The Ax-Handle Hound - [Fearsome Critter]

“The Ax-Handle Hound” - [Fearsome Critter 1922.]

• About this Critter: A small canine-like critter resembling a dachshund - but with a hatchet shaped face: it wanders between Lumbercamps at night, eating the axe’s that lumberjacks where careless to leave out.  These wild hounds where considered the bane of suppliers as They’re known to eat entire crates of axe’s in a sitting. 🪓

• History: As one of the yarns go: A man named ‘Jim Peters’ was said to have once tamed one in an attempt to domesticate the species: however that it was quite short sighted, because the man also had a wooden leg: you can imagine what happened. - He ended up ‘getting rid’ of the pup by feeding it red oak handles. – “Which it disliked as heartily as any experienced chopper.” - Apparently they’re picky eaters and will only eat the finest handles... ‘Red Oak’ is sometimes said to make for cheap axe handles, while White Oak or Elm with a tighter grain makes for a finer quality and is the ideal handle of the "serious" lumberjacks choice! – [The small bit of tool related research I did says that the material difference between the two is actually quite minimal, so the preference is usually personal, i suppose that this could very well be another level of Lumberjacks hazing each other. 😂]

This critter is often said to be most popularly encountered in Minnesota and Wisconsin lumber camps - In Minnesota, down the Little Fork River near Voyageurs National Park and very close to Linden Grove, there is an out of the way ‘canoe access’ campground which is named after this critter: perhaps if you camp there (and bring along an axe as bait) you’ll be lucky and meet one. [I’m a bit sad that there’s very few pictures of the area online, so if you’re local to the area, maybe you could visit & post about it sometime!]

Sticker Art by @Samkalensky (yo thats me!) - Part of my Fearsome critters/Cryptids sticker collection, weather resistant 4" sticker. Check my shop & follow @samkalensky for many more!