The Talegate Podcast

S1E7 - The Hodag of Rhinelander (Ft. Jacob the Carpetbagger)

December 01, 2020 Harrison the Florida Man & Aaron the Cheesehead Season 1 Episode 12
The Talegate Podcast
S1E7 - The Hodag of Rhinelander (Ft. Jacob the Carpetbagger)
Show Notes Transcript

Feeling homesick as we travel west through the Deep South, Cheesehead finds a little Northern comfort by interviewing Wisconsin’s own Hodag of Rhinelander! Risen from the ashes of abused oxen, this spirit of vengeance wreaked havoc on the early lumbermen of the American North, including none other than Paul Bunyan himself!

The Hodag is quirky and beloved cryptid to many. While most famous in Rhinelander, WI, the Hodag has had many high-profile cameos in media throughout the centuries. The Hodag was featured first as a shovel-nosed and hooved creature bulldozing trees across the northern states in search for it's primary food source, the porcupine, in the text,
Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts, William T. Cox. From there, the name "Hodag" was reassigned to address a woolly green beast with a spiny back and tail, saber teeth, and large oxen horns said to be a spirit of vengeance manifested out of the ashes of abused beasts of burden.

Hodag got his first taste of the fame as an antagonist throughout some of the earliest Paul Bunyan stories. In the late 1800's, Eugene Shepard capitalized on the popularity of the Hodag by claiming to have killed the beast, with photo evidence, and even later exhibiting a what he claimed to be a living, breathing Hodag! Even the Smithsonian Institute was drawn in by such claims. Ever since, the Hodag has continued his success in pop culture by becoming the mascot of Rhinelander, WI, an canonized creature of JK Rowling's Wizarding World of
Harry Potter by it's mention within Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and even had his own episode of Scooby Doo!

Bringing the Hodag to life in this episode is our first featured guest, JACOB THE CARPETBAGGER! The Carpetbagger is a youtube channel following Jacob as he travels all 48 contiguous Unites States to showcase every oddity and unique attraction dotting American roadsides. We encourage you to join Jacob on his adventures by clicking the link: 

https://www.youtube.com/c/TheCarpetbagger

This episode was sponsored by CRYPTID CRATE! Get 15% off your first month's subscription  by entering promo code: "TALEGATE"

https://boxmountainllc.com/pages/cryptid-crate

Check out more on these topics by listening to The Talegate Podcast on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or any other fine podcast directories; and please rate, review, and subscribe. OR simply follow the link our user-friendly website at www.thetalegatepodcast.com! Also, be sure to follow us on Instagram @thetalegatepodcast and write us with your own stories at TheTalegatePodcast@gmail.com.

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THE TALEGATE PODCAST

Episode : The Hodag


Part 1: Introductions


FLORIDA MAN: Howdy folks, and welcome to The Talegate!


CHEESEHEAD: For those of you just joining us, we’re on a roadtrip across America to uncover the mysteries behind tall tales, fairy tales, folktales, fishtales, & urban legends, one interview at a time.


FM: We inherited a truck from our late Granny May and discovered that the crystal hanging off the rearview mirror was more than decorative. It’s a Dowsing Pendulum leading us to the good folks behind the tales we all grew up with. With that, I’m Harrison, the Florida Man. 


CH: And I’m Aaron the Cheesehead. And today we are parked behind a foodtruck for some reason. Florida Man, what gives?


FM: Cheesehead, our journey began in Florida, my home. And we’ve since been cruising our way across the South. 


CH: Yah, it’s been neat seeing all the places you grew up around. 


FM: Yea, It’s been a real comfort being surrounded by so much familiarity, but that got me thinkin’. You ain’t had no such comforts.


CH: This is true. 


FM:  So, before we get down to business, I’ll tell you what we’re drinkin’ today, Cheesehead.


CH: What’s that?


FM: Miller High Life, baby!


CH: Miller High Life, the official sponsor of Green Bay!


FM: And the fun don’t stop there! See that food truck, buddy?


CH: Sure do.


FM: Read the sign.


CH: Olsen Farm’s Fried Cheese Curds ‘n Such! This is amazing!


FM: And the fun. Don’t. Stop. There. 


CH: Okay, well now you’re just being creepy.


FM: You think I’m creepy, wait til I Introduce you to our special guest! Traveling all the way from America’s Dairyland, the Hodag!


HODAG: And a heck of a trip it was, believe you me!


CH: Holy Farve! Hodag, is it...is it really you?


HODAG: Straight out of Rhinelander! How’s by you?


CH: Was fair to middlin’...


FM: Feelin’ better now?


CH: Oh, you betcha! Hodag, how’d you even get here? I can’t imagine you on a plane. And Florida Man, where on Earth did you find a Cheesecurd food truck in the deep South?


HODAG: Oh, that’s my foodtruck. Took it all the way down Big River Road.


CH: But it says Olsen’s Farm.


HODAG: Of course it does. It’s named after me, Hodag Olsen. I own a dairy farm, doncha Know?


FM: ‘Fore be get along any further, hows ‘bout we describe Mr. Olsen here for the folks at home.


CH: Right! Well the first word that comes to mind is “terrifying.” The Hodag is a green, wolly beast with the body of spiny back of a dinosaur with a spear-ended tail, the horned head of a bull, and the elongated teeth and lethal paws of a sabertoothed cat.


FM: Oh, and his eyes glow red.


CH: Oh yah, can’t forget the glowing red eyes. Throughout our journey so far, we’ve discovered a whole new truth behind the idiom, “never judge a book by its cover.” 


FM: I’m tellin’ ya. So, let’s get to know the kind fella behind such a horrific visage.


HODAG: Wow, you uh, really sang my praises there. Beastly, terrifying, horrific…


CH: Ah shoot, we’re sorry, Hodag. 


HODAG: No no no, I certainly am all those things, and it used to match my voracious attitude, but I’ve grown a lot since making my first appearance to the earliest lumberers up nort’.


Part 2: History of the Hodag


CH: While we’re on that topic, hows about you tell us a little bit about your origins?


FM: Yea, I mean, you’re one of the most unique critters I ever seen. What’s that all about?


HODAG: Well this may come as a shock to you boy, colonial settlers were not exactly kind to most tribes they met. Or the slaves they hauled over. Or the creatures who lived off this land. 


FM: Can’t argue that.


HODAG: I am was born a spirit of vengeance, risen from the ashes of cremated oxen; a physical manifestation of all of the hardship and abuse the poor beasts of burden endured by the ungrateful hands of their drivers. 


FM: Yikes.


CH: So one might say you were the first Avenger?


HODAG: I haven’t really seen those movies, but I respect the joke. And sure, you can say I was of the earlier Avengers, at least towards entitled settlers.


CH: Wowzers. So you were first discovered in Rhinelander, is that correct?


HODAG: I think it would be more accurate to say that I was first manifested in Rhinelander. The thing is, there already was a “Hodag” before I arrived.


CH: Whoa, there are two hodags?


FM: Actually, yea, I think I know what you’re talkin’ about. Hold up… [routing through belongings sound effects] I got this book here, see? A reprint from a 1910 publication called, Fearsome Tales of the Lumberwoods by William T. Cox and Coert Dubois. 


CH: The Lumberwoods?


FM: Yep yep, basically a collection of creatures based on the accounts of America’s early lumbermen.


HODAG: Rhinelander was a 19th century lumbertown, so it doesn’t surprise me that a book written by lumbermen would have mentioned me. You did say I made the cut, right?


FM: Yes and no. The Hodag is featured “Creature of the Lumberwoods,” but I think it’s the earlier incarnation you just mentioned and a possible clue as to the origins of the name, “Hodag.”  


CH: What’s this book version of the Hodag like? Still got fangs and spines and all those hideous, ghoulish features?


HODAG: Dude, I’m standing right here.


CH: Ah shoot, sorry.


FM: To answer your question, here’s what the book reads on the subject of the Hodag: [read page 29.]


CH: Ah geez. While this version is certainly less fearsome, it is somehow even more awkward than the one with us.


HODAG: Again, standing right here. But yah, I remember the creatures matching this description, only I didn’t call them “Hodags” back in my day.


CH: What did you call them?


HODAG: “Dinner.” I mean, those guys were so slow and cumbersome that they were already on their last legs even before I showed up. I mean, they can only look upwards due to the specialised bone-wedge on their faces which exists exclusively to knock down trees in hopes of trapping porcupines. No wonder they’re extinct.


FM: Yea, they definitely got the short end of the evolutionary stick. However, this version of the Hodag seems to have got its name from the boned tool on its head which is essentially a Hoedad, a wedge-shaped tool used for tree-plantin’.


CH: Wow, this whole time, I just figured “Hodag” was an anagram for “Ah God.”


HODAG: “Ah God?”


CH: You know, as in, “Ah God, ah god, we’re all gonna die!”


FM: Actually, that don’t sound so farfetched.


HODAG: While the Hoedad maybe have been the inspiration for the rhino-like version of me, Hodag, at least according to Gene Shepard, is a combination of the words, “Horse” and “Dog” [1].


CH: Makes sense to me. According to one source, you’re also known as “Bovine Spiritualis.” Who actually calls you that? 


HODAG: That is literally what I am, but literally nobody calls me that.


FM: And you said you ate the former version of Hodags? Because another sources tell us that you eat exclusively white bulldogs and “those only on Sundays” [1]. Is this true?


HODAY: I own a cheese curd food truck and dairy farm, for cripes sake. Only eating white bulldogs on the Sabbath is even more specific than only porcupines, and we see how well that worked out for the original Hodag. White bulldogs are probably tasty though.


FM: Might want to consider payin’ Georgia a visit then.


CH: Hodag it is, then. So, Mr. Hodag Olsen, while you might not be Bigfoot or Nessy, you are certainly a household name up nort. What do you believe led to your enduring popularity?


HODAG: It owes a lot to Gene Shepard, proprietor of a once-popular resort & lumberman. It was Gene who not only claimed to have seen me, but provided photos of me back in 1893. Take a look: 


CH: Wowzers. I bet this caused quite a stir, er no?


HODAG: Oh yah! Due to an overall lack of excitement in the pioneer town of Rhinelander, the press and public ate it up!


FM: Mean, not to shit up on your legend or nothin’, but this picture here has a child laying beside you’re for scale and you look ‘bout the size of a pitbull. No offense, because pitbulls ain’t a thing to take lightley, but this is nothing compared to the real you I’m lookin’.


HODAG: No offence taken, this photo obviously a hoax. I mean, I’m just standing there looking into space, surrounded by twenty-or-more huntsmen taking aim.


CH: For those you listening, we’ll post this and other pictures mentioned on the episode on our Instagram @thetalegatepodcast, so make sure to follow us there, because this picture sure is a doozy.


HODAG: Sure is… do you know how long photography took back then? Did people honestly think a living Hodag would just settle in and strike a pose in front of a rifle and pitchfork-weidling mob for a photo op?


FM: So yer callin’ ol’ Gene Shepard a liar then?


HODAG: Oh yah, no. Wouldn’t be the first time he lied about the Hodag, or the last. He once claimed to have killed me with poisoned water and a stick of dynamite.


FM: Someone call Tony Shevany.


CH: Why?


FM: ‘cause he hosts AEW’s Wednesday Night Dynamite--you know, never mind. 


CH: Yah, I don’t know what any of that means. Going back to what you’re saying, what does “poisoned water” entail, exactly?


HODAG: Oh, just more lies from Shepherd. It wasn’t real poison, just lemon-water. We Hodag really hate lemons, doncha know?


CH: That I did not know.


HODAG: True story. Two lemons can deter an entire herd of Hodag.


CH: Interesting. What other lies did Gene Shepard spin?


HODAG: He later claimed that he caught me alive through a combination of bear-wrestling and chloroform before setting up shop at the Oneida County Fair where you could purchase sweet Hodag merch and tickets to see a living, breathing Hodag. 


FM: Kind of ya to cooperate and help out Gene Shepard like that.


HODAG: Oh common, obviously I wasn’t really there! But due to dim-lighting, growling sounds, and moving components of the beast in question, the townsfolk bought it.


CH: Hm. Maybe he did have a real Hodag then. There are more Hodags than just you, right?


HODAG: There have been a number of us, yes, but the charlatan had none of us on exhibition. In fact, his plan to make money off of this fabrication worked, but it worked too well.


CH: How can a plan work too well?


HODAG: News of his exhibition and biological discovery spread like the plague. People were literally throwing money at the guy from all over the United States. Everybody wanted a piece of the action… including zoologists from the Smithsonian Institute.


FM: Yikes. 


CH: Uuf da, I can’t imagine they were impressed with Gene’s little hoodwink. 


FM: Nor the folks who made it rain, believing Gene’s Hodag was real.


HODAG: Yah, Gene confessed that his “hodag” was little more than articulated contraption of wire, wood, and ox-pelts. Rain had officially fallen on his parade, and his exhibit closed down for good.


CH: Poetic justice, if you ask me. The Hodag is a vengeful manifestation of abused oxen and, in the end, it was the ox-skins that got the last laugh.


Part 3: Hodag in Pop Culture


FM: The Hodag is a pretty regional cryptid, but you Hodag Olsen, ain’t no stranger to pop culture, that right?


HODAG: I’m not sure it’s fair to give me, personally, any credit for the use of my likeness, but I yes, the Hodag has made appearances throughout many mediums: tall tales, television shows, comic books…you name it.


CH: Oh yah, I remember being told of the mighty Hodag playing the foil to Paul Bunyan in Tall Tales and novels like the 1932 The Saginaw Paul Bunyan by James Stevens. In that story, you fought a giant sauger fish to the death.


FM: Who won?


CH: Eh, they both died in that story. Also, not a whole lot of Paul Bunyan in that Paul Bunyan tale.


HODAG: I think the appearance I’m most proud of is cameo in the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode, “The Hodag of Horror.” 


FM: Damn, you were in Scooby-Doo?


HODAG: Oh, you betcha! What I love about this episode is that actually features Gene Shepard as Curios wagoner trying to pass a super fake Hodag as real, much the same as he did in real life. But then the Hodag comes to life!


FM: Like Yikes, Scoob!


CH: Oh, I remember that episode! The true villain ends up being the owner of the Cheese shop and his assistant. Of course it would be the owner of a cheese shop in a Wisconsin episode. Yah no, the Hodag actually got a very generous nod by renowned Author, JK Rowling.


FM: Ain’t so sure she’s renowned for the right reasons no more, but carry on.


CH: True. But the Hodag is actually mentioned in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!


HODAG: The fictional book within the Harry Potter series, the actual book based on the fictional book within the Harry Potter series, or the screenplay of the film based on the fictional book within the Harry Potter series?


CH: Oh ah, the second one. They published a trio of books that are supposed to be the same mentioned in the Harry Potter series. The set included, Tales of Beedle the Bard, Quidditch Through the Ages, and Fantastic Beasts & Where to Find Them.


FM: Hold up… [routing through belongings sound effects] Got my copy of Fantastic Beasts right here. [flipping through pages] Let’s see now… Basalisk...Erkling...Here we go, the H’. Uh, not sure where you got your info, Cheesehead, but I gotta call BS. Book skips from Hippogriff to Horklump. Ain’t no Hodag.


CH: Right right right, I forgot. You have a first edition, that’s why. It wasn’t until later editions of the book that JK Rowling added the Hodag.


HODAG: I’m honored to be apart of the Harry Potter universe, but I can’t help but wonder how a British author even heard of me. 


CH: I may go back to Scooby Doo.


FM: Ruh roh, Raggy!


CH: Jinkies! Let me explain. So The Rhinelander Chamber of Commerce Director, Maggie Steffen, suspects that, since Scooby-Doo and Harry Potter are both Warner Brothers properties, perhaps it was through this connection that JK Rowling heard of your species and felt inspired to add it in later editions of her book. [5]


FM: My personal favorite appearance by the Hodag is in the #46 issue of the comic book, The Lumberjanes. I bought the first issue of the series back in 2014 and can’t recommend it enough.


HODAG: And they’re Lumberjanes, which makes perfect sense for a Hodag of the Lumberwoods!


Part 4: Hodag in Rhinelander


CH: So we’ve talked about your legend and influence on pop-culture, but hows about you tell us a little bit about your hometown of Rhinelander, WI?


HODAG: As I mentioned, it began as a pioneer logging community called Pelican Rapids. The town was renamed in honor of a New Yorker.


CH: Ew, why on Earth would they do a thing like that?


HODAG: Frederic W. Rhinelander was president of the Milwaukee, Lake Shore and Western Railroads and had connected the town to his railroad system in 1882. Pretty big deal for them. Today, it’s a quaint little spot. Has around 8,000 residents, give or take.


FM: What what I heard, Rhinelander, a town which once hunted and feared the mighty Hodag, has completely embraced the monster. Celebrates you, even.


CH: Tell me about it! I used to travel to Rhinelander for the Hodag Country Festival with my dad. Big names have played there at the Hodag! Reba McEntire, Toby Keith, Kellie Pickler, Garth Brooks, Tim McGraw…


FM: True story, I actually met Toby Keith while workin’ at Disney World back in the day. Met Kellie Pickler, too, at an Orlando Best Buy.


HODAG: Yah, well I met Dolly Parton.


FM: you serious?


HODAG: Well, I saw Dolly Parton. 


CH: Thats close enough.


HODAG: On top of the music festival, The Hodag is also the official mascot of Rhinelander, even has a giant fiberglass sculpture of me parked in front of the Chamber of Commerce.


FM: High praise!


HODAG: Don’tcha know it! I’m also the face of Rhinelander High School and the Rhinelander Ice Arena where my eyes flash red and my mouth spews mist!


FM: Now that’s cool as hell! My highschool mascot was a horse. 


CH: And my high school mascot was the norse. 


HODAG: I didn’t go to high school. Anyway, loved chatting with you boys and I hope the interview met your expectations. But the real reason I’m here is to give Cheesehead a taste of home. So enough chat, let’s go to my foodtruck and eat some cheesecurds!


CH: Holy Farve, yes!


FM: Welp, dinner bell’s rung so thank you all for joinin’ us here on the Talegate! For any questions, corrections, or stories of your own, shoot us an email at thetalegatepodcast@gmail.com and follow us on Instagram @TheTalegatePodcast for photos, cast info, updates and more!


CH: Be sure to tune in every two weeks for our next interview and listen to our Dashboard Chats, our mini episodes recorded in weeks in between. Til next time!


HODAG: Yawiseeyas! (Ya, we'll see yas)


FM:  See Ya Later, Talegaters!