February 22, 2023 • 32 mins
Old Rip was a reptile with quite a legend. Some people believed that he survived a 31-year entombment in a courthouse cornerstone, and he became celebrity, even gaining an audience with President Calvin Coolidge. But was it all a hoax?
Research:
- “Toad Alive After 31 Years Sealed in Texas Cornerstone.” New York Times. Feb, 20, 1928. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/20/91477181.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- “Coolidge Sees Famous Horned Toad of Texas.” The Greenville News. May 4, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/188233123/?terms=toad&match=1
- “Texas Horned Frog Upsets Scientists.” Times Record News. Feb. 21, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/774886762/
- “Horned Lizard Facts.” Texas Parks and Wildlife. https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/wildlife_diversity/texas_nature_trackers/horned_lizard/facts/#:~:text=Its%20horny%20appearance%20and%20coloration,(actually%2C%20its%20eyelid).
- “RipFest.” https://www.eastlandchamber.com/ripfest/
- “Texas Court Frees Entombed Toad.” New York Times. May 14, 1928. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/05/15/91511824.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- “Experts Are Skeptical About Horned Frog.” Fort Worth Record-Telegram. Feb 21, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/634555101/?terms=Eastland%2C%20Texas&match=1
- “Old Frog Leaps Back Into Case.” Austin American-Statesman. September 29, 1961. https://www.newspapers.com/image/357861533/
- House, Boyce. “Amazing Story of Rip Is Told in Its Entirety.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Feb, 13, 1938. https://www.newspapers.com/image/636009835/
- “Texas Horned Lizard (Phrynosoma cornutum).” Texas Parks and Wildlife. https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/species/thlizard/
- “Eastland Asks Old Rip’s Return.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram. April 18, 1972. https://www.newspapers.com/image/644137888/?terms=old%20rip&match=1
- “Three-corner Fight Rages for Possession of Eastland’s Reptile.” The Amarillo Globe-Timed. Feb. 27, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/29483459/?terms=will%20m.%20wood&match=1
- “Famous New York Scientist Tells Whopper Frog Tale as Illustration That He Believes Texas Toad Story.” Wichita Falls Times. Feb. 21, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/773773857/
- “’Rip,’ Famous Sleeping Horned Toad, Here but Still Drowsy.” Indianapolis Star. May 1, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/104983172
- “Tulsa Barber Aided in Placing Famous ‘Rip’ Frog in Stone.” The Tulsa Tribune. Feb. 21, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/884100535/?terms=Eastland%2C%20Texas
- “The Spirit of Old Rip to Be Revived.” The Odessa American. Sept. 11, 1977. https://www.newspapers.com/image/301920827/?
- Donnelly, Claire.” How Curious: What Happened To All Of The ‘Horny Toads’?” KGOU. https://www.kgou.org/oklahoma-news/2019-09-10/how-curious-what-happened-to-all-of-the-horny-toads
- “Frog Question Acute and Threatens to Become National.” Wichita Daily Times. Feb. 26, 1928. https://www.newspapers.com/image/773773951/
- “Doubts Horned Toad Tale.” New York Times. February 21, 1928. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1928/02/21/109853229.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0
- Dabney, James. “Letter Reawakens ‘Rip’ Toad Legend.” Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Sept. 10, 1976. https://www.newspapers.com/image/633757078/
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I'm happy to report
that this story involved one of my very favorite headlines
(00:21):
I have ever come across in a newspaper. Oh good,
I'll point it out when we get there. This is
a story that is to this jay debated in terms
of its truthfulness. But what I found really fascinating was
being able to examine how it was written about and
perceived during the time it was happening. And it was
written about a lot, because it's quite a story, so
(00:42):
I had plenty of things to go through. This is
a story that any of our listeners from Texas probably
know because today we are talking about Old Rip, a
much beloved legendary reptile for our animal enthusiasts and biologists
in the crowd. I feel like I should apologize upfront
because the write ups of the events that we're talking
(01:03):
about today played really fast and loose with terminology, using
the words frog, toad, and lizard completely interchangeably. I think
I tried to correct most of the ones where we
are talking to lizard, but I may have not done
that everywhere, so we'll try our best. There's quoted material,
there's so much quoted material that call it a frog. Yeah.
(01:27):
I'll also say that as the sort of person who
catches bees and spiders and takes them outside, I just
found like the setup of this a little disturbing. Agreed.
I have thoughts to share on Friday about sure animals
and their treatment. Yeah. Yeah, so just brace I guess
(01:48):
if you're also the sort of person that if you
found a little reptile, we're like, oh, I'm gonna carefully
take you outside. Just no human behavior not always cool. Yeah. So,
so we're all on the same page about what animal
we are actually talking about and what that animal actually is.
(02:09):
While it has often been called a Texas horned toad
and as we just said, also a frog, it is
really a lizard. There are more than a dozen species
of horned lizards in North America. They all fall under
the genus Frinisoma. The Texas horned lizard is Frenisoma cornutum.
(02:33):
Please excuse my Latin. So, yes, this is one of
the lizards that can shoot blood from its eyes to
ward off predators. But that is not at a tale
in today's particular story. Yeah, it's actually coming out of
its eyelid when it does that, but that's usually to
ward off much bigger predators like coyotes that might think
it's tasty. Never comes up in today's story. The horns
(02:55):
of the horny lizard form this sort of crown on
the animal's head. There are slight different variations from species
to species, and in the Texas horned lizard there are
two prominent horns on the skull and then smaller horns
around it, and then there are these stripes of spikes
which are sometimes called fringe, that run down the body.
They're very cute. I see why they got called frogs
(03:17):
or toads because they have a very rounded body compared
to the sort of like linear appearance of many lizards.
They're not very big animals though, they're just three and
a half to five inches in length that's about eight
point nine to twelve point seven centimeters. Their main diet
is harvest or ants. That's actually where they get most
of the not just their nutrients, but also their water.
(03:39):
They live an average of about seven years. They're most
commonly found in the mid southern areas of the us SO, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
and New Mexico, and then south into northern Mexico. They
also go into broomation. That's the reptile version of a
mammal's hibernation. They do that from late autumn to early spring,
(04:00):
and they kind of burrow into the ground and bury
themselves for winter. The story of Eastland, Texas and its
horned lizard goes like this. In eighteen ninety seven, Eastland
had grown to the point where it needed to have
a proper city hall built, and as part of that project,
the community included a little time capsule in the cornerstone
of the building while it was under construction. In that
(04:23):
time capsule were a newspaper, some coins, a bible, other
odds and ends to represent life in the town at
the end of the nineteenth century. All of this sounds
very normal for a time capsule, and also the pet
horny toad of a boy named will Wood, so Willwood's father,
Ernest Wood, recounted this story for the papers years later.
(04:48):
Ernest was going to be involved in the laying of
this cornerstone for the new building because he was a
county clerk, but he was also a member of the
town's band. He played coronet, which was playing at the ceremony.
He is very connected to all the things going on
this day, and Wood told reporters that when he left
for the day to go to this event, he noticed
(05:08):
his son Will playing with what he called a horned frog.
It was this horned lizard that the boy had caught
and made into a pet. And Wood believed the old
saying that a Texas horned toad could live for a
hundred years, and so he thought this would be a
good way to prove it and a fun thing to
include in this little project. So he handed this animal
(05:30):
off to a friend who was involved with the time capsule,
and that friend saw to it that the lizard, which
was named Blinkie, into the cornerstone. Over the course of
the next thirty years, the town grew quickly, so quickly
that it outgrew that eighteen ninety seven courthouse structure. Plans
were made to raise that structure to make room for
(05:51):
a new building, and on Saturday, February eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight,
the demolition was underway and the time capsule was bed.
Several of the town's most prominent citizens were on hand
for this event, and people knew there was a horned
lizard in there somewhere. The Eastland Argus Tribune and other
(06:11):
papers wrote about it in the days leading up to
the opening of the Time Capsule. Accounts estimated that fifteen
hundred people were in attendance at the opening. Yeah, and
it does appear that Ernest Wood was the one who
reminded everybody, hey, you remember we put that lizard in there,
we should get a lot of people to see if
(06:32):
it's still alive, because he thought it was going to be.
When this cornerstone was excavated and opened, an oil man
who was part of the town named Eugene Day was
the one to brave, sticking his hand into the open
cavity to retrieve the lizard. That lizard got handed off
to County Judge Edward S. Pritchard, who held it up
by its hind leg to show to the gathered crowd,
(06:54):
and it looked dusty and still, and then, according to legend,
the other leg twitched the other back leg, and the
lizard is said to have exhibited signs of breathing, and
then the crowd just erupted in cheers, and the days
immediately after this astonishing situation, the people who had witnessed
(07:14):
the opening of the box were asked to give statements
to the press about what had happened. Ed Pritchard, the
County Judge, said that quote, the frog was in the
cornerstone at its opening, and the stone gave no evidence
of having been opened prior to that time. Employees of
the construction company that was handling the tear down of
the building also corroborated that the frog was in the cornerstone,
(07:38):
and that the cornerstone appeared to have not been touched
between its original positioning in eighteen ninety seven and that
day in February, a superintendent of the demolition named H. A.
Park stated quote, the stone had not been tampered with.
One of his employees, a man named Roy Wheatley, said
that he had opened the stone with a pick himself,
(07:58):
that it had not been opened before that moment, and
that the frog, as he called it, was in the stone.
A Baptist minister, Reverend fe Singleton, had been on hand
for the opening of the cornerstone and was the first
person to see the frog. According to accounts, he exclaimed,
there's the frog. When the demolition team Pride open the cornerstone.
(08:20):
There was also assurance in the paper that quote spectators
of unimpeachable integrity declare that a frog was taken from
the box on February nineteenth, nineteen twenty eight. The following
article was published by the Associated Press and was picked
up by newspapers around the US. Quote A horned toad
(08:41):
sealed alive in the cornerstone of the courthouse here in Eastland,
Texas thirty one years ago, was alive when the stone
was removed yesterday. According to Judge Pritchard, the old courthouse
is being raised. It is a West Texas tradition that
a horned toad can exist century without food or water.
(09:02):
A skeptical newspaperman had to judge verify the report that
the toad was alive when taken from its long intubment.
After the cornerstone was removed, the toad appeared lifeless for
some time, but in a little while it opened its eyes.
In about twenty minutes it began to breathe. The mouth, however,
appeared to have grown together. Efforts will be made to
(09:25):
induce the toad to take food, and if necessary, the
mouth will be opened by an operation. The toad is
now on exhibition. That exhibition really just meant that the
specimen had been put on display in a store window.
It was technically in the care of county officials, but
interest in the creature was so great that placing it
(09:46):
somewhere that people could come and look at it for
themselves was probably the best possible scenario. People observed as
the lizard, which the town nicknamed Old Rip in a
nod to Rip dan Winkle, became more and more animated
in its movement as time. Allegedly, there were offers made
to buy this unique creature for significant amounts of money.
(10:07):
On February twentieth, the Associated Press article was released that claimed, quote,
more than ten thousand persons from all parts of this
country yesterday viewed the frog which is on display in
the window of a local drug store. Aside from being
slightly emaciated in a front leg, the frog was in
normal condition. This notice recounts the lizard having seemed dead
(10:29):
when the box was open, showing quote slight signs of
its breathing, and it states that it is quote about
the size of the palm of a human hand. It
also mentioned that the creature would be kept in confinement
for as long as it lived. Eventually, Ripp's mouth did
become unsealed, and after that he ate a steady diet
of ants and cockroaches. If you're thinking disbelieving thoughts, you
(10:53):
are not alone. And we will talk about the reaction
to the news of this resurrected lizard in nineteen twenty
eight after we return from a sponsor break. So listen.
All of this old rip talk sounds unbelievable, and people
(11:17):
thought so. In nineteen twenty eight two, an article titled
Texas horned frog upsets scientists was published by the Associated
Press on February twentieth. That's circulated throughout the country, and
it includes a quote from doctor William M. Man, director
of the National Zoological Park. Doctor Man's statement reads as follows. Quote.
(11:37):
A horned toad, which as a matter of fact, is
not a toad at all, but a variety of lizard,
is a surface creature and could live only a short
time without air and food. Doctor Man mentions that there
are instances that the creature can go for several months
without eating, presumably referring to the natural brumation cycle. But
he continued his assertion that thirty one years was aposterous,
(12:00):
stating quote, under no circumstances, however, would it be possible
for a toad to retain life for thirty one years
inside of an airtight cell. Two other biologists, doctor dB
Castile and doctor J. T. Patterson, both from Texas, were
also consulted for their take on the horned lizard situation.
(12:21):
Neither was willing to denounce the claim completely on record,
but noted that there was no other known instance of
such an occurrence that would offer precedent. It definitely seems
like these two did not want to reign on anyone's parade.
They made it clear that they were not reptile specialists,
and then they named several other experts that the papers
(12:43):
should contact yeah biologists, but were neither of us specializes
in reptiles. Doctor Raymond L. Ditmars, who was the curator
of Mammals and Reptiles at the Bronx Zoo in nineteen
twenty eight when all of this happened, weighed in and
he deemed the story of the animals survival quote utterly impossible.
Doctor Dintmar shared the same information about the species that
(13:06):
other biologists had, mentioning that a horned lizard could go
without food for three or four months, and without water,
possibly as long as six months, but breathing was going
to be an issue. But there were a couple of
prominent animal experts who thought the story might have some validity.
One was doctor William Temple Hornday. He served as the
(13:27):
Director General, Curator and Curator of Mammals for the New
York Zoological Gardens now known as the Bronx Zoo for
twenty seven years, and had retired from that job two
years before Eastland's miracle reptile made news. When asked about
the likelihood of a reptile surviving thirty one years entombed,
(13:47):
Horniday cited an example of another seemingly impossible animal survival story.
He told a reporter quote, I was in Ceylon digging
for elephant bones and tusks in sand which had been
packed so hard it had almost the consistency of rock.
So far as could be observed, that sand had been
lying there for a thousand years, and this impermeable mass
(14:10):
about two feet beneath the surface, we uncovered a frog
which was absolutely entombed there. Fortunately, it escaped spades and
pickaxes and was lifted out alive. Its stomach was full
of water, which it ejected and then hopped away. It
opened my eyes to the possibilities of things at which
the scientists are prone to scoff. It was impossible for
(14:32):
that frog to have entered the excavation after it had
been dug. It was uncovered by a shovel in part
of the soil which had not been touched. There was
no fissure or burrow anywhere in that indurated mass. Doctor
Hornaday's story is something we can't really verify, but it's
interesting that he really broke from the herd of other
(14:53):
animal experts to suggest that sometimes unexplainable things happened. Incidentally,
he's pretty interesting and sometimes horrifying, and might be an
episode himself at some point. Yeah, deeply horrifying. Another was
Prentice E. Reid of Sherman, Texas. Mister Reid was a
professor of biology and he was head of the Austin
(15:15):
College Biology department, and he actually had a similar take
to Hornaday, although he did not have examples of similar
stories to tell. He actually said he couldn't think of
any case on record like the one in Eastland, but
he did think that if the conditions were right, an
animal might survive. Specifically, he thought that there would need
to have been a bit of moisture sealed into the
(15:37):
cornerstone with the lizard. Less than a week after the
alleged revival of the Eastland lizard, a collection of articles
under the banner frog question Acute and Threatens to Become
National appeared in the Wichita Falls Times paper. Is that
your favorite headline Holly of all time? The headline at
(16:00):
all of page six of the paper on February twenty six.
Then about eighty percent of the text on the page
is about the toad, with small subheaders that approached the
topic from different angles. The first chunk of text makes
it pretty clear that this entire debate is tongue in cheek.
The opening paragraph reads quote information received by the Time
(16:20):
Saturday on the horned toad question, which has arrayed brother
against brother, wife against husband, and children against parents through
the length and breadth of this country. Indicated that the
controversy will probably be an issue in the forthcoming presidential campaign.
An effort will be made to have a congressional investigation
(16:42):
of the matter. It was learned in order that the
public may have all the facts. Yeah, this is like
the hot topic of the day. It's like, is the
dress blue or white? It? Was the lizard really alive
or was it in fact a fake? The paper then
shared that due to the high profile while toad news,
many readers had sent in stories of their own experiences
(17:04):
with toads, and in some cases allegedly brought their own
toads to the papers offices. We're using toads a lot here,
because that is the word the paper was using. One
account tells of the locals pet toad named Bull, which
sounds almost almost plausible, similarly long brumation type thing, But
then the reader realizes the whole thing is satire when
(17:24):
it's reported that Bull took voice lessons at the Chicago
Conservatory of Music. One of the offshoots of this entire
alleged revival of old rip was the desire to entomb
another Texas horned lizard in the new Courthouse. When construction began,
a toad was sealed into a cornerstone of the new structure,
but this time concerned citizens criticized the move and took
(17:49):
legal action to prevent another animal being purposely sealed in
a construction project. On May fourteenth, nineteen twenty eight, an
article appeared in the New York Times which read quote,
a group of humanely inclined citizens obtained a court order
today against the ceiling of a horned toad in the
corner of the New Courthouse, and the toad placed in
(18:10):
the stone Saturday was release, none the worse for its
forty eight hour and tument. Despite the debates and the doubters,
almost immediately people everywhere wanted horned frogs of their own
to keep his pets. People as far away as Australia
ordered them from Eastland, and when Houston hosted the National
(18:31):
Democratic Convention in June of nineteen twenty eight, so just
a few months later, the most popular souvenir there was
a live horned frog, which could be purchased for two
dollars or fifty cents. There was an entire pop up
industry of shipping these animals to buyers around the world,
which depleted the local population to the point that the
(18:51):
Department of Agriculture got involved. A bulletin was published explaining
that the drop in horned lizards because they were all
being shipped away, was impacting crops because the insects that
they normally ate were going unchecked and then could attack plants.
I'm just gonna say it's not a great idea to
introduce no reptiles into different places. As this horned lizard
(19:17):
mania grew, demands to see Old Rip did as well.
Since will Wood, who was now an adult in his thirties,
was still alive and Old Rip had been his pet,
he once again claimed ownership over the celebrity reptile, and
will took him to Dallas for a theatrical run in
a venue there. This led to issues back home, though
(19:39):
Eastland was still getting waves of tourists who had come
to see Old Rip, and when he was not there
but in Dallas, they were disappointed. Will Wood decided to
bring the lizard back to his hometown, but the theater
owners in Dallas didn't want to lose the tourism revenue either,
and they sued for breach of contract. As part of
this legal tangle, Old Rip was taken into custody and
(20:01):
it cost will Wood a thousand dollars to get him back. Additionally,
the city of Eastland felt that it was technically the
owner of the lizard. All this happened very quickly, in
the space of a week after Rip had been pulled
from the cornerstone. Will Would, Eastland and Dallas appear to
(20:21):
have worked things out. It's not entirely clear what those
terms were, but once those legalities were settled, an actual
tour for Rip was planned at the Saint Louis Geological Gardens.
He was said to have drawn forty thousand visitors in
a single day. He went to New York City, and
there filmmakers made short movies of him. A bug wrangler
(20:42):
was even hired to catch food for Rip at the
rate of fifty cents per insect. You would bring those
bugs to the set and they would film him eating.
When Will and Rip visited Indianapolis, the local press described
Rip's living quarters to readers quote a fish globe with
a trifle of sand at the bottom, and gcribed the
famous reptile as quote hard to interview, noting that quote
(21:04):
horn toads or perhaps not good conversationalists by nature. The
lizard gained such a level of celebrity that in May
of nineteen twenty eight, President Calvin Coolidge was given a
chance to see it as part of Old Rips tour.
Will Wood was actually fifteen minutes late to the meeting
because of a bit of confusion on his part. He
(21:26):
first went to the office of Texas Senator Earl B. Mayfield,
who had arranged the visit, instead of going directly to
the White House. At the time, the toad was quote
wrapped not too handsomely in a bundle of newspaper and
accompanied by Senator Mayfield and other prominent Texans. When it
was brought before the President, will Wood told Coolidge Old
(21:48):
Rip's story and answered the President's questions about the lizard.
According to a newspaper account, quote, mister Coolidge, though amused,
limited himself to looking at the creature and touching it
with his spectacles. I will confess that when I first
read that quote, I thought it was one of those
like plays on words, like touch with your eyes, not
(22:09):
with your hands. But in fact, he apparently did run
the edge of his spectacles along the lizard's back, but
he wouldn't actually touch it with his hand. Maybe he
thought that he would get warts, which is another common
myth about the animals. Maybe so, after that audience with
Calvin Coolidge, Will and Old Rip headed back to Eastland,
(22:32):
and there Rip became part of Will's family for a
little while. Six months later, Old Rip died on January nineteenth,
nineteen twenty nine. Some modern write ups mentioned his cause
of death as pneumonia. It's not clear to me where
that information may have come from. Maybe some reptile expert
(22:53):
determined that was the case. Did they do a chest
X ray? I mean, animals could certainly get pneumonia, but
I'm dubious that a nineteen twenty nine veterinarian would have
done that because they did not do an autopsy, because
they did something else. We'll talk about Old rips life
(23:17):
after death after we hear from the sponsors that keep
the show going. Even in death, Old Rip retained his
celebrity status in Eastland. A small mausoleum was made for
(23:38):
him in the new Courthouse, with a glass lids that
people could peer inside. An eight inch long casket with
a red velvet lining was specially made so visitors would
see Old rips carefully preserved body in the most luxurious
and regal state imaginable. There was also an image of
Old Rip carved into the entryway of the building. When
(23:58):
the ten year anniversary of Old Rips Unboxing approached, the
story was once again in the papers, this time The
Fort Worth Star Telegram recounted the entire tale and had
Boyce House, the newspaperman who broke the story, originally write
the update. One of the main points of the write
up was that no one had ever disproven the legitimacy
(24:19):
of the story of the lizard's thirty one year broomation.
No evidence of a prank or stunt had ever been revealed,
and as the paper stated, quote, if it was false,
surely someone who was on the inside would have unwittingly
given it the secret away. House also wrote that once
the cornerstone had been opened quote, the Eastland frog became
(24:41):
the most famous animal since the serpent in the Garden
of Eden. Old Rip made headline news again in nineteen
sixty one, this time it had nothing to do with
the longevity debate. The reptile on display at the Eastland
County Courthouse was stolen, or, perhaps more accurately, lizard nap
because there was a ransom note. It was noticed that
(25:04):
Rip was missing on Wednesday, September twenty seventh, nineteen sixty one,
a search of the building was begun. Newspaper accounts don't
list where the ransom note was found, merely that it
was discovered and it read quote, if you want your
famous frog back, get ten thousand dollars. Instructions will follow,
but no ransom was paid. According to an account in
(25:27):
the Austin American Statesman from September twenty ninth, quote, a
telephone call from an unnamed person cleared up the mystery. Yesterday, however,
when Sheriff LEEH. Horn was told that Old Rip was
in a paper sack in Room four hundred of the
Eastland National Bank Building, officers found Rip and returned him
to his red casket in the courthouse. It was never
(25:49):
discovered who took the reptile, and the article merely states,
quote A lot of people think they know, but no
one has been convicted. And that was not the only
time that Rip was lizard napped. The next disappearance happened
in April nineteen seventy two, and this one has its
own layers of intrigue. Mayor HV. O'Brien, who was newly elected,
(26:11):
asked the public for the toad napper to please return Rip.
Not long after the town mascot had vanished. A search
win underway, just as before, and this time someone found
him pretty quickly. Where not entirely clear but soon he
was back in his display case, or was he. Four
(26:32):
years after that second disappearance, the fort Worth Star Telegram
received an anonymous letter. The letter writer claimed that they
had taken Rip in nineteen seventy two, and that they
in fact still had him. The found version of Rip
on display had four intact feet, whereas the original only
had three, apparently from an interaction with politician John Connolly,
(26:56):
who visited Eastland during his nineteen sixty two campaign for
governor and picked Rip up, damaging his leg. This currently
viewable Rip was, according to this letter, a fake. The
letter writer shared with the Star Telegram that they had
been part of a team of three hoaxters who had
snuck a live lizard into the courthouse cornerstone shortly before
(27:19):
it was publicly opened in nineteen twenty eight. They wrote
to the paper quote, in recent years, I have become
increasingly regretful of my actions so long ago, and so
after all these years, I realized that I would have
to act again to rectify the unfortunate situation for which
I was partially responsible. Confronted with the fact that the
(27:40):
city of Eastland was building its future around a dried up,
horned frog, this was not the first letter from this
lizard Napper. The first one had actually been sent in
nineteen seventy two and Rip had vanished, and it offered
a five thousand dollars reward to anyone who could prove
that Rip had survived thirty one years in a cornerstone
(28:03):
the nineteen seventy six letters, So the second letter doubled
down that amount to ten thousand dollars, with the added
challenge to prove that the one that had been found
and was on display was the real Rip. It doesn't
seem that anyone ever collected any cash, so no one
rose up to those challenges, and it sort of seems
like at least some people just accepted that, no, this
(28:26):
probably was not the original rip, but they also didn't
seem too chagrined about it. In a nineteen seventy seven
right up in The Odessa American, the story of Rip
is relayed and it ends with quote Rip later died
and his body was eventually stolen from the Eastland County
Courthouse and was never returned. But on September seventeenth, Old
Rip Spirit will prevail at the first Annual International Old
(28:49):
Rip Memorial. Hornytoad racing competition, Rip had become such a
legend that maybe the particulars and the veracity of the
story just weren't all that critical anymore. In the decades
since the nineteen seventies, Old Rip has been honored in
a variety of ways, and now on the first Saturday
of October each year you can visit rip Fest, which
(29:12):
has an art festival, a pageant, a parade, and even
an Old Rip five k. Today, the Texas horned lizards
an a state of decline in some areas. While some
populations are stable, others have seen a significant drop off.
The Texas horned lizard is currently classified as a threatened
species in the state Oklahoma lists it as a species
(29:36):
of special concern and a species of greatest conservation need.
According to researchers working in the twenty teens, the biggest
problems for the Texas horned lizards survival were our habitat
destruction and invasive ant species. Yeah in particular, red ants
are really moving into the territory of the ants that
(29:57):
these lizards normally eat, and so they are losing their
food sources. You can incidentally, still visit Old Riff at
the Eastland Courthouse though he is probably not going anywhere.
Probably one never knows. Do you have a listener mail
for us? I do. This is from our listener Lucy.
(30:19):
It is about our Human Hovel episode, and she writes,
high Holly and Tracy. My name is Lucy and I
live in Canberra, Australia. I'm sure I'm pronouncing that slightly
differently than most Australians. It just is what it is.
I write this as I'm driving home on the Hume Highway.
The highway runs between Sydney and Melbourne at eight hundred
eighty kilometers five hundred forty seven miles. I drive approximately
(30:42):
six hundred kilometers of that between Canberra and Melbourne. I
pulled out of a rest stop as your next episode
started playing into my surprise, it's Human Hovel. I've driven
this highway dozens of times throughout my life to visit
family or to holiday in Melbourne. We also have a
William Hovel Drive in cam Brah and I commute on
it regularly. I had never heard the story of their expedition,
(31:04):
and I always love hearing your episodes related to Australian history.
I love the show and have listened to every episode
just finishing the most recent episodes that I saved for
this current road trip. I have attached pictures of my kiddies.
Marvin and Trillion goes by Trill. Keep up the great
work and I look forward to your episodes every week.
(31:24):
Marvin and Trillion are these beautiful tabbies that are silvery
looking per this thing, and I'm entranced. Fluffiness. The fluffiness
of Marvin has me forever. I presume I know where
those names are from. Thank you so much for this email, Lucy.
We just love it and your kiddies are beautiful. If
you would like to write to us, you can do
so at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can
(31:46):
also find us on social media as missed in History
and we are here easy pacy to subscribe to on
the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:09):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production
of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Holly
Fry and I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I'm happy to report
that this story involved one of my very favorite headlines
(00:21):
I have ever come across in a newspaper. Oh good,
I'll point it out when we get there. This is
a story that is to this jay debated in terms
of its truthfulness. But what I found really fascinating was
being able to examine how it was written about and
perceived during the time it was happening. And it was
written about a lot, because it's quite a story, so
(00:42):
I had plenty of things to go through. This is
a story that any of our listeners from Texas probably
know because today we are talking about Old Rip, a
much beloved legendary reptile for our animal enthusiasts and biologists
in the crowd. I feel like I should apologize upfront
because the write ups of the events that we're talking
(01:03):
about today played really fast and loose with terminology, using
the words frog, toad, and lizard completely interchangeably. I think
I tried to correct most of the ones where we
are talking to lizard, but I may have not done
that everywhere, so we'll try our best. There's quoted material,
there's so much quoted material that call it a frog. Yeah.
(01:27):
I'll also say that as the sort of person who
catches bees and spiders and takes them outside, I just
found like the setup of this a little disturbing. Agreed.
I have thoughts to share on Friday about sure animals
and their treatment. Yeah. Yeah, so just brace I guess
(01:48):
if you're also the sort of person that if you
found a little reptile, we're like, oh, I'm gonna carefully
take you outside. Just no human behavior not always cool. Yeah. So,
so we're all on the same page about what animal
we are actually talking about and what that animal actually is.
(02:09):
While it has often been called a Texas horned toad
and as we just said, also a frog, it is
really a lizard. There are more than a dozen species
of horned lizards in North America. They all fall under
the genus Frinisoma. The Texas horned lizard is Frenisoma cornutum.
(02:33):
Please excuse my Latin. So, yes, this is one of
the lizards that can shoot blood from its eyes to
ward off predators. But that is not at a tale
in today's particular story. Yeah, it's actually coming out of
its eyelid when it does that, but that's usually to
ward off much bigger predators like coyotes that might think
it's tasty. Never comes up in today's story. The horns
(02:55):
of the horny lizard form this sort of crown on
the animal's head. There are slight different variations from species
to species, and in the Texas horned lizard there are
two prominent horns on the skull and then smaller horns
around it, and then there are these stripes of spikes
which are sometimes called fringe, that run down the body.
They're very cute. I see why they got called frogs
(03:17):
or toads because they have a very rounded body compared
to the sort of like linear appearance of many lizards.
They're not very big animals though, they're just three and
a half to five inches in length that's about eight
point nine to twelve point seven centimeters. Their main diet
is harvest or ants. That's actually where they get most
of the not just their nutrients, but also their water.
(03:39):
They live an average of about seven years. They're most
commonly found in the mid southern areas of the us SO, Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas,
and New Mexico, and then south into northern Mexico. They
also go into broomation. That's the reptile version of a
mammal's hibernation. They do that from late autumn to early spring,
(04:00):
and they kind of burrow into the ground and bury
themselves for winter. The story of Eastland, Texas and its
horned lizard goes like this. In eighteen ninety seven, Eastland
had grown to the point where it needed to have
a proper city hall built, and as part of that project,
the community included a little time capsule in the cornerstone
of the building while it was under construction. In that
(04:23):
time capsule were a newspaper, some coins, a bible, other
odds and ends to represent life in the town at
the end of the nineteenth century. All of this sounds
very normal for a time capsule, and also the pet
horny toad of a boy named will Wood, so Willwood's father,
Ernest Wood, recounted this story for the papers years later.
(04:48):
Ernest was going to be involved in the laying of
this cornerstone for the new building because he was a
county clerk, but he was also a member of the
town's band. He played coronet, which was playing at the ceremony.
He is very connected to all the things going on
this day, and Wood told reporters that when he left
for the day to go to this event, he noticed
(05:08):
his son Will playing with what he called a horned frog.
It was this horned lizard that the boy had caught
and made into a pet. And Wood believed the old
saying that a Texas horned toad could live for a
hundred years, and so he thought this would be a
good way to prove it and a fun thing to
include in this little project. So he handed this animal
(05:30):
off to a friend who was involved with the time capsule,
and that friend saw to it that the lizard, which
was named Blinkie, into the cornerstone. Over the course of
the next thirty years, the town grew quickly, so quickly
that it outgrew that eighteen ninety seven courthouse structure. Plans
were made to raise that structure to make room for
(05:51):
a new building, and on Saturday, February eighteenth, nineteen twenty eight,
the demolition was underway and the time capsule was bed.
Several of the town's most prominent citizens were on hand
for this event, and people knew there was a horned
lizard in there somewhere. The Eastland Argus Tribune and other
(06:11):
papers wrote about it in the days leading up to
the opening of the Time Capsule. Accounts estimated that fifteen
hundred people were in attendance at the opening. Yeah, and
it does appear that Ernest Wood was the one who
reminded everybody, hey, you remember we put that lizard in there,
we should get a lot of people to see if
(06:32):
it's still alive, because he thought it was going to be.
When this cornerstone was excavated and opened, an oil man
who was part of the town named Eugene Day was
the one to brave, sticking his hand into the open
cavity to retrieve the lizard. That lizard got handed off
to County Judge Edward S. Pritchard, who held it up
by its hind leg to show to the gathered crowd,
(06:54):
and it looked dusty and still, and then, according to legend,
the other leg twitched the other back leg, and the
lizard is said to have exhibited signs of breathing, and
then the crowd just erupted in cheers, and the days
immediately after this astonishing situation, the people who had witnessed
(07:14):
the opening of the box were asked to give statements
to the press about what had happened. Ed Pritchard, the
County Judge, said that quote, the frog was in the
cornerstone at its opening, and the stone gave no evidence
of having been opened prior to that time. Employees of
the construction company that was handling the tear down of
the building also corroborated that the frog was in the cornerstone,
(07:38):
and that the cornerstone appeared to have not been touched
between its original positioning in eighteen ninety seven and that
day in February, a superintendent of the demolition named H. A.
Park stated quote, the stone had not been tampered with.
One of his employees, a man named Roy Wheatley, said
that he had opened the stone with a pick himself,
(07:58):
that it had not been opened before that moment, and
that the frog, as he called it, was in the stone.
A Baptist minister, Reverend fe Singleton, had been on hand
for the opening of the cornerstone and was the first
person to see the frog. According to accounts, he exclaimed,
there's the frog. When the demolition team Pride open the cornerstone.
(08:20):
There was also assurance in the paper that quote spectators
of unimpeachable integrity declare that a frog was taken from
the box on February nineteenth, nineteen twenty eight. The following
article was published by the Associated Press and was picked
up by newspapers around the US. Quote A horned toad
(08:41):
sealed alive in the cornerstone of the courthouse here in Eastland,
Texas thirty one years ago, was alive when the stone
was removed yesterday. According to Judge Pritchard, the old courthouse
is being raised. It is a West Texas tradition that
a horned toad can exist century without food or water.
(09:02):
A skeptical newspaperman had to judge verify the report that
the toad was alive when taken from its long intubment.
After the cornerstone was removed, the toad appeared lifeless for
some time, but in a little while it opened its eyes.
In about twenty minutes it began to breathe. The mouth, however,
appeared to have grown together. Efforts will be made to
(09:25):
induce the toad to take food, and if necessary, the
mouth will be opened by an operation. The toad is
now on exhibition. That exhibition really just meant that the
specimen had been put on display in a store window.
It was technically in the care of county officials, but
interest in the creature was so great that placing it
(09:46):
somewhere that people could come and look at it for
themselves was probably the best possible scenario. People observed as
the lizard, which the town nicknamed Old Rip in a
nod to Rip dan Winkle, became more and more animated
in its movement as time. Allegedly, there were offers made
to buy this unique creature for significant amounts of money.
(10:07):
On February twentieth, the Associated Press article was released that claimed, quote,
more than ten thousand persons from all parts of this
country yesterday viewed the frog which is on display in
the window of a local drug store. Aside from being
slightly emaciated in a front leg, the frog was in
normal condition. This notice recounts the lizard having seemed dead
(10:29):
when the box was open, showing quote slight signs of
its breathing, and it states that it is quote about
the size of the palm of a human hand. It
also mentioned that the creature would be kept in confinement
for as long as it lived. Eventually, Ripp's mouth did
become unsealed, and after that he ate a steady diet
of ants and cockroaches. If you're thinking disbelieving thoughts, you
(10:53):
are not alone. And we will talk about the reaction
to the news of this resurrected lizard in nineteen twenty
eight after we return from a sponsor break. So listen.
All of this old rip talk sounds unbelievable, and people
(11:17):
thought so. In nineteen twenty eight two, an article titled
Texas horned frog upsets scientists was published by the Associated
Press on February twentieth. That's circulated throughout the country, and
it includes a quote from doctor William M. Man, director
of the National Zoological Park. Doctor Man's statement reads as follows. Quote.
(11:37):
A horned toad, which as a matter of fact, is
not a toad at all, but a variety of lizard,
is a surface creature and could live only a short
time without air and food. Doctor Man mentions that there
are instances that the creature can go for several months
without eating, presumably referring to the natural brumation cycle. But
he continued his assertion that thirty one years was aposterous,
(12:00):
stating quote, under no circumstances, however, would it be possible
for a toad to retain life for thirty one years
inside of an airtight cell. Two other biologists, doctor dB
Castile and doctor J. T. Patterson, both from Texas, were
also consulted for their take on the horned lizard situation.
(12:21):
Neither was willing to denounce the claim completely on record,
but noted that there was no other known instance of
such an occurrence that would offer precedent. It definitely seems
like these two did not want to reign on anyone's parade.
They made it clear that they were not reptile specialists,
and then they named several other experts that the papers
(12:43):
should contact yeah biologists, but were neither of us specializes
in reptiles. Doctor Raymond L. Ditmars, who was the curator
of Mammals and Reptiles at the Bronx Zoo in nineteen
twenty eight when all of this happened, weighed in and
he deemed the story of the animals survival quote utterly impossible.
Doctor Dintmar shared the same information about the species that
(13:06):
other biologists had, mentioning that a horned lizard could go
without food for three or four months, and without water,
possibly as long as six months, but breathing was going
to be an issue. But there were a couple of
prominent animal experts who thought the story might have some validity.
One was doctor William Temple Hornday. He served as the
(13:27):
Director General, Curator and Curator of Mammals for the New
York Zoological Gardens now known as the Bronx Zoo for
twenty seven years, and had retired from that job two
years before Eastland's miracle reptile made news. When asked about
the likelihood of a reptile surviving thirty one years entombed,
(13:47):
Horniday cited an example of another seemingly impossible animal survival story.
He told a reporter quote, I was in Ceylon digging
for elephant bones and tusks in sand which had been
packed so hard it had almost the consistency of rock.
So far as could be observed, that sand had been
lying there for a thousand years, and this impermeable mass
(14:10):
about two feet beneath the surface, we uncovered a frog
which was absolutely entombed there. Fortunately, it escaped spades and
pickaxes and was lifted out alive. Its stomach was full
of water, which it ejected and then hopped away. It
opened my eyes to the possibilities of things at which
the scientists are prone to scoff. It was impossible for
(14:32):
that frog to have entered the excavation after it had
been dug. It was uncovered by a shovel in part
of the soil which had not been touched. There was
no fissure or burrow anywhere in that indurated mass. Doctor
Hornaday's story is something we can't really verify, but it's
interesting that he really broke from the herd of other
(14:53):
animal experts to suggest that sometimes unexplainable things happened. Incidentally,
he's pretty interesting and sometimes horrifying, and might be an
episode himself at some point. Yeah, deeply horrifying. Another was
Prentice E. Reid of Sherman, Texas. Mister Reid was a
professor of biology and he was head of the Austin
(15:15):
College Biology department, and he actually had a similar take
to Hornaday, although he did not have examples of similar
stories to tell. He actually said he couldn't think of
any case on record like the one in Eastland, but
he did think that if the conditions were right, an
animal might survive. Specifically, he thought that there would need
to have been a bit of moisture sealed into the
(15:37):
cornerstone with the lizard. Less than a week after the
alleged revival of the Eastland lizard, a collection of articles
under the banner frog question Acute and Threatens to Become
National appeared in the Wichita Falls Times paper. Is that
your favorite headline Holly of all time? The headline at
(16:00):
all of page six of the paper on February twenty six.
Then about eighty percent of the text on the page
is about the toad, with small subheaders that approached the
topic from different angles. The first chunk of text makes
it pretty clear that this entire debate is tongue in cheek.
The opening paragraph reads quote information received by the Time
(16:20):
Saturday on the horned toad question, which has arrayed brother
against brother, wife against husband, and children against parents through
the length and breadth of this country. Indicated that the
controversy will probably be an issue in the forthcoming presidential campaign.
An effort will be made to have a congressional investigation
(16:42):
of the matter. It was learned in order that the
public may have all the facts. Yeah, this is like
the hot topic of the day. It's like, is the
dress blue or white? It? Was the lizard really alive
or was it in fact a fake? The paper then
shared that due to the high profile while toad news,
many readers had sent in stories of their own experiences
(17:04):
with toads, and in some cases allegedly brought their own
toads to the papers offices. We're using toads a lot here,
because that is the word the paper was using. One
account tells of the locals pet toad named Bull, which
sounds almost almost plausible, similarly long brumation type thing, But
then the reader realizes the whole thing is satire when
(17:24):
it's reported that Bull took voice lessons at the Chicago
Conservatory of Music. One of the offshoots of this entire
alleged revival of old rip was the desire to entomb
another Texas horned lizard in the new Courthouse. When construction began,
a toad was sealed into a cornerstone of the new structure,
but this time concerned citizens criticized the move and took
(17:49):
legal action to prevent another animal being purposely sealed in
a construction project. On May fourteenth, nineteen twenty eight, an
article appeared in the New York Times which read quote,
a group of humanely inclined citizens obtained a court order
today against the ceiling of a horned toad in the
corner of the New Courthouse, and the toad placed in
(18:10):
the stone Saturday was release, none the worse for its
forty eight hour and tument. Despite the debates and the doubters,
almost immediately people everywhere wanted horned frogs of their own
to keep his pets. People as far away as Australia
ordered them from Eastland, and when Houston hosted the National
(18:31):
Democratic Convention in June of nineteen twenty eight, so just
a few months later, the most popular souvenir there was
a live horned frog, which could be purchased for two
dollars or fifty cents. There was an entire pop up
industry of shipping these animals to buyers around the world,
which depleted the local population to the point that the
(18:51):
Department of Agriculture got involved. A bulletin was published explaining
that the drop in horned lizards because they were all
being shipped away, was impacting crops because the insects that
they normally ate were going unchecked and then could attack plants.
I'm just gonna say it's not a great idea to
introduce no reptiles into different places. As this horned lizard
(19:17):
mania grew, demands to see Old Rip did as well.
Since will Wood, who was now an adult in his thirties,
was still alive and Old Rip had been his pet,
he once again claimed ownership over the celebrity reptile, and
will took him to Dallas for a theatrical run in
a venue there. This led to issues back home, though
(19:39):
Eastland was still getting waves of tourists who had come
to see Old Rip, and when he was not there
but in Dallas, they were disappointed. Will Wood decided to
bring the lizard back to his hometown, but the theater
owners in Dallas didn't want to lose the tourism revenue either,
and they sued for breach of contract. As part of
this legal tangle, Old Rip was taken into custody and
(20:01):
it cost will Wood a thousand dollars to get him back. Additionally,
the city of Eastland felt that it was technically the
owner of the lizard. All this happened very quickly, in
the space of a week after Rip had been pulled
from the cornerstone. Will Would, Eastland and Dallas appear to
(20:21):
have worked things out. It's not entirely clear what those
terms were, but once those legalities were settled, an actual
tour for Rip was planned at the Saint Louis Geological Gardens.
He was said to have drawn forty thousand visitors in
a single day. He went to New York City, and
there filmmakers made short movies of him. A bug wrangler
(20:42):
was even hired to catch food for Rip at the
rate of fifty cents per insect. You would bring those
bugs to the set and they would film him eating.
When Will and Rip visited Indianapolis, the local press described
Rip's living quarters to readers quote a fish globe with
a trifle of sand at the bottom, and gcribed the
famous reptile as quote hard to interview, noting that quote
(21:04):
horn toads or perhaps not good conversationalists by nature. The
lizard gained such a level of celebrity that in May
of nineteen twenty eight, President Calvin Coolidge was given a
chance to see it as part of Old Rips tour.
Will Wood was actually fifteen minutes late to the meeting
because of a bit of confusion on his part. He
(21:26):
first went to the office of Texas Senator Earl B. Mayfield,
who had arranged the visit, instead of going directly to
the White House. At the time, the toad was quote
wrapped not too handsomely in a bundle of newspaper and
accompanied by Senator Mayfield and other prominent Texans. When it
was brought before the President, will Wood told Coolidge Old
(21:48):
Rip's story and answered the President's questions about the lizard.
According to a newspaper account, quote, mister Coolidge, though amused,
limited himself to looking at the creature and touching it
with his spectacles. I will confess that when I first
read that quote, I thought it was one of those
like plays on words, like touch with your eyes, not
(22:09):
with your hands. But in fact, he apparently did run
the edge of his spectacles along the lizard's back, but
he wouldn't actually touch it with his hand. Maybe he
thought that he would get warts, which is another common
myth about the animals. Maybe so, after that audience with
Calvin Coolidge, Will and Old Rip headed back to Eastland,
(22:32):
and there Rip became part of Will's family for a
little while. Six months later, Old Rip died on January nineteenth,
nineteen twenty nine. Some modern write ups mentioned his cause
of death as pneumonia. It's not clear to me where
that information may have come from. Maybe some reptile expert
(22:53):
determined that was the case. Did they do a chest
X ray? I mean, animals could certainly get pneumonia, but
I'm dubious that a nineteen twenty nine veterinarian would have
done that because they did not do an autopsy, because
they did something else. We'll talk about Old rips life
(23:17):
after death after we hear from the sponsors that keep
the show going. Even in death, Old Rip retained his
celebrity status in Eastland. A small mausoleum was made for
(23:38):
him in the new Courthouse, with a glass lids that
people could peer inside. An eight inch long casket with
a red velvet lining was specially made so visitors would
see Old rips carefully preserved body in the most luxurious
and regal state imaginable. There was also an image of
Old Rip carved into the entryway of the building. When
(23:58):
the ten year anniversary of Old Rips Unboxing approached, the
story was once again in the papers, this time The
Fort Worth Star Telegram recounted the entire tale and had
Boyce House, the newspaperman who broke the story, originally write
the update. One of the main points of the write
up was that no one had ever disproven the legitimacy
(24:19):
of the story of the lizard's thirty one year broomation.
No evidence of a prank or stunt had ever been revealed,
and as the paper stated, quote, if it was false,
surely someone who was on the inside would have unwittingly
given it the secret away. House also wrote that once
the cornerstone had been opened quote, the Eastland frog became
(24:41):
the most famous animal since the serpent in the Garden
of Eden. Old Rip made headline news again in nineteen
sixty one, this time it had nothing to do with
the longevity debate. The reptile on display at the Eastland
County Courthouse was stolen, or, perhaps more accurately, lizard nap
because there was a ransom note. It was noticed that
(25:04):
Rip was missing on Wednesday, September twenty seventh, nineteen sixty one,
a search of the building was begun. Newspaper accounts don't
list where the ransom note was found, merely that it
was discovered and it read quote, if you want your
famous frog back, get ten thousand dollars. Instructions will follow,
but no ransom was paid. According to an account in
(25:27):
the Austin American Statesman from September twenty ninth, quote, a
telephone call from an unnamed person cleared up the mystery. Yesterday, however,
when Sheriff LEEH. Horn was told that Old Rip was
in a paper sack in Room four hundred of the
Eastland National Bank Building, officers found Rip and returned him
to his red casket in the courthouse. It was never
(25:49):
discovered who took the reptile, and the article merely states,
quote A lot of people think they know, but no
one has been convicted. And that was not the only
time that Rip was lizard napped. The next disappearance happened
in April nineteen seventy two, and this one has its
own layers of intrigue. Mayor HV. O'Brien, who was newly elected,
(26:11):
asked the public for the toad napper to please return Rip.
Not long after the town mascot had vanished. A search
win underway, just as before, and this time someone found
him pretty quickly. Where not entirely clear but soon he
was back in his display case, or was he. Four
(26:32):
years after that second disappearance, the fort Worth Star Telegram
received an anonymous letter. The letter writer claimed that they
had taken Rip in nineteen seventy two, and that they
in fact still had him. The found version of Rip
on display had four intact feet, whereas the original only
had three, apparently from an interaction with politician John Connolly,
(26:56):
who visited Eastland during his nineteen sixty two campaign for
governor and picked Rip up, damaging his leg. This currently
viewable Rip was, according to this letter, a fake. The
letter writer shared with the Star Telegram that they had
been part of a team of three hoaxters who had
snuck a live lizard into the courthouse cornerstone shortly before
(27:19):
it was publicly opened in nineteen twenty eight. They wrote
to the paper quote, in recent years, I have become
increasingly regretful of my actions so long ago, and so
after all these years, I realized that I would have
to act again to rectify the unfortunate situation for which
I was partially responsible. Confronted with the fact that the
(27:40):
city of Eastland was building its future around a dried up,
horned frog, this was not the first letter from this
lizard Napper. The first one had actually been sent in
nineteen seventy two and Rip had vanished, and it offered
a five thousand dollars reward to anyone who could prove
that Rip had survived thirty one years in a cornerstone
(28:03):
the nineteen seventy six letters, So the second letter doubled
down that amount to ten thousand dollars, with the added
challenge to prove that the one that had been found
and was on display was the real Rip. It doesn't
seem that anyone ever collected any cash, so no one
rose up to those challenges, and it sort of seems
like at least some people just accepted that, no, this
(28:26):
probably was not the original rip, but they also didn't
seem too chagrined about it. In a nineteen seventy seven
right up in The Odessa American, the story of Rip
is relayed and it ends with quote Rip later died
and his body was eventually stolen from the Eastland County
Courthouse and was never returned. But on September seventeenth, Old
Rip Spirit will prevail at the first Annual International Old
(28:49):
Rip Memorial. Hornytoad racing competition, Rip had become such a
legend that maybe the particulars and the veracity of the
story just weren't all that critical anymore. In the decades
since the nineteen seventies, Old Rip has been honored in
a variety of ways, and now on the first Saturday
of October each year you can visit rip Fest, which
(29:12):
has an art festival, a pageant, a parade, and even
an Old Rip five k. Today, the Texas horned lizards
an a state of decline in some areas. While some
populations are stable, others have seen a significant drop off.
The Texas horned lizard is currently classified as a threatened
species in the state Oklahoma lists it as a species
(29:36):
of special concern and a species of greatest conservation need.
According to researchers working in the twenty teens, the biggest
problems for the Texas horned lizards survival were our habitat
destruction and invasive ant species. Yeah in particular, red ants
are really moving into the territory of the ants that
(29:57):
these lizards normally eat, and so they are losing their
food sources. You can incidentally, still visit Old Riff at
the Eastland Courthouse though he is probably not going anywhere.
Probably one never knows. Do you have a listener mail
for us? I do. This is from our listener Lucy.
(30:19):
It is about our Human Hovel episode, and she writes,
high Holly and Tracy. My name is Lucy and I
live in Canberra, Australia. I'm sure I'm pronouncing that slightly
differently than most Australians. It just is what it is.
I write this as I'm driving home on the Hume Highway.
The highway runs between Sydney and Melbourne at eight hundred
eighty kilometers five hundred forty seven miles. I drive approximately
(30:42):
six hundred kilometers of that between Canberra and Melbourne. I
pulled out of a rest stop as your next episode
started playing into my surprise, it's Human Hovel. I've driven
this highway dozens of times throughout my life to visit
family or to holiday in Melbourne. We also have a
William Hovel Drive in cam Brah and I commute on
it regularly. I had never heard the story of their expedition,
(31:04):
and I always love hearing your episodes related to Australian history.
I love the show and have listened to every episode
just finishing the most recent episodes that I saved for
this current road trip. I have attached pictures of my kiddies.
Marvin and Trillion goes by Trill. Keep up the great
work and I look forward to your episodes every week.
(31:24):
Marvin and Trillion are these beautiful tabbies that are silvery
looking per this thing, and I'm entranced. Fluffiness. The fluffiness
of Marvin has me forever. I presume I know where
those names are from. Thank you so much for this email, Lucy.
We just love it and your kiddies are beautiful. If
you would like to write to us, you can do
so at History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can
(31:46):
also find us on social media as missed in History
and we are here easy pacy to subscribe to on
the iHeartRadio app, or anywhere you listen to your favorite shows.
Stuff you Missed in History Class is a production of iHeartRadio.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
(32:09):
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
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Holly Frey
Tracy Wilson
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