1893, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Eugene Simeon Shepard claims to have discovered the Hodag, while out hiking. It was a beast of vicious appearance and foul odour, and was promptly blown to smithereens by a hoarde of local townsmen. Three years later however, Shepard managed to capture another Hodag using stealth and chloroform, which he transported live to the Oneida County fair. Although eventually revealed as an elaborately conceived (and executed) hoax, the Hodag drew crowds from all over the country, thousands payed a relatively handsome fee to see the beast writhe and growl in a replication "den", and were not disappointed. Not only did it provide a rich talking point, but also a source of income for the town, which had been struggling desperately against the depletion of its lumber industry. As Shepard himself put it, "By no means is all the progress to be credited to the Hodag, but the Hodag did his bit! Not only hundreds but thousands of people came to view the Hodag...and not one of them went away without having learned a little more about northern Wisconsin, and it is safe to guess that each one of those thousands told others what they had seen and heard. In this way the beauties, opportunities, and resources of northern Wisconsin spread, and many who came out of curiosity only have come to make their home with us. Long Live the Hodag!"
Tuesday, 29 December 2009
A History of American Folklore: The Hodag
1893, Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Eugene Simeon Shepard claims to have discovered the Hodag, while out hiking. It was a beast of vicious appearance and foul odour, and was promptly blown to smithereens by a hoarde of local townsmen. Three years later however, Shepard managed to capture another Hodag using stealth and chloroform, which he transported live to the Oneida County fair. Although eventually revealed as an elaborately conceived (and executed) hoax, the Hodag drew crowds from all over the country, thousands payed a relatively handsome fee to see the beast writhe and growl in a replication "den", and were not disappointed. Not only did it provide a rich talking point, but also a source of income for the town, which had been struggling desperately against the depletion of its lumber industry. As Shepard himself put it, "By no means is all the progress to be credited to the Hodag, but the Hodag did his bit! Not only hundreds but thousands of people came to view the Hodag...and not one of them went away without having learned a little more about northern Wisconsin, and it is safe to guess that each one of those thousands told others what they had seen and heard. In this way the beauties, opportunities, and resources of northern Wisconsin spread, and many who came out of curiosity only have come to make their home with us. Long Live the Hodag!"
Monday, 28 December 2009
Travelogue: America
Stowe, VT
Far from route 103,
where the road salt eats at the snow,
so a border of dead grass is revealed
along with the bodies of animals
ragged, half-rotten, almost indistinguishable
from the trash of travelling families…
and far too from the freshwater stream
wriggling its way through a field,
a white-frozen marsh, beneath the covered bridge,
where it appears briefly-
rushing silver beneath a skin of ice…
farther still from the church,
its steeple a rising stalagmite
-formed over time
by the constant, dripping will of God…
indeed, far from the guesthouses,
the gift shops and the grocery stores,
hidden in the shadows of slopes
stand the tombstones of old industry
-the butter tub and axe factories,
the gristmills, the wood-working shops,
long abandoned
by the imaginations of the local kids,
the ghosts of their father’s fathers…
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