Jackalope Square

The jackalope is Wyoming's most beloved mythical creature — a jackrabbit with antelope horns that has become the unofficial mascot of the American West. The jackalope legend originated in Douglas, Wyoming, where brothers Douglas and Ralph Herrick first mounted a jackrabbit head with deer antlers in the 1930s and sold it as a novelty. The mounted specimen caught on, and Douglas capitalized on the legend, eventually trademarking the name and establishing itself as "the Home of the Jackalope." Jackalope Square in Douglas features a giant jackalope statue that has become one of Wyoming's most photographed roadside attractions.

The jackalope mythology grew well beyond its Douglas origins to become a pan-Western phenomenon. Jackalope postcards, mounted specimens, and novelty items appeared in gift shops across Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and neighboring states. The creature gained enough cultural traction to be the subject of numerous tall tales — that jackalopes could mimic human voices, that their milk had medicinal properties, that they could only be hunted during a specific brief window. Wyoming even issues novelty jackalope hunting licenses to tourists.

Roadside attractions like Jackalope Square serve an important economic and cultural function in rural communities. They give travelers a reason to stop, photograph themselves with a giant statue, and engage with local character. For Douglas, the jackalope is genuinely valuable economic mythology — it has put the city on tourist maps and made the Wyoming Travel Industry Directory year after year. The giant jackalope statue is not just a joke; it is a small city's smart use of a charming local legend to claim a unique identity in the competitive landscape of American road trip destinations.