In 1897 a farmer gave his son’s horned toad lizard to the City of Eastland, Texas, to put in the cornerstone of their new county courthouse. Eastland is a west Texas town that was growing due to the oil boom and needed a larger courthouse. The farmer had read that lizards could hibernate for years. 30 years later they needed a larger courthouse and when they tore it down they opened the 40 year old cornerstone and the horned toad was still alive. He revived completely in five days and lived for 11 months before dying of pneumonia. They named him Rip after Rip Van Winkle. He toured America, everyone turned out to see him. Ha! A friend was in Eastland last week and sent this photo, he asked why in the world there would be a lizard sculpture in a dusty old west Texas town. When I researched it I learned about Old Rip.
Ol' Rip (died January 19, 1929) was a Texas horned lizard—commonly referred to as a "horned toad" or "horny toad"—famous during the Jazz Age which supposedly survived a 31-year hibernation as an entombed animal.[1][2] The reptile's name was a reference to American writer Washington Irving's fictional character Rip Van Winkle.[1][3]
Following its alleged exhumation from a cornerstone in Eastland, Texas on February 18, 1928, the lizard became a national celebrity and appeared in 1920s motion pictures.[1][4] The same year, a Texas political delegation led by Senator Earle Mayfield presented the docile lizard to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House for his inspection.[4]
As a consequence of the creature's fame, horned toads were sold by the thousands as souvenirs at public events including the 1928 Democratic National Convention.[3] The ensuing mass capture and export of the horned toads resulted in the genus' abrupt decline in West Central Texas and prompted an intervention by the Texas Department of Agriculture.[3]
Decades later, the saga of Ol' Rip inspired Looney Tunes scribe Michael Maltese to write a 1955 animated theatrical short entitled One Froggy Evening.[5] In the cartoon, a construction worker demolishing an old building finds an 1897 time capsule inside a cornerstone.[5] The capsule contains a living toad which is able to sing Tin Pan Alley songs such as "Hello! Ma Baby" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry".[5]
Following its alleged exhumation from a cornerstone in Eastland, Texas on February 18, 1928, the lizard became a national celebrity and appeared in 1920s motion pictures.[1][4] The same year, a Texas political delegation led by Senator Earle Mayfield presented the docile lizard to President Calvin Coolidge at the White House for his inspection.[4]
As a consequence of the creature's fame, horned toads were sold by the thousands as souvenirs at public events including the 1928 Democratic National Convention.[3] The ensuing mass capture and export of the horned toads resulted in the genus' abrupt decline in West Central Texas and prompted an intervention by the Texas Department of Agriculture.[3]
Decades later, the saga of Ol' Rip inspired Looney Tunes scribe Michael Maltese to write a 1955 animated theatrical short entitled One Froggy Evening.[5] In the cartoon, a construction worker demolishing an old building finds an 1897 time capsule inside a cornerstone.[5] The capsule contains a living toad which is able to sing Tin Pan Alley songs such as "Hello! Ma Baby" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry".[5]