Wis. Whoppers: Sensationalistic Storytelling, Tall Tale Tourism & Cryptid Currency in Badger State
Schedule
Sat, 16 May, 2026 at 01:00 pm
UTC-05:00Location
Pioneer Park Historical Complex | Rhinelander, WI
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Join Dr. Lowell Brower, folklorist and UWโMadison professor, for an entertaining evening exploring Wisconsinโs wildest stories and legendary characters.๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐๐ฒ๐ป๐
From โfish tales,โ to hodag hunts, to big-top spectacles, Wisconsinโs folkloric history is rife with self-aggrandizing legendary, self-deprecatory humor, and self-conscious fabulation. Reveling in upper-midwestern folk humor, and capitalizing on the ostensive potentials of exaggeratory legend-telling โ combining the arts of master tale-tellers, carnival barkers, and down-home humorists โ local municipalities, businesses, institutions, advertisers, and individual storytellers have marshalled the folkloric arts throughout Wisconsinโs history, in service of drawing attention, money, tourism, and notoriety to themselves, their products, and their discourses. And through these engaging, enticing, and often otherworldly stories, theyโve shaped both insider and outsider perspectives about what it means to be a Badger!
Operating from the premise that legends and tall tales canโt help but reveal the values, worldviews, fears, anxieties, hopes, dreams, and capabilities of their transmitters, weโll spend some time thinking about what the stories we tell can (and the hodags we hunt) tell us about who we are.
The event is part of the Hodag Heritage Festival and is free and open to the public with seating on a first-come, first-served basis.
This event is sponsored by the Pioneer Park Historical Complex and presented as part of the Wisconsin Historical Society History Makers Tour. The History Makers Tour is presented by Culver's and is made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Grant Number: MA-253159-OMS-23.
๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐๐ ๐๐ต๐ฒ ๐๐ผ๐ฐ๐ฎ๐๐ถ๐ผ๐ป
This event is part of the Hodag Heritage Festival
Learn more: https://wihist.org/46P3vBN
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Where is it happening?
Pioneer Park Historical Complex, Martin Lynch Drive,Rhinelander,WI,United StatesEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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