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Old Rip: The Horny Toad of Eastland
Spring break one year consisted of a trip to my step-grandparents’ home in Eastland, Texas. I spent the week roaming around the neighborhood, which was within walking distance of nothing except for the biggest attraction in town: the embalmed body of Old Rip.
At some point in the 1800s, Eastland County was apparently a booming destination, probably because of its proximity to Dallas. Because it was such a rockin’ place, Eastland officials decided to build a bigger courthouse near the century’s end. As part of the dedication ceremony for the new courthouse, officials decided to place a few items in the building’s cornerstone. Those items included a Bible, some documents, and a horned lizard named Blinky caught by a four-year-old.
You know, normal stuff.
That’s right, the poor lizard was sealed into the corner, allegedly based on the idea that horned lizards could hibernate for a century.
Eastland must have been really going places, because locals decided to build a new courthouse in the 1920s. When the building was demolished, builders opened up that cornerstone to find the contents — including one (allegedly) very much alive horned lizard.
While the legend states that the story of Old Rip is very much true, cynics claim that somebody replaced the dead horny toad with a live one. At the same time, finding a live horny toad in February would have apparently been pretty difficult. After all, they do hibernate.
The city folks named Old Rip after Rip Van Winkle, the character of legend who slept for decades. Rip went on tour from place to place for a while and even visited President Calvin Coolidge. Apparently some argument existed as to where the infamous reptile belonged.
Within 11 months, poor Rip died.
By the time of his death, Old Rip was a local celebrity. Locals embalmed his body and designed a velvet-lined casket for the reptile. His body remained on display at the courthouse for years, though his trials and tribulations did not end there.
For example, former Texas governor John Connally once picked up Rip by one leg . . . which then fell off his body.
Then, Rip’s body was stolen (and soon recovered) in the 1970s by pranksters . . …
