Fun Stuff > Legends and Oddities > Jackalopes Legends And Oddities

JACKALOPES LEGENDS AND ODDITIES

Jackalopes
The jackalope is a wonderful little fictitious mammal, a cryptic horned critter and a famous American legend. It has been suggested that it was first imagined by bored cowboys on long Texas cattle drives but there is much academic dispute over this beginning. These rabbit-like creatures are a cross of jackrabbits and antelopes making for some very amusing pictures, greeting cards, wall mounts, postcards, t-shirts and other gift/souvenir items displayed and sold in western gift shops from Texas to Wyoming.

Click Jackalope Junction located in Casper Wyoming to find jackalope heads and full body taxidermy mounts. You can click Jackalope Cards to find Jackalope Greeting Cards, Jackalope Cartoons to view Jackalope Cartoons Archives or click on Jackalopes Related Sites to find Jackalope web sites.

Douglas Wyoming, "Home of the Jackalope", has erected a statue in honor of America's most elusive and famous cryptic horned critter. You can view more about Jackalopes and Douglas Wyoming at the Douglas Chamber of Commerce!

Jackalope Facts
Is the Jackalope real or mythical? You can be the judge!

• The Jackalope has many names and the following are just a few: Jack Hare, Jack-a-Rabbit, Jackahorn, Jackadeer, Deerbunny, Bunnybuck, Texas' Little Loch Ness Monster, Jackelope, Jackalope, Jack-o-lope, Jack-a-lope or Jackalop, however you spell it has been studied by the scientific community over the past 400 years. Since then it has been proven that the unusual horned protrusions on the animal were caused by a rare carcinoma, (maybe!).
• Jackalope postcards have been available since the 1930's!
• Several American towns have offered jackalope hunting licenses as novelties.
• Douglas, Wyoming, has an annual festival, "Jackalope Days", on the second Friday and Saturday of June each year.
• The Governor of the State of Wyoming in 1985 proclaimed Douglas to be the "Home of the Jackalope."
• Mounted heads of jackalopes are offered for sale at truck stops, roadside restaurants,Texas Gift Shops and on websites.
• The jackalopes are displayed all over the country in barbeque restaurants, drug stores, souvenir shops and one drug store (Wall Drug on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands!) has a six-foot fiberglass jackalope one displayed.
• Even a U.S. President has owned a mounted jackalope.
• There are many websites devoted to jackalopes and they are occasionally covered in popular articles.
• Like snipe hunts, jackalope hunts have been used as a ritual form of hazing in rural communities all across America.

Click "Wyoming Jackalope" Cartoon to view Funny Jackalope Cards!

Jackalope Orgins
If you encounter the rare fabulous Jackalope you should be advised not to approach it as it has been known to attack without warning! Where did it originate? Some say College Station, Texas and others claim Douglas, Wyoming! The jackalope, a cottontail or domestic rabbit or jackrabbit mounted with the horns of a young antelope, deer or goat is commonly believed to have originated in the folklore of the American West.

• The first sightings were in Germany in the sixteen hundreds?
• A obituary in The New York Times attributes the origin of the American Jackalope to Douglas Herrick, a native of Douglas, Wyoming, in 1939?
• Kreider and Bartlett (1981) also note: "Horned jackrabbits and cottontail rabbits were known to the pioneers of the western plains and were first described in popular hunting and fishing magazines in the early 1900's.
• Ernest Thompson Seton published in 1909 his "Life-Histories of Northern Game Animals", in which he included a drawing of the head of what was certainly a mounted jackalope. Seton also reported seeing diseased cottontail rabbits in the American West that had growths resembling horns.
• Perhaps immigrants to the U.S. from Europe brought the idea of the horned hare with them and this has evolved into our modern jackalope. This notion is strengthened by the fact that illustrations of horned hares were included in the Encyclopedia Methodique (1782-1832) and in some 18th century German schoolbooks.
• The Persian scholar, Zakariya Ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini (1203-1283) produced a geographic dictionary in which he presented a legend about Alexander the Great's adventures on an island in the China Sea. Alexander is said to have helped the islanders to kill a dragon by feeding it poisoned cattle. The grateful islanders gave Alexander several gifts including a large and ferocious yellow animal with black spots and a dark horn. Although al Qazwini did not give the animal a name, other medieval Muslim scholars copied his manuscript and called the animal "al Miradj", a horned hare.
• Far older reference to a horned hare (Lepus cornutus in Latin) was painted by Joris Hoefnagel in the late 1570's.
• All the above stories of orgin of the jackalopes are fun and interesting but the real orgin was written by "Caddylak" Max Gathings, edited by "Big Roy" Anderson, legally documented by Stewart "Duck" DeVore and verified by "Doctor" Randy Rogers. The source for this story include Anne Dingus' "The Truth About Texas" and the "Almost Famous and True Story" follows:

Click "Colorado Jackalope" Cartoon to view Jackalope Cartoons!

Legend of the Jackalope
The Jackalope is one of America's most famous cryptic critters and hunter's "wanna-have-one" wall mounts. If you precisely follow a long established, not so common, culinary procedure, the Jackalope is a deee-lishus eatin' little varmint. Sightings are few, but the Jackalope, Texas' little Loch Ness Monster, has been caught in a few rare photographs over the years depicting these rabbit-like creatures in all their antlered glory.

The origin of the Jackalope has always been clouded by public dispute and intellectual opinions, arguments and strife but, if the truth be known, it was a Texas Aggie scientific experiment gone amuck.

Sometime during the early 1960s, a battery of Aggie scientists attempted to cross a Jackrabbit with a deer, an antelope and an elk to provide an animal that would reproduce quickly and be equally suited for purposes of hunting, eating and exporting as a profitable commodity.

The first attempt, between an American Elk and a Jackrabbit and the second attempt, between a Pronghorn Antelope and a Jackrabbit failed (producing stillborn non-hoppity wabatti); but the third attempt between an Whitetail Deer and Jackrabbit succeeded to the delight of the Aggie scholarly team. Alas, their joy was short-lived. Within months the first and only successful crossbred Jackalope (Aggies name for the little hoppity wabatti creature) escaped from its Aggie creators and vanished into the wilds of the central Texas Plains and Hill Country.

To begin with, crazy things always happen because of the phenomena of the University of Texas and Texas Aggies' old college rivalry. This particular weekend was no different, spontaneously creating a non-sanctioned University of Texas libation driven Frat Rat “Round Up” Rush and G.D.I. party-hardy weekend panty raid. This impetuous retaliatory emotional prank was a response to the Aggies kidnapping and branding U.T.'s Mascot (Bevo the Longhorn Steer) with a 13-0 (an earlier football score with the Aggies being the winners) upon his old bovine rump. This patriotic crusade for the Maggie (a nickname for Aggies of the female gender) panties was lead by “Doctor Christmas” Randy Rogers and consisted of Stewart “Ducky Log-Jam” DeVore, “Caddylak Maxy” Max Gathings, “Dizzy” Bob McCarroll, Jon Patrick “Big Liver” Mulligan, "Smiley" John Colligan, T.U. “Cowtown” Taylor, David “Beaver” Crowley, Johnny “Tab-Brave-Boy” Clarke, Sidney “Fat Pig” Gibson, Leslie “Trigger” Mendenhall, “Big Roy” Anderson, Louie “Greaseball” Sommers, DeeWayne “Bull” Gray, Ricky “Tonto” Ward, Greg “Corky” Gansert and other young academics that were the sons and followers of the Austin City's 4o Acres (nickname for U.T.'s campus).

These soon to be demoralized and embarrassed Texas fans in their pursuit of over-indulgence jollities initiated a serious targeted trek to College Station on behalf of old Bevo's honor. These motivated students and friends of U.T., with little knowledge of the Aggieland campus, found themselves staging their little firewater charged panty raid enthusiastically on the Aggie Animal Research Building instead of the desired ladies dormitory. In the throws of exhilarated passion, revelry and merrymaking and in the confusion of the moment, the little mutant Aggie-experiment made a freedom break from its imprisoned days of Aggie scientific probing, testing and examinations. As an escapee, our little furry horned Jackalope exiled itself to the forest, prairies and mountains to become a part of the legends and folklore of Texas and the American West.

Though the Aggie scientists sent out scores of searchers from its renowned corps, they were unable to recover this little cow pasture running critter. Only later did the scientists discover that they had mistakenly transplanted into the bunny-cum-deer both sex organs, rendering it hermaphroditic. Thus the Jackalope was able to reproduce in the wild, accounting for occasional sightings long after the estimated lifespan of the grandparent of them all.

Of course, being Aggies they misnamed the creature, which is indisputably a cross between a Jackrabbit and a Whitetail Deer. Strictly speaking, the varmint should have been labeled a Jackahorn, Jackadeer or perhaps even a Bunnybuck, but not a Jackalope. Its antlers are the slender, many-branched horns of the deer, not the thicker, stubbier variety of the Pronghorn Antelope, which, unlike the deer, does not occur countywide.

That's my story and i'm sticking to it! -Says, Caddylak Maxy.

Click "Jackalope Golfer" to view Funny Jackalope Cards!

Another Jackalope "Almost True Story!"
The Legend The Jackalope (Lepus-temperamentalus) is one of the rarest animals in the world. A cross between a now extinct pygmy-deer and a species of killer-rabbit, they are extremely shy unless approached. None have ever been captured alive.

Known by the ancients as "deerbunnies", it wasn't until the early 1960's that the modern more fearsome name of "Jackalope" was adopted.

Jackalope Cartoons Archives
Click Jackalope Cartoons Archives to view Funny Jackalope's Cartoons!

Jackalope Attitude
The truth is these creatures are aggressive and unpredictable, and should not be provoked for any reason!

Jackalope Milk
It is written that you can extract the Jackalope's milk as it sleeps belly up at night. The milk is believed to be medicinal and can be used to treat a variety of afflictions.

Click "Jackalope" Cartoon to view Jackalope Cards!

Stuffed Jackalope (A Caddylak Maxy Wildlife Recipe!)
Capture a live Jackalope and for six months feed it a strict diet of Jalapeno peppers and spices (It's usually necessary to force feed the Jackalope until it gets used to its new diet.). Caution: A jalapeno fed Jackalope can be a testy critter.

Preparation for Cookin'
Carefully and firmly grasp the Jackalope immediately behind head. Tie one end of a four foot length of heavy twine securely around neck of Jackalope. Attach other end of twine to a sailboat anchor. Using another length of twine, tie the Jackalope's legs to the strong palm tree branch ten feet above the beach. Throw anchor out of tree. Cut Jackalope's body into medium size filets. Wrap Jackalope filets in bacon.

Cookin' Instructions
Fill large tumbler with Jack Daniel's and branch water. Baste cook internally. Dig pit in the ground four feet by four feet. Refill tumbler and baste cook. Fill pit with mesquite wood knots. Refill tumbler and baste cook (You've probably noticed this recipe requires a lot of basting.). Throw Jackalope bacon wrapped filets in a wet burlap bag. Throw bag in pit. Baste cook as needed. Cover bag with dirt. Cook in ground one week.

Quick Recipe
Order them from the grocery store because they have them ready to grill. By-the-way, folks when you can't capture or purchase a Jackalope you can use a boneless-skinless chicken breast. Beat till flat, cut into 3 inch by 3 inch lengths, stuff with garlic powder, seasoning salt, pepper, diced jalapeno's and onions and roll and grill. It's Deee-lishus! It's a Caddylak Maxy guarantee and it should motivate you to want to buy his Jackalope Cards, Horned Frogs Cards and Roadrunner Cards!

"Jackalope's are as American as Apple Pie and make great Cartoons for Funny Greeting Cards." -Says, Caddylak Maxy.

Click "Oklahoma Jackalope" Cartoon to view Funny Animals Cards!

Odessa Jackalopes
Yes folks, there's ice in Odessa, Texas, because the Odessa Jackalopes is their "Professional Hockey Team". "Y'all come on down for a visit, you hear!" -Says, Caddylak Maxy.

Sources: Chuck Holliday, Dan Japuntich, "Caddylak Maxy" Max Gathings, Erwin Pokorny, Jackalope Junction, "Big Roy" Anderson, "Smiley" John Colligan and Anne Dingus' "The Truth About Texas".

Click "Texas Jackalope" Cartoon to view Texas Cards!

"Thank you to all who submitted Jackalope facts, legends and funny stories. Keep sending us Jackalope information and we'll keep putting them up on this Jackalope Legends & Oddities page and give you all the credit!" -Says, Caddylak Maxy

Send some Funny Jackalope Cards and spread Jackalope Joy!

Be sure to visit our "Fan Mail" by viewing our Testimonials Page!

Jackalopes Legends And Oddities is constantly being updated.
Check back often for updated Jackalopes Legends And Oddities!
Last Updated: Sunday February 24, 2008 1:47 P.M.

Visit Funny Jackalope Cards!