Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods

Pictograph as seen on title page (1910)
Author	William T. Cox
Original title	Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts
Illustrator	Coert Du Bois
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Fantasy, Field guide, Bestiary
Publisher	Judd & Detweiler, Inc.
Publication date	1910
Media type	Print (hardcover)
Pages	47

Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods, With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts is a 1910 fantasy field guide by William Thomas Cox (1878–1961), Minnesota’s first State Forester and Commissioner of Conservation, with illustrations by Coert du Bois (1881–1960; US Consul and forester) and Latin classifications by George Bishop Sudworth (1862–1927; Chief Dendrologist of the Forest Service.) The text is a noteworthy resource on folklore, as a century after its initial publication Fearsome Creatures remains one of the principal sources on legendary creatures of the United States and Canada.

"The lumber regions are contracting. Stretches of forest that once seemed boundless are all but gone, and many a stream is quiet that once ran full of logs and echoed to the song of the river driver. Some say that the old type of logger himself is becoming extinct. It is my purpose in this little book to preserve at least a description and sketch of some of the interesting animals which he has originated."

The book presents various sketches of fearsome critters from North American folklore, with descriptions by Cox preceded by full-page landscape illustrations by du Bois. Like in a traditional field guide, each animal is assigned a Latin classification (by Sudworth), afterward noting their habitat, physical makeup, and behavior. At the end of each account; however, there is usually a brief anecdote detailing an encounter with the creature. Fearsome Creatures may be classified as a work of metafiction.

The introduction acknowledges the varmints as, "animals which he [the lumberjack] has originated". Although, given the books mixed field-guide narrative format it is uncertain whether the introduction is within or aside from the primary context. At times the storyteller (identified as Cox himself in the introduction) employs the more ambiguous woodsmen/loggers "tell of" or out comes the "rumor of", but other times declares to the reader that there "ranges" or "is" such a creature.

Page 5 – Introduction: Cox imparts that lumberjack yarns were carried from camp to camp. Also that while much has been written concerning lumberjacks, little has been put down concerning the creatures of his imagination.