ARIZONA REPUBLICAN — FEBRUARY 9, 1913
Correspondent Says Animals Seem to Have Left the Country: Advances Explanation That May Account for Scarcity.
A calm has come after the storm. A special correspondent in the Bloody Basin yesterday sent in the following letter, referring to the discovery and proposed extermination of the sidehill hodag, which has been killing cattle and sheep and frightening the people Of the Verde country for the past three weeks.
In camp on the Verde, Feb. 14. 1913—Hodags have been less seen lately than not quite so lately. We are fortunate in not seeing them for they must be very dangerous, as they can kill a yearling calf just like nothing. Our camp is right near a hill, but we are not scared because we can reach the flat easy and get the hodags all balled up on the level. Although we have been waiting for a week here we have not seen any hodags yet, but William Kitchen, the settler about five miles up the creek, says they howl around his sheds every night. Bill has had to get a gallon keg of applejack down to the store to keep his three hired men, and he says they don’t do no work but just set and lap up the drink. Bill wants to get the farmers together and hunt some night, but they all laugh or tell him they ain’t no such animal. But some of them are real afraid of the hodag and asked Bill to please come quick and help if the hodags get bad. You know Bill is great on climbing hills and they all think he would be great to deal with the hodags.
