On 307 Day – March 7 – we invite you to consider the jackalope.

Many are the visitors to Wyoming who have been taken in by the legend of the jackalope. Mounted specimens of the elusive creature can be found in restaurants and coffee shops around the state. Jackalopes are reputed to be the rarest animals in North America.

The elusive jackalope, a mystifying hybrid of antelope and jackrabbit, has proven impossible to capture alive due to its incredible timidity and remarkable speed. Local legends claim these creatures can reach velocities of 90 miles per hour – inheriting 60 miles per hour from their antelope ancestry and 30 from their jackrabbit lineage.

Tracing the history of the legend of the jackalope is difficult. According to some, the first white man to see a jackalope was a trapper named Roy Ball in 1829. Others maintain it was a different trapper, Rail Amai, in 1851. Regardless, jackalopes have captured the imaginations of generations. Even serious organizations like the American Automobile Association have given the jackalope a publicity boost.

Douglas, Wyoming, claims to be the jackalope capital of the world, with a jackalope statue featured in the town square. This title is well-earned – the town’s connection to the legendary creature began in the 1930s when local brothers Doug and Ralph Herrick, combining their hunting and taxidermy skills, created the first physical jackalope by mounting deer antlers on a jackrabbit carcass. After selling their novel creation to a local hotel, the brothers began supplying jackalope taxidermy to retailers in South Dakota, establishing a crafting tradition that taxidermists continue today.

Legend has it that jackalopes only mate during thunderstorms, in the glare of lightning flashes. Some have taken it upon themselves to come up with further bits of jackalope lore. Penelope Quick, of Hanna, Wyoming, asserts that jackalopes produce their young by laying eggs, and that the Easter Bunny is really a jackalope that has shed its antlers. Of course, Quick noted “no one has caught a jackalope or the Easter Bunny alive.”

Tongue-in-cheek Wyoming chambers of commerce and entrepreneurs have issued hunting licenses for the elusive Jackalope. One such permit stated that the bearer was allowed to take “one one-tailed jackalope in the boundaries of Converse County, June 31, between the hours of midnight and 2 a.m. only.” Next to the hunting licenses, some gift shops even sold cans of jackalope milk. Not to be outdone by Douglas, other parts of Wyoming have laid claim to the jackalope. The Red Desert area of South Central Wyoming issued its own jackalope hunting permit, signed by deputy game wardens, “Phil Graves & Berry M. Deep (also local undertakers).”

While there are those who have expressed concern about the fate of the jackalope in modern times, its only real enemy is a society where people have lost the ability to laugh and where there is no time for mischievous tall tales around the campfire.

Collections at the American Heritage Center containing tidbits of jackalope memorabilia include the J.D. Love papers, the Neal L. Blair papers, the Clarice Whittenburg papers and the James L. Ehernberger western railroad collection as well as the Wyoming Folklife Archive.

Happy 307 Day – a celebration of all things Wyoming, named for our one and only area code. (When you’re the least populated state, you don’t need a spare!)

Post contributed by AHC Writer Kathryn Billington.