MUIRHEAD`S MYSTERIES: THE HODAG AND AN OUT OF PLACE TURTLE

Dear folks

Muirhead`s Mysteries continues today with the tale of the Hodag and a turtle (or should that be tortoise?) turning up somewhere in the Nevada desert. The text of the nespaper report on the turtle actually used that word, but this was no sea creature as far as I know.

However, the hodag was almost certainly mythical if the author of the Wikipedia entry is to believed, though the newspaper item on this has a more literal stance.

In chronological order, the first item is from The St. Paul Globe April 20th 1903. I do not quote in full; just the most interesting parts:

'MR OPSHAL SEES QUEER ANIMAL. It haunts the woods about his country place at the lake.

What is a hodag A. H Opshal asserts excitedly that it is a surviving representative of a supposedly extinct sarian that looks like a cross between an iguana and a rocking horse, and offers to produce witnesses to the strange nocturnal proclivities of the uncanny brute that haunts the woods about his country place, Ruritania, Lake Minnetonka...A lot of lumbermen over in Michigan faked up a hideous looking reptile and had a picture taken of him, which the Northwestern Lumberman printed, but somebody blew the game and the hodag, hideous as an inhabitant of Dante`s dread picture, proved to be a stuffed nothing in particular.'

The article then goes on to insist that the hodag is a real animal: 'Opshl himself emptied a double head of B. B shot at the beast or reptile, the range being 30 yards in the moonlight. The shot was heard to rattle like hail on the scaly coat of the creature which promptly emitted a sound which resembled, roughly speaking,a cross between the laugh of a hyena and the bawl of an indignant cow.

"I don`t know what breed this creature belongs to" said Mr Opshal yesterday "but what I do know is that there is nothing in the books describing him. He is scally all over like a big fish...He is not in the least injured by being shot at by any sort of small arm...When he runs his tail is held high above his back and it has spines sticking out all along its length like an iguana...The prevailing opinion is that the creature which has created so much discussion at the Point is an escaped specimen from some circus or sideshow. No report of such an escape is remembered, but the people who witnessed the latest "hodag" refuse to be laughed out of countenance. Mr Opshal takes a walk around his place every night in an effort to get another shot at the animal. He has provided himself with a 45-90 Winchester and hopes to report results within a few days' (1)

Wikipedia has the following about the Hodag: 'In 1893 newspapers reported the discovery of Hodag in Rhinelander, Wisconsin. It had "the head of a frog, the grinning face of a giant elephant, thick short legs set off by huge claws, the back of a dinosaur, and a long tail with spears at the end. "The reports were instigated by well-known Wisconsin timber cruiser and prankster Eugene Shephard, who rounded up a group of local people to capture the animal....' (2)

The next item is about a turtle (sic) found in the Nevada desert, later going missing in California.
I think there is a possible link between this Nevada tortoise and some large tortoises reported in California in the 1930s.

Read on!

The San Francisco Call December 1st 1904: 'TURTLE TAKES ITS DEPARTURE. Strange creature missing from home of its owner in the University town.

"Japhet in Search of a Father" has a rival in Berkeley in the frantic search which Arthur I Street is making for his giant turtle, a creature which scientists at the State University have declared is 200 years old and entitled to a place in museum annals as a valuable curio. The animal has disappeared and cannot be found.

The turtle was captured in the midst of the Nevada desert several months ago by Street while he (Street) was making the journey overland between Los Angeles and Salt Lake City...He was brought to Berkeley and given quarters at the residence of Mr Street`s father, 1517 Shattuck Ave. Proffesor W. E. Ritter of the department of zoology examined the strange find made by Street and pronounced it to be more than 200 years old an a rare specimen of an almost extinct species of animal life. The professor could give no explanation of how the turtle came to be living in the midst of desolation on a great desert, but it is supposed the palm roots or some other hidden vegetation contributed to its support.

Mr Street made a pet of his find, quartering it at his father`s home on Shattuck avenue. Last night the turtle disappeared and to-day Street has searched Berkeley through trying to get a trace of the vagrant creature, but without success.' (3)


1. The St.Paul Globe.April 20th 1903.
2. Anon.Wikipedia.Hodag.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hodag. (Accessed Jan.8th 2010)
3. The San Francisco Call.December 1st 1904

Sorry about the lack of lyrics today. I`ll try and remember them on Tuesday.
Rich