Wis. Whoppers: Sensationalistic Storytelling, Tall Tale Tourism & Cryptid Currency in Badger State

Sat, 16 May, 2026 at 01:00 pm UTC-05:00

Pioneer Park Historical Complex | Rhinelander

Wisconsin Historical Society
Publisher/HostWisconsin Historical Society
Wis. Whoppers: Sensationalistic Storytelling, Tall Tale Tourism & Cryptid Currency in Badger State
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Join Dr. Lowell Brower, folklorist and UWโ€“Madison professor, for an entertaining evening exploring Wisconsinโ€™s wildest stories and legendary characters.

๐—”๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—˜๐˜ƒ๐—ฒ๐—ป๐˜
From โ€˜fish tales,โ€™ to hodag hunts, to big-top spectacles, Wisconsinโ€™s 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 Wisconsinโ€™s 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, theyโ€™ve shaped both insider and outsider perspectives about what it means to be a Badger!
Operating from the premise that legends and tall tales canโ€™t help but reveal the values, worldviews, fears, anxieties, hopes, dreams, and capabilities of their transmitters, weโ€™ll 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.

๐—”๐—ฏ๐—ผ๐˜‚๐˜ ๐˜๐—ต๐—ฒ ๐—Ÿ๐—ผ๐—ฐ๐—ฎ๐˜๐—ถ๐—ผ๐—ป
This event is part of the Hodag Heritage Festival

Learn more: https://wihist.org/46P3vBN
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Event Venue

Pioneer Park Historical Complex, Martin Lynch Drive,Rhinelander,WI,United States

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