Linda S. Godfrey - Monsters of Wisconsin: Mysterious Creatures in the Badger State

Copyright 2011 by Stackpole Books

Published by

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Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

FIRST EDITION

Cover art by Marc Radle

Cover design by Tessa J. Sweigert

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Godfrey, Linda S.

Monsters of Wisconsin : mysterious creatures in the badger state / Linda

S. Godfrey. 1st ed.

p. cm.

Includes .

ISBN-13: 978-0-8117-0748-0 (pbk.)

ISBN-10: 0-8117-0748-2 (pbk.)

1.MonstersNew Jersey. 2.Animals, MythicalNew Jersey.I. Title.

GR825.G565 2011

398.24'54dc22

2011001932

Contents

Introduction

A Monsters Ball

Wisconsin boasts forests full of impressive creatures with sharp claws and glistening fangs; cougar, bear, and eastern timber wolf populations are all on the upswing and are steadily expanding their territories. And why shouldnt they? Its easy to see why they like it here. This state is drenched in lakes and rivers and crammed full of edible plants and game. The terrain varies to suit different species, too, with dense forests in the north, cliffs and ravines that the glacier never flattened in the west, and great prairies-turned-cornfields in the south and east. Those very same attributes, though, may also attract lesser-known creatures that a zoologist could not classify.

The list of Wisconsin unknowns is daunting: Bigfoot, werewolves, man bats, goat men, Thunderbirds, dragons, lizard men, the Hodag, aliens, hell hounds, and even urban kangaroos. With the exception of one kangaroo and a wallaby, most of these impossible beasts are never captured, seldom photographed except as blob-shadows, and never quite pinned down tightly enough that we may examine the stuff of which they are made. They are all very talented at squirming away or vanishing.

Despite the best efforts of observers and investigators, then, we still havent the foggiest notion of what these creatures actually are. We only know that people ranging in time from the first indigenous nations to contemporary travelers on six-lane freeways have claimed to have seen them. Many have afterwards wished they had not.

Over the years, a historical blend of native peoples have called this state home: Ojibwe, Potawatomi, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Fox, and the mysterious vanished traders we call Mississippians are a few well-known tribal affiliations. Although some of these people have been in Wisconsin longer than others, all of them share traditions of hairy manlike creatures, giant birds, and fearsome water monsters.

When Europeans began to populate the state, they brought their own well-rounded panoply of spooky beings. Werewolves were one of the earliest, sailing into the Great Lakes with early French traders and trappers and then hitching rides in later centuries with emigrant Germans. The British and Irish brought hellhounds and fairy dogs, the Slavs their vampires, and Belgians their strange pig men that wrought curses for vengeful Door County farmers. Sea monsters followed the ships of all of them to explore the shores of New England and adapt to fresh inland waters, where they joined the lake creatures that had always been here.

The magical thing that all of these peoples have had in common is a history of telling stories. The stories are what keep strange beasts alive. You see, although more than a few of these creatures have built their reputations on their desire to eat human flesh, physical meat is not what they crave most. Their true food is the human word. Our words about them are their feast. And that feast grants them a sort of immortality that will keep them lurking around in the bushes until our very last storyteller dies.

In many ways, our monsters are us. And that may be why we love them so.

Mr. Big, or Sasquatch in Dairyland

T he huge, apelike creature called Bigfoot or Sasquatch might be considered the worlds most popular monster. It has starred in countless TV commercials and movies and has inspired hundreds of organizations and websites devoted to finding Bigfoot and proving its existence. Believers argue endlessly over whether it would be okay to kill one, what the creatures eat, and whether its better to stalk them alone by sitting quietly in the woods or go en masse with a group all banging sticks on trees and bellowing their best imitations of great ape calls.

Not everyone believes. Despite evidence, including plaster casts of footprints with such hard-to-fake features as unique skin or dermal ridges, hair samples that cant be pinned on any known species, and hundreds of eyewitness reports, many pooh-pooh the existence of what some call the Sasquatch. Those who do advance the possibility that a giant species of unknown primateperhaps one that is closer to humans in intelligence than any other great aperoams the Americas and other parts of the world may expect mockery and catcalls for their efforts.

Controversy continues to rage over the authenticity of what is called the Patterson-Gimlin film. Shot in California in 1967, the one-minute clip shows what looks like a female, hair-covered hominoid striding along, arms swinging in a rather non-human way. But a scientific analysis of the creatures movement and anatomy by Idaho State University associate professor of anatomy and anthropology, Dr. Jeff Meldrum, in his book, Sasquatch: Legend Meets Science, puts forth tantalizing evidence that Bigfoot may be real.

Meldrum, who has endured his own share of disbelief from fellow scientists, says that recent foot and body imprint casts have been pivotal in turning the heads of noted primate anatomists and dermatoglyphists. He adds in his book, Expert viewers could not casually dismiss a number of films and videos as simply an obvious case of a man in a fur suit. And Meldrums studies have inspired him to speculate that the legend of sasquatch possibly has its basis in a real animal and may eventually prove to be among the most astounding zoological discoveries ever. Perhaps that discovery will be made in Wisconsin!

Of course, there are others who think Bigfoot is real in an unreal way: a furry traveler from another place or time, or even a Chewbacca-like alien on furlough from its UFO.

A growing number of Wisconsinites, however, dont need professional opinions or paranormal theories to convince them that an eight-foot-tall, hairy hominoid stomps the woods and marshes of Wisconsin. Theyve seen it. Their ranks include middle-aged married couples, restaurant owners, newspaper deliverers, hunters, and fishermen, to name a few of the diverse types of people brave enough to report what they saw.

Sharp-eyed folk have spotted the giant creatures running through the Chequamegon National Forest in the states far north and hiding in barns and tree lines of a specific range of swampy, forested land in Jefferson, Rock, and Walworth Counties in the south. None of the people Ive talked to have felt that Bigfoot wanted to attack them; in almost every case the creature just keeps on truckin. And in this day of eager monster hunters, that is probably just what the big fella needs to do to survive.