Masonic Bucking Goat
Sparta, Wisconsin
The Monroe County Museum occupies the building that was formerly Sparta's old Masonic Temple. One exhibit, which looks like it might have been uncovered in a closet, is the Bucking Goat.
The stuffed fake goat on wheels, dated 1904, is accompanied by an illustration from the catalog from which it was ordered (the company produced them until 1930). Too pagan and weird to be a child's toy, the goat contraption was used by grown men as part of the initiation ritual into the Masonic Modern Woodmen of America, which later reinvented itself as the Lumberman's Insurance Company.
According to the goat's descriptive sign, "The prospective member was made to 'ride the goat' while another man holding the handles attempted to buck him off." As ridiculous as this sounds, it evidently was a popular rite-of-passage in Sparta, since a lot of the goat's hair has been worn off, like the fur on a child's well-loved teddy bear.