The Hodag of Rhinelander

In 1893 a timber cruiser and prankster named Eugene Shepard announced he had captured a horned, spiny, seven-foot beast in the woods near Rhinelander, and produced photographs of it. Crowds paid to see the thing in a dim tent, where it twitched convincingly on wires. It was carved wood and ox hide, and Shepard admitted as much when the Smithsonian took an interest. The town liked it so much it kept it: the Hodag is on the water tower, the high-school jerseys and the welcome signs to this day. A hoax that became a hometown.