It’s perhaps Wisconsin’s strangest symbol of civic pride: a hideous green beast that prowls the forests around Rhinelander on four clawed feet, fangs bared and a row of spikes lining its back. A Loch Nessian monster of the land known as the Hodag.
The legend of this creature dates to 1893, when lumber surveyor Eugene Shepard, in an era long before internet fakery, produced a photograph of what he claimed was a monster he had encountered in the woods. But the only thing incredible was that he was believed at all, as Shepard already had a reputation for being the town prankster.
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Shepard had made his beast out of carved wood and the hide and horns of an ox. His hoax was soon revealed, but the Hodag lived on as Rhinelander’s town mascot.
And a mascot with mileage. Rhinelander High School’s teams use the monster as their namesake. The town’s country station, WHDG, is named The Hodag, and no photo album is complete without a selfie in front of the giant fiberglass Hodag sculpture outside the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce.
The city also hosts a Hodag Heritage Festival in May, coinciding with Hodag Heritage Week in which local businesses offer specials like dark chocolate Hodag Paws and Hodag crème de menthe lattes.
Rhinelander’s Ben Brunell understands the selling power of the Hodag better than anyone. His father owned a towing and auto repair business and in 2012, Brunell took over the shop at 538 Lincoln St., turning it into a resale store called B&B Resale Antiques and Collectibles.
Over the years that followed, he found that customers were always asking the same question – where could they pick up some Hodag souvenirs? Brunell added a shelf, and as demand increased, he added more. Then in 2018, he went all in, giving the exterior of the shop a Hodag-green coat of paint and rebranding as The Hodag Store.
The shop’s shelves are stocked with a range of Hodag-themed merchandise – shirts, toys, books, games, even a Hodag vodka. To promote the store (and the beast in general), Brunell has two mascot-like Hodag costumes that he and a friend wear in parades and other public appearances. Even uncostumed, Brunell is identifiable around town because he usually has part of his hair dyed green.
The store’s clientele includes locals who bring visitors there for souvenirs, as well as monster-lovers from around the country who make the pilgrimage, he says. And if you need a place to stay, Brunell rents out a green, monster-themed “House of Hodags” Airbnb.
Part of the cryptid creature’s appeal is its role in Wisconsin’s “history and heritage,” says Brunell, but also that it draws on our capacity for creative thinking: “Human beings love to use their imagination to embrace something that rides the line of reality and fiction. It’s something unique and special, but most of all it’s just a lot of fun.”
