Skunk, where I grew up it was the"Catewampus" I never could get a picture of him though. Regards
Yep. Catewampus or Wampas Cat.
Thanks for mentioning that Pastorp and Jim. I've heard other folks say the same thing and often wondered if the Hodag and the Catewampus were indeed one in the same. I was hoping they were a direct match, but darn it, after doing a little searching for the Catewampus and the Wampus Cat, I found that are actually quite different from the Hodag.
The following text in blue pretty much reviews and repeats most of what I could find on the Catewampus/Wampas Cat:
http://www.hauntmastersclub.com/information_other.html
Wampas Cat: The Wampas Cat is a bright-eyed, unusually large cat that walks on its hind legs and has been reported all over northeast Tennessee and southwest Virginia.
The book Demon in the Woods: Tall Tales and True from East Tennessee (1992) by Charles Edwin Price recounts the legend of the Native North American Cherokee Indian monster, the Wampas Cat (sometimes spelled wampus). Price believes the Cherokee once called the creature Ewah, meaning, “ugly demon.” It apparently had the ability to drive people insane. When her husband became a victim, Running Deer put on a mountain lion’s skin and went into the woods where her appearance scared the dreaded creature away. It is believed that she still roams the woods fending the monster away.
In another story told in Spooky South: Tales of Hauntings, Strange Happenings, and Other Local Lore (2004) by S. E. Schlosser and Paul G. Hoffma, this cat-like creature was said to have been the result of Cherokee “medicine.” A woman who did not trust her husband followed him to a council meeting in the disguise of a mountain lion. When she was discovered, the two authors say, the council transfigured her into the Wampas Cat.
On a forum on the Internet site WordWizard, one user, Leif, explains that this creatures name could have originated from the Native North American Cherokee Indian word, catawampus, another name for the catamount, or mountain lion. On the other hand, the Hodag originated much differently and its description consists of many beasts, however the cat is never mentioned. Following are a few excerpts from an article written by Kurt D. Kortenhof, entitled,
The Living Legend of Rhinelander’s Hodag:
http://www.rhinelanderchamber.com/history2.htm
The Hodag first made its appearance in the autumn of 1893 near the lumbering frontier community of Rhinelander, Wisconsin. Eugene Simeon Shepard (1854-1923), timber cruiser, real-estate broker, and community jester stumbled across the beast while hiking near his Rhinelander home. Although a seasoned woodsmen, Shepard had never before encountered a Hodag, the beast so often spoke of in the lumber-camp bunkhouses. The sighting, however, was unmistakable.
Shepard stood face to face with a 185 pound, seven-foot-long, lizard-like beast. Its head was disproportionately large for its body with two horns growing from its temples, large fangs and green eyes. Covered with short black hair, the body appeared stout and muscular; its back was covered with spikes which led to a powerful tail. The four legs were short and sturdy with three claws facing forward and one pointing in the opposite direction. As the beast turned to greet his uninvited guest, its nostrils spouted flame and smoke, and a horrible odor, which Shepard described as a "combination of buzzard meat and skunk perfume," filled the air.
Gathering brave townsmen and willing lumberjacks, Shepard assembled a hunting party to capture the strange beast. Armed with "heavy rifles and large bore squirt guns loaded with poison water," the hunting party set out to confront the monstrosity. Discovering the Hodag near where Shepard had first sighted it, the hunting party dispatched a number of dogs to corner the beast. This proved unsuccessful as the Hodag "scattered about the place" small fragments of the hunting dogs. Like the dogs, the hunting party’s weaponry proved of little value in subduing the now irate Hodag. Luckily, the hunters had brought along a large supply of dynamite. After piling birch bark around the cornered beast, the lumberjacks lobbed sticks of dynamite at their prey. The explosions ignited a fire that engulfed the monster and eventually took the Hodag’s life. Although the charred remains of this first Hodag were transported to Rhinelander and displayed, Shepard’s hunters were unable to capture the beast alive.Eventually they do capture a live Hodag which gets displayed at the entrance gate of the County Fair and becomes the Fair's main attraction. Of course the Hodag was a hoax thought up by Shepard.
But at the time, the Rhinelander community needed something more than timber production to survive. The Hodag was very successful in helping the tourist industry boom in and around the area:
Eventually the Hodag was discovered to be an elaborate hoax, its body, a carved stump covered with an ox hide; its horns and spikes derived from oxen and cattle; its movement controlled by wires; and its growl supplied by Shepard’s sons hidden in the monster’s lair. This discovery, however, took nothing away from the Hodag's popularity. People from across the state and region continued to travel up the Wisconsin to Rhinelander to view Shepard’s concoction. Although the original creature was destroyed by a fire near the turn of the century, the Hodag continued to gain popularity. By the 1920s, an extremely popular postcard portraying the Hodag’s capture circulated throughout the region. Soon Rhinelander became known as the Hodag city, and its inhabitants proudly touted its unique identity and the piece of local color on which it was based.
To the casual observer, Shepard’s Hodag ploy was a practical joke pulled by Rhinelander’s most celebrated prankster. A more in-depth investigation of the circumstances surrounding the Hodag’s creation, however, reveals a far more serious side of the beast. In addition to comprising a known jokester’s most successful ploy, Rhinelander’s Hodag was, and continues to be, a very serious, preconceived promotional project. To be sure, the Hodag played an important role in making Rhinelander what it is today--the regional industrial center of Northern Wisconsin with an odd twist of local color. Please click on the link above if you wish to read the complete story of the Hodag. With such vast differences and origins between the Wampus Cat and the Hodag, I'm wondering how they ever got equated as the same creature. I have to say I'm a little disappointed; I wanted them to be one in the same. Do you guys happen to know the history of how the names Wampus Cat and Hodag ended up describing the same creature down South? Maybe there is a Northern Hodag and a Southern Hodag? One thing for sure, folklore is a lot of fun.
