t’s said that in winter, the waters of Wisconsin lakes get so cold that the fish grow fur to stay warm. In in a little-known northern Wisconsin stream. Newspaper reports even included an Associated Press photograph. A postcard from the Wisconsin Historical Society archives (above) shows a fur-bearing herring supposedly found only in the waters of Rice Lake, where Otto Rindlisbacher owned the Friendly Buckhorn Tavern. The tavern was decorated with examples of creative taxidermy including a dingbat and a shovel-tailed snow snake. Hoax reports of furry fish still surface occasionally, one as recently as 2015 on the Menominee River near Wauwatosa, not long after we posted the museum object above on our Facebook page. Like jackalopes, furry fish can be found in taverns and homes, as well as in museums as respected as the National Museum of Scotland and the Wisconsin Historical Society, but not in nature. The Wisconsin Historical Society purchased this taxidermy specimen from its creator, Pat Bushert, of Verona, in 1990, to document this humorous corner of Wisconsin folklore.
