Ol' Rip (died January 19, 1929) was a horned lizard (commonly referred to as a "horned toad") whose supposed 31-year hibernation as an entombed animal is believed by some and doubted by others. His name is a reference to the fictional character Rip Van Winkle. In 1897, a horned lizard was placed in a cornerstone of the Eastland County Courthouse in Eastland, Texas along with other time capsule memorabilia. When the courthouse was torn down 31 years later, the cornerstone was opened on February 18, 1928, a live horned lizard was produced, allegedly from within the time capsule. The lizard became a celebrity, and went on tour, even being taken to Washington, D.C. to meet President Calvin Coolidge.
Ol' Rip died 11 months later, and his remains can be seen on display in the new Eastland County Courthouse. In 1973 the body was stolen and an anonymous letter explained that the finding of Ol' Rip alive had been a hoax and demanded other unnamed co-conspirators should come forth. When no one did, another letter was received stating that the coffin and body could be found in the county fairgrounds. The coffin was found there and returned to the courthouse, though some suspected the body in the coffin was a substitute for the real lizard who now resides in a secret private collection somewhere.
Famous quotes containing the words rip, horned and/or toad:
“We are double-edged blades, and every time we whet our virtue the return stroke straps our vice. Where is the skillful swordsman who can give clean wounds, and not rip up his work with the other edge?”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“...I believed passionately that Communists were a race of horned men who divided their time equally between the burning of Nancy Drew books and the devising of a plan of nuclear attack that would land the largest and most lethal bomb squarely upon the third-grade class of Thomas Jefferson School in Morristown, New Jersey.”
—Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950)
“She blinks and croaks, like a toad or a Norn, in the horrible light,
And rattles her crutch, which may put forth a small bloom, perhaps
white.”
—Robert Penn Warren (1905–1989)