Posts

Showing posts with the label hoax

Hodag

Image
  The hodag is a fearsome critter from lumberjack folklore, a hoax perpetrated by a businessman trying to advertise his resort, and the beloved mascot of Rhinelander Wisconsin. The hodag looks like a giant, green, hairy beast, with a short bulldog face and prominent tusks. The hodag has bull like horns on it's head and a row of spikes running down it's back. It has a long reptilian tail, tipped with a spike at the end. The legend of the hodag starts in 1893 with resort owner Eugene Shepard. He created the hodag as a hoax to stir up interest in the area around Rhinelander so people would visit his resort. Mr. Sheperd reported that he and a group of hunters had a battle in the forest with the vicious hodag. They had fought off the beast with hunting rifles, hounds and 'poisoned water' in toy squirt guns. All their efforts were to no avail though, until one of the hunters finally killed the hodag by throwing a stick of dynamite at it. At first people were intrigued and ...

Nigerian Fire Spitter

Image
  The Nigerian Fire Spitter was a small cryptid which emerged from a uranium mine in Arlit, Nigeria in 1984. The creature was some sort of dragon like reptile. It had a crocodilian head, long neck. It had a dog like body and stood on erect legs which ended in clawed, reptilian feet. It had a long lizard like tail. There was also a row of spines running down its back. The fire spitter was small, being comparable to a dog in size. The small size made people at the time assume it was only a juvenile. The fire spitter gains its name from its ability to shoot flames from its mouth, much like a flame thrower. Cryptozoologists like to assume that the creature was some sort of relic spinosaurid, even the original email about the creature makes this assumption. However the spines on its back were horn like spikes, and did not have any flesh fin or muscular hump surrounding them. Also there's the whole fire breathing part. But as you will see by the end of this article, there was a reason...