THOUGHTS ON
Fearsome critters were an integral part of a distinct tradition of stories first told in the logging camps of North America at the end of the late nineteenth through the early twentieth centuries. Fearsome-critter tales were told by lumberjacks contemporaneously to those of Paul Bunyan, frequently in conjunction. Lumberjacks, who labored their winters away in logging camps, were isolated from mainstream society for months at a time. In passing their downtime, lumberjacks would combine a knowledge of nature with imagination and enthusiasm for a good story to produce a saga of strange animals that were often more curious than haunting.
While the term “fearsome critters” does not resonate with most myth enthusiasts, they nonetheless constitute a key part of the folklore of Canada and the U.S.A. and to a lesser extent Latin American. Old-time logging operations around the Great Lakes was critical in the development of this tradition. There, loggers, from various walks of life, backgrounds and nationalities, would continue to swap stories on winter nights aside a burning stove expanding upon this tradition. Lumberjacks envisioned fearsome creatures with names like the hidebehind, gillygaloo, fur-bearing trout, hoop snake and countless others. The tone of these tales range from the serious to comical and reflected the whim of the storyteller. As well, these myths were oftentimes used to test the mettle, or gullibility, of newcomers to camp. Regardless of the circumstances surrounding their creation, fearsome critters are a rich tradition that are far less explored than classic mythology but nonetheless, if not all the more, intriguing.
A prime example of this kind of play on nature can be found in the 1910 work Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts. The book was authored by William T. Cox, Minnesota’s first state forester, who is remembered for his contributions to forest conservation and serious naturalist writings. This little collection relates incredible descriptions of fanciful animals that only ever existed in the jokes and tall tales of forest tradesmen. But what separates Cox’s work from the realm of mythological bestiaries is that it echoes a naturalist’s tone and realistic-style approach. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods is ripe with detail and includes much of the features one would expect from any serious zoological work. Cox’s animals are presented with Latin classifications, and he offers specifies ranges for each creature, while detailing their the behaviors, habitats and characteristics.
Additionally, a contemporary practice known as “nature faking” helped further expand the scope of this tradition. The phrase received much press after it was infamously used by American President Theodore Roosevelt in a 1907 interview in Everybody’s Magazine. In the interview, with Edward Brayton Clark, Roosevelt denounces nature writings that are frequently more sensational then factual. This inspired such quips as, “Wonder what Col. Roosevelt, the despiser of nature fakirs, thought of the Emperor of Austria with a two-headed eagle on his coat of arms!” or “Far be it from me to butt in on this nature story. I'm not going to run the risk of being denounced as a ‘nature fakir’ by the strenuous gentleman whose knowledge of animal and bird life is confined to the butt end of a repeating rifle or shot-gun.” Later the phrase became a reoccurring joke and writers hastily invented absurd nature stories to their amusement and the president’s dismay.