's all. The Hodag made his first appearance near this northwoods Wisconsin city in 1896.

Gene Shepard, Rhinelander pioneer and timber cruiser, snapped its picture just before the beast sprang at him from a white pine log.

What a horrible sight the camera caught!

A hairy animal seven feet long and thirty inches tall glared ferociously from the photograph--copies of which still can be seen. Its backbone bristled with a dozen gleaming white horns, and wicked-looking tusks hung menacingly from its vise-like jaws. The claws on its short, muscular fore and hind legs were long and needle sharp.
A party of brave lumberjacks led by Shepard actually captured the monster in a cave by putting him to sleep with a chloroform-soaked sponge tied to the end of a 30 foot bamboo pole. You can still see the pit at Shepard's house in the pines where the beast was kept when it wasn't prowling the countryside at night devouring white bulldogs--a Hodag Delicacy.
Now all this may seem a bit far-fetched, and the truth of the matter is that Shepard himself was later forced to admit that the Hodag was something of a hoax. Its hairy body was made of wood and ox hides. Its armor of horns once belonged to various bulls. Those vicious claws were bent steel rods.
But to Rhinelander, the Hodag is much more than a hoax. It has become a local legend. It is the symbol of the city, "The Home of the Hodag." It has been stamped permanently in the city's personality. Rhinelander's biggest recreation area on Boom Lake is Hodag Park. Business places have adopted the name. School athletic teams call themselves the "Hodags."
For a more complete history of the Hodag, see the book excerpt from Long Live the Hodag! The Life and Legacy of Eugene Simeon Shepard: 1854-1923 by Kurt D Kortenhof