In Marquette, Michigan, in the Peter White library somewhere is a rare book bound in green with a a beast embossed in gold on the cover titled The Hodag written by Lakeshore Kearney.
It is a collection of urban legends and local cryptids framed by a logging camp's nightly story telling ritual.
It is said that the most abused member of a logging camp was the ox. Day in and day out, beaten by everyone and cursed at in all the different languages that would be spoken. So to give the soul of the ox peace, they would burn its body in a funeral pyre that would have to at least smolder for around ten years.
Once the purification was finished, the Hodag would emerge from the last smoke of the fire.
Some people know the Hodag, but I've never met anyone that knows that story.
Someone should see if they can still find the book.