The glawackus is one of the fearsome critters

Fearsome critters

Fearsome critter is a term found in early lumberjack folklore for any of the mythical beasts that were said to inhabit the frontier wilderness of North America.- Origins :...

, a group of legendary creatures in the folklore and traditions of lumberjack

Lumberjack

A lumberjack is a worker in the logging industry who performs the initial harvesting and transport of trees for ultimate processing into forest products. The term usually refers to a bygone era when hand tools were used in harvesting trees principally from virgin forest...

s during the 19th and early 20th centuries in North America. The Glawackus is described as looking something between a bear

Bear

Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...

, panther

Panther

-Large cats:* Panthera, the feline genus which contains lions, tigers, leopards and jaguars* Panther , the leopard * Panther , the cougar or mountain lion...

, and a lion

Lion

The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...

. It was seen in 1939 in Glastonbury, Connecticut

Glastonbury, Connecticut

Glastonbury is a town in Hartford County, Connecticut, United States, founded in 1693. The population was 31,876 at the 2000 census. The town was named after Glastonbury in Somerset, England. Glastonbury is located on the banks of the Connecticut River, 7 miles southeast of Hartford. The town...

 and again in Frizzelburg, Massachusetts, where it is said to have attacked livestock.

Sightings Of The Creature

Memories of cryptozoologist, from the Cape Codder:

I was working as a young reporter on the Hartford Courant that year when World War II was in the wings. But we were preoccupied with the developing story about this Glastonbury creature that howled at night, slipped in and out of view and caused dogs, cats and small farm animals to disappear. As the sightings grew in number, so did the variety of descriptions.

First it was a huge cat. Then some people reported what looked like a dog in back and a cat in front. Others saw it vice-versa. One man called to say he had seen a big animal in the pitch dark with eyes that glowed like embers.

It was clear to us that this weird, unknown animal needed a name. One editor coined the word, Glawackus. "Gla" for Glastonbury; "wack" for wacky; and "us" as a proper Latin ending. It caught on like magic.

Lowell Thomas

Lowell Thomas

Lowell Jackson Thomas was an American writer, broadcaster, and traveler, best known as the man who made Lawrence of Arabia famous...

, a radio network commentator, who was popular nationwide, reported the Glawackus had been named by a "Connecticut scientist."

A safari

Safari

A safari is an overland journey, usually a trip by tourists to Africa. Traditionally, the term is used for a big-game hunt, but today the term often refers to a trip taken not for the purposes of hunting, but to observe and photograph animals and other wildlife.-Etymology:Entering the English...

was organized with two Ozark-trained hounds. The search came back empty-handed. The event, however, was memorialized in verse:

"Say did the fearless hunters, Pick up the beastly spoor, While trekking through the jungle, With steps alert and sure?"