I stopped in Eastland, Texas, on the way into Fort Worth, to see an old friend: Old Rip! Old Rip is the stuff of local legend—a horned toad that was thrown into the sealed time capsule of the courthouse in the 1800s, then discovered still alive thirty years later when they tore down the old courthouse to build a new one.
Old Rip became a local celebrity, then a national one. He toured the country and finally died in 1929, and he has been on display here at the Eastland courthouse ever since.
Of course he disappeared for a while in the 1970s; he was either stolen or the original Old Rip disintegrated. According to those in charge, Old Rip was returned and the Old Rip on display is the original Old Rip. Supposedly.
I had a nice talk with a lovely woman over at the museum, who told me lots of local stories about Old Rip, such as her knowing Rip‘s original embalmer, who had to call up a casket company and order a custom casket, four by six inches, for Old Rip to be displayed in the courthouse. I bought a new $10 Old Rip T-shirt, to replace the old one I got when I came here years ago.
The Warner Bros. cartoon “One Froggy Evening,” featuring the dancing and singing Michigan J. Frog, was based on the legend of Old Rip. But the real legend is right here in Eastland, Texas, still on display in his little four-by-six-inch coffin at the county courthouse.
See more photos and some videos at Deke’s original Facebook post!
