A Concise History of the Jackalope
We’ll never know for sure where it all began. One account holds that the first man to spot the jackalope was Roy Ball in 1829. That’s all we know about both Roy and the jackalope. The town of Douglas, meanwhile, claims that John Colter, the first man known to explore Yellowstone, was the first to encounter the beast. He also asserted some knowledge about its heritage, noting that it was “the result of an auspicious mating of the jackrabbit and a now extinct pygmy deer.” (We are also informed that the jackalope only mates during lightning flashes.) Other claims are made to its terrifying predecessor, the saber tooth jackalope.
The second date available to us in this beast’s illustrious history is 1932. Or maybe 1934. Or 1936. Somewhere in there. On a fortuitous day somewhere in that range, two young boys, Doug and Ralph Herrick, went hunting in the Wyoming hills. It was a good day, as they snagged a jackrabbit for dinner. In the process of skinning the poor creature, though, something even more propitious occurred–the rabbit’s head butted up against the antlers that were leftover from a previous deer hunt. Doug declared, “Let’s mount that thing!” Skeptics–those who would deny the majestic reality of the jackalope–point to that as the origin of the myth.
By the late 1940s, Douglas had established itself as the “Jackalope capital of the world.” In 1965, the State of Wyoming trademarked the Jackalope, characterizing it as a “killer rabbit.”
The Herricks proceeded to capitalize the hell out of the jackalope, selling dozens of jackalope mounts annually over the succeeding decades. The younger brother reported selling more than 165 such mounts in 1976 and 1977. The town of Douglas hopped on the gravy train as well, selling jackalope hunting permits, though they came with a surprising catch: the hunt was only allowed “on the 31st day of June, between the hours of 12 midnight and 2 A.M.”
Finally, in 1985, the town of Douglas took it a step further, declaring in an official proclamation that Douglas is the official “home of the Jackalope,” while also calling upon all other claimants to cease and desist.
Jackalope sightings have been declared in recent years, including 2016, 2019, 2021, and 2022. Uncannily enough, all of those occurred on the same day!
