The Outhouse Papers
Gene Shepard and the Hodag
2023
by: Mike Skubal
To people living in Rhinelander, northern Wisconsin, and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan the Hodag’s story is a familiar one. First discovered and then captured in the 1890s by Rhinelander’s most celebrated timber cruiser and city jester, Gene Shepard, the beast connected Ojibwe legend, lumberjack lore, and city promotion to bring some notoriety to the small northern Wisconsin community. Shepard famously displayed his captured creature – the angry spirit of a cremated lumber ox reincarnated into the body of an antediluvian monster – at county fairs, and at his Rhinelander home until it was revealed to be a hoax – just a stump dressed up with hide and horns. Hoax or not, since then Rhinelander has been using the Hodag to connect to its past and promote its future.
But is that the full story?
In The Outhouse Papers, a mysterious patron employs a retired investigative journalist to track down the truth behind the Hodag legend. The quest follows the writer as he moves beyond the well-known story to a time when Rhinelander was younger, grittier, and its saloons had spittoons instead of stools. Slowly he discovers new clues, fits pieces together, and makes connections that reveal a story much different than the one you’ve so often heard. This is a masterfully told story that takes readers along with the journalist through twists and turns as he discovers connections between Rhinelander’s past and the sanitized legend it advertises today.
Perhaps the Hodag is a hoax, but the hoax is not what you thought it was.
ISBN: 978-0965374552
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