Did You Know: Wyoming's Mythical Creature
We all know that each state has their own state animal, flower, bird and even tree, but did you know about the state of Wyoming's mythical creature? In the state of Wyoming, our mythical creature is the wonderful Jackalope, the mighty jack rabbit with the antlers of an antelope.
This mysterious creature became the trademark for Wyoming in 1965 and officially designated it in 1985, but how did this story come to be? According to the New York Times, this story originated in Douglas, Wyoming after the Herrick brothers came back after a hunting trip in 1932, taking the carcass of the jack rabbits and tossing it near a pile of antlers. Both brothers had done taxidermy before, so they had an amazing idea. Using their skills, the brothers were able to create the first ever Jackalope and sold it for $10 to a man named Roy Ball. Roy displayed the jackalope in Douglas’ La Bonte Hotel, and because of that, his hotel became a hot spot as he held one of the most bizarre looking creatures in the land, no one else has seen anything like it.
After many, many years, in 2005, the state of Wyoming finally recognized the Jackalope at the state’s official mythical creature, and if you’re on Western’s Rock Spring campus you can stop by the Weidner Wildlife Museum and take a look at the Jackalope that they have on display!
Now there are many different stories that go around that many people might have taken into consideration as to people may be seeing a real life Jackalope, one of those reasons being that a rabbit could have Shope Papilloma Virus, a diseases that is typically found in rabbits that cause a growth near the top of their heads and produce these protrusions that seem to resemble horns, but those are typically seen on their face and not on the tops of their heads like perfect little antlers.
The Jackalope symbol can be found if you’re into lottery tickets, and you buy from WyoLotto, and if you are wanting to kill some time one weekend or over the holidays, you can go up to Douglas, Wyoming and you can purchase a hunting permit if you’re wanting to go out looking in hopes to take home your very own Jackalope.
If you would like to learn more about Jackalopes, take a look at Jackalopes: The legendary horned rabbits of the American West, which is written by Justin Brown.
