Tradition / Region: American Mythology
Alternate Names: —
Category: Forest dweller
The Myth
The Tote-Road Shagamaw is a strange forest creature spoken of by loggers and woodsmen from the Rangeley Lakes to the Allagash, and across into New Brunswick. Its existence is said to explain a long-standing mystery that has caused confusion, arguments, and even fistfights among experienced men of the woods.
The trouble begins with tracks. One day, men swear they have found bear tracks near camp. Soon after, these reports are denied and replaced by claims that the tracks belong to a moose instead. Such disagreements are taken seriously, since accusing a woodsman of confusing bear and moose tracks is considered a grave insult. Only a few old timber cruisers and rivermen are said to know the true explanation.
One such man was Gus Demo of Oldtown, Maine, who had hunted, trapped, and logged in the woods for forty years. While traveling through the forest, he came upon tracks that were clearly those of a moose. After following them for about eighty rods, the tracks abruptly became unmistakable bear tracks. After another eighty rods, they changed back again into moose tracks. Gus soon noticed that this change occurred exactly every quarter of a mile, and that the tracks always followed a tote road or blazed survey line through the forest.
Eventually, Gus came close enough to see the creature itself. He observed that it had front feet like a bear’s and hind feet like those of a moose. It moved with great care, pacing steadily and taking exactly one yard per step. After walking for a time, the creature suddenly stopped, looked all around, and then turned sharply as if pivoting on a point. It then inverted itself, walking on its front feet alone, and continued on its measured path.
By examining the witness trees, Gus realized that the place where the Shagamaw inverted itself was a section corner. From this, he reasoned that the creature must once have been a highly imitative animal. By watching surveyors, timber cruisers, and trappers patiently follow straight lines through the forest, it had taken on the same habit.
According to this explanation, the Shagamaw can count only as high as 440, which equals a quarter of a mile measured in yards. When it reaches that limit, it must turn itself over to continue counting again from the beginning. Thus, the creature endlessly walks the tote roads, confusing men by leaving alternating bear and moose tracks, and quietly measuring the forest one quarter-mile at a time.
The Tote-Road Shagamaw remains a symbol of the woods’ ability to deceive even experienced eyes, and a reminder that not every mystery in the forest can be solved by tracks alone.
Gallery
Sources
Cox, W. T. (1910). Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts.
Interpretive Lenses
Religious Readings
- Christian Ascetic Deep Dive
Philosophical Readings
- Nietzschean Deep Dive
Psychological Readings
- Jungian Deep Dive
Esoteric Deep Dive
- Hermetic Deep Dive
Political / Social Readings
- Marxist Deep Dive
Other
- How to Invite The The Tote-Road Shagamaw