Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: brain Stuff, Loruren Vogelbaum. Here. Every few years, the Wyoming
Speaker 1: legislature debates a hot button issue. Should the Jackalope, a
Speaker 1: kind of made up jack rabbit with antlers, be recognized
Speaker 1: as the state's official mythical creature. In the House of
Speaker 1: Representatives in Cheyenne passed a bill that would bestow this
Speaker 1: honor upon the fabled beast, but it died in the
Speaker 1: state Senate. Earlier attempts to pass the bill met the
Speaker 1: same roadblock. Who knows, maybe someday the hopping horned critter
Speaker 1: will finally jump across that legislative finish line. And if
Speaker 1: it doesn't, at least there's still the Jackalope Days Festival,
Speaker 1: a summer shindig held in Douglas, Wyoming, every June. The
Speaker 1: fest gives tourists a perfect excuse to come and gawk
Speaker 1: at all the antler lagamore statues populating the Ease downtown area.
Speaker 1: You couldn't miss Douglas if you tried. There's a jackalope
Speaker 1: statue measuring thirteen feet about four meters tall, greeting motorists
Speaker 1: at the city's exit on Interstate five Over in Mount
Speaker 1: Rushmore Country, we find another giant jackalope, complete with the saddle,
Speaker 1: at South Dakota's famous Wall Drug attraction. And that's to
Speaker 1: say nothing of all the stuffed jacalope heads mounted on
Speaker 1: walls at diners and souvenir stores across the Western United States.
Speaker 1: One of these was given to then President Ronald Reagan
Speaker 1: at a six campaign stop in Rapid City, South Dakota.
Speaker 1: The All American Jackalope is considered the brainchild of taxidermist
Speaker 1: Douglas Herrick. He was born just north of Douglas, Wyoming,
Speaker 1: on July eight of nineteen twenty, and he served in
Speaker 1: the U. S. Air Force during World War Two. This
Speaker 1: was followed by a long career as a pipe fitter
Speaker 1: and welder. Also an avid hunter, Herrick studied taxidermy as
Speaker 1: a teenager, so at his brother Ralph Herrick, the family
Speaker 1: had its very own taxidermy's shop, which is where Wyoming's
Speaker 1: favorite fictional animal got its start. Varying accounts say the
Speaker 1: jackalope was created sometime in nineteen thirty two or nineteen
Speaker 1: thirty four, or nineteen thirty nine or nineteen forty. In
Speaker 1: any case, the story goes that its birth was a
Speaker 1: happy accident. One day, the Herrick brothers, fresh from hunt,
Speaker 1: brought a dead jack rabbit into their shop. The carcass
Speaker 1: was placed or possibly thrown, next to a set of
Speaker 1: antlers on the floor. Seeing those things together gave Douglas
Speaker 1: an idea. As Ralph told The New York Times in
Speaker 1: nineteen seven, Doug said, let's mount it the way it is.
Speaker 1: Mike Harrick, Douglas's son, said in a two thousand three
Speaker 1: exchange with the Casper Star Tribune, I think that it
Speaker 1: was kind of a joke. A lot of taxidermists full around,
Speaker 1: but he didn't know they would get so popular. I
Speaker 1: know he didn't know. One Roy Ball of Douglas by
Speaker 1: Coming bought the original mounted jackalope off the Herricks for
Speaker 1: ten dollars. After being displayed at a hotel, ball owed
Speaker 1: the stuffed masterpiece was stolen in the thief was never caught.
Speaker 1: Yet the jackalope business was just getting started. The Herrick
Speaker 1: family produced and sold tens of thousands of these furry
Speaker 1: franken beasts, a fixing deer or pronghorn antler's to jack
Speaker 1: rabbit heads. The Wall Drug became a major distributor When
Speaker 1: Douglas died in two thousand three, The New York Times
Speaker 1: reported that Ralph's son Jim was delivering quote four hundred
Speaker 1: jacalopes to wall drug in South Dakota three times a year,
Speaker 1: a small portion of his total production. Seeing mounted jackalopes
Speaker 1: inspired people to start making up stories about live ones.
Speaker 1: Some of those tales get pretty tall. For example, jackalopes
Speaker 1: are said to be quite musical. They supposedly have nice
Speaker 1: tenor voices and can be heard singing in a wilderness
Speaker 1: from time to time. A rumor has it that the
Speaker 1: animals enjoy cowboy campfire songs. If you start one up,
Speaker 1: they'll happily join the chorus from afar. Another story claims
Speaker 1: a member of the Herrick family saw a real live
Speaker 1: jackalope around Buffalo, Wyoming in n Ralph denied this, but
Speaker 1: these fun tales have only enhanced the jackalopes real world impact.
Speaker 1: Since the late nineteen forties, the Chamber of Commerce in Douglas,
Speaker 1: Wyoming has issued jackalope hunting licenses. Carriers are allowed to quote, hunt, pursue, trap,
Speaker 1: or otherwise take one one pronghorn jackalope within the lawful
Speaker 1: boundaries of Converse County. Wyoming on June thirty one, between
Speaker 1: sunrise and sunset only. Failure to have this license approved
Speaker 1: and issued by a resident of Converse County, Wyoming, or
Speaker 1: to otherwise comply with the terms here of May on
Speaker 1: conviction thereof result in a fine of thirteen dollars and
Speaker 1: or a sentence of thirteen months hard play in doug Is, Wyoming.
Speaker 1: We're not sure if anyone has ever succeeded in their
Speaker 1: pursuit of the hunt, but things just get sillier from here.
Speaker 1: According to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department's official website,
Speaker 1: the jackalopes natural predators include coyotes, bobcats, eagles, and chop acabras,
Speaker 1: among other varyingly existent animals, and on May fifteenth, five,
Speaker 1: Wyoming Governor Ed Herschler signed a proclamation recognizing Douglas, Wyoming
Speaker 1: as the home of the jackalope. Perhaps, obviously, there's no
Speaker 1: such thing as a jackalope, yet we do have historical
Speaker 1: descriptions of rabbits or hairs with antlers and horns that
Speaker 1: date back to the seventeenth century and even earlier. There's
Speaker 1: a virus called the Chope papaloma virus that could explain
Speaker 1: some of those sightings related to the human papaloma virus.
Speaker 1: This affliction actually does cause rabbits and hairs to develop
Speaker 1: born like tumors. But wou'd hate to leave you on
Speaker 1: such a depressing note, so let's end this episode on
Speaker 1: a bit more from the natural history of the jackalope,
Speaker 1: as related by the City of Douglas's Jackalope Hunting License
Speaker 1: web page. It explains that although there seems to be
Speaker 1: a missing link in the jacalob's evolution, a now extinct
Speaker 1: or perhaps highly endangered cousin used to roam the plains
Speaker 1: in great numbers, the sabretooth jackalope. This specimen could be
Speaker 1: distinguished by its much larger size up to a hundred
Speaker 1: and fifty pounds about seventy kilos, it's bangs up to
Speaker 1: a foot and length that's about thirty centimes, and it's
Speaker 1: vicious attacks on windmills. However, the history states that the
Speaker 1: sabretooth jackalope would join their smaller cousins and song in
Speaker 1: perfect harmony, albeit with slightly deeper voices and a hint
Speaker 1: of a French accent, likely picked up from early trappers
Speaker 1: in the area. Today's episode is based on the article
Speaker 1: our jackylopes really roaming the State of Wyoming on how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff
Speaker 1: is a production of iHeart Radio in partnership with how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot Com, and it's produced by Tyler clang
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