A mythical creature of the lumber woods in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota, the teakettler (urocyin iugulebesonia) is considered by storytellers and cryptozoologists to be a most peculiar specimen, like many other fearsome critters of the north woods. Lumberjacks first spoke of the creature in the nineteenth century. They described the teakettler’s body as similar to that of a squat canine with the ears of a cat, yet it neither meowed nor barked. The name of the creature allegedly resulted from the whistling noises it made, which recalled the sound of a teapot full of boiling water. In a similar vein, the critter supposedly emitted steam from its mouth, much like a hot kettle.
In some versions of the teakettler story, the discharge and din of teakettlers resulted from their foul tempers. Yet, in none of the stories were the creatures depicted as being aggressive. In fact, teakettlers were described as rather shy animals, given to running off if approached. They retreated in a distinctive way, walking backward so that they left reversed footprints in their wake. The unusual trail left by teakettlers helped seasoned trackers explain their inability to follow and capture the creatures.
In being difficult to track, the teakettler resembles several other fearsome critters in the north woods lumberjack stories, such as the elusive hidebehind and the slippery squonk. All three woodland animals have far more often been heard than seen. Some believe the strange noises attributed to them enabled nineteenth-century woodsmen to account for unsettling sounds common in their surroundings.
Unlike other members of the fearsome critter family, the teakettler has not earned widespread mention or seized upon the popular imagination. The last notable reference to the teakettler appears in Borges’s The Book of Imaginary Beings, which insists that nobody ever believed in such a ridiculous beast. There have been no recorded sightings of a teakettler in conventional media for several decades. As storytellers might have it, the creature could simply be blending in: it would be impossible for a woodland visitor to distinguish a whistling pot at a campsite from the cries of a teakettler in the brush.
Noel Sloboda
See also Axehandle Hound; Ball-Tailed Cat; Fearsome Critters; Hidebehind; Lumberjack Tales; Squonk
Further Reading
Borges, Jorge Luis, with Margarita Guerrero. 1969. The Book of Imaginary Beings. Revised, enlarged, and translated by Norman Thomas di Giovanni in collaboration with the author. New York: E. P. Dutton.
Cox, William T. 1910. Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods. Washington, D.C.: Judd & Detweiler.
Schwartz, Alvin. 1978. Kickle Snifters and Other Fearsome Critters. Binghamton, NY: HarperCollins Juvenile Books.
Tryon, Henry H. 1939. Fearsome Critters. Cornwall, NY: Idlewild Press. Available online at HathiTrust Digital Library. http://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015070520526;view=1up;seq=1. Accessed July 9, 2014.