Anomaly Ledger
A large dark-green horned Hodag sculpture with white tusks and spines, set in a flower bed on a lawn beside a timber-framed visitor center.
Hodag statue outside the Rhinelander visitor center, July 2014 — Corey Coyle, via Wikimedia Commons (Panoramio) · CC BY 3.0 (Corey Coyle) · Image source

Trailhead / site map

Address / place search: 450 W Kemp Street, Rhinelander, WI 54501 (not a published decimal pin — verify on official maps before travel)

Hodag Statue · Rhinelander Visitor Center

Rhinelander's biggest Hodag sits outside the Chamber of Commerce visitor center. It's a free roadside stop for a monster the town made up and then kept.

Region Wisconsin · Northwoods Location 450 W. Kemp Street, Rhinelander, WI 54501 Added

Access

The statue is outside the Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center. It's free to see, the center is open year-round, and there's parking on site. Visitor-center hours vary, so call (715) 365-7464 or check rhinelanderchamber.com before you plan around them. The Chamber doesn't publish coordinates, so use the street address. Smaller painted Hodags (Downtown Rhinelander Inc.'s ‘Hodags on Parade’) stand outside businesses around town.

Safety & respect

This is a busy visitor-center lot. Watch for traffic when you stop for photos. The painted Hodags around town are on private business frontage, so be a customer or admire them from the sidewalk.

Lore note

According to the Chamber's own history, in 1896 timber cruiser Eugene ‘Gene’ Shepard claimed he had photographed a horned, tusked, seven-foot beast. He later admitted the Hodag was something of a hoax, built from wood, ox hides, bull horns and steel. The town adopted it anyway. It's the city's symbol and the high-school mascot, and it gives its name to the July Hodag Country Festival.

Map links

Official / public map link · Open in Google Maps (street-address search — not a published decimal pin)

Sources

  • Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce, ‘About the Hodag’ (rhinelanderchamber.com)
  • Explore Rhinelander, Rhinelander Area Chamber of Commerce & Visitor Center listing
  • Travel Wisconsin, ‘World's Largest Hodag Statue’

A monster with a confession on file. The Hodag started out as a lumber-town prank, and by the town’s own account the man behind it owned up. Rhinelander kept the creature anyway and built it a lawn.

Archivist’s margin

This stop pairs well with the Hodag Country Festival file. One is a statue and the other a ticketed weekend, and both are civic folklore, not biology. Take the photo, read the plaque, and enjoy a hoax that turned into a hometown mascot.