Gumberoo

illustration by Coert DeBois, 1910

Origins:

Appeared in print for the first time in the 1910 fantasy bestiary Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods: With a Few Desert and Mountain Beasts, written by William T. Cox, illustrated by Coert DeBois.

In the foggy region along the Pacific Coast from Gray's Harbor to Humboldt Bay there ranges a kind of creature that has caused much annoyance in the lumber woods. This is the gumberoo, which, luckily, is so rare that only once in a great while is one seen. It is believed to remain in hiding most of the time in the base of enormous, burned-out cedar trees, from where it sallies forth occasionally on frightful marauding expeditions. During these periods of activity the beast is always hungry and devours anything it can find that looks like good. A whole horse may be eaten at one sitting, distending the gumberoo out of all proportions, but failing to appease its hunger or cause it the slightest discomfort.

The specimens seen are reported to have been coal black, but that may have been due to their being smirched with the charred wood. In size the beast forresponds closely to the black bear, for which it might be mistaken only for the fact that the gumberoo is almost hariless. To be sure, it has prominent eyebrows and some long, bristly hairs on its chin, but the body is smooth, tough, and shiny and bears not even a wrinkle. The animal is a tireless traveler when looking for food, but is not swift in its movements or annoyed in the slightest degree by the presence of enemies. The latter characteristic is easily accounted for by the fact that no other animal within its range has ever found a succesful method of attacking a gumberoo or a vulnerable spot in one's anatomy. Whatever strikes the beast bounds off with the same force. Its elastic hide hurls back with equal ease the charging elk and the wrathy hornet. A rock or peavey thrown at the creature bounds back at whoever threw it, and a bullet shot against its hide is sure to strike the hunter between the eyes.

It is believed that the scarcity of gumberoos is due to their combustible character and the prevalence of forest fires. The animal burns, like celluloid, with explosive force. Frequiently during and after a forest fire in the heavy cedat near Coos Bay woodmen have insisted that they heard loud reports quite unlike the sound of falling trees, and detected the smell of burning rubber in the air.

The animal has since been included in numerous other books detailing tall tales and fearsome critters, such as in "Paul Bunyan Natural History" (1935), written by C. E. Brown:

GUMBEROO. It lived in burned-over forests and was therefore easily avoided. It was very ferocious. It was "larger than a bear and had a round, leathery body that nothing could pierce. Bullets bounded off its tough hide. Often they struck the hunter on the rebound and killed him. The only thing that could kill a gumberoo was fire. Often at night the lumberjacks were awakened by loud explosions. These were caused by gumberoos blowing up in flames." A foolhardy photographer once took a picture of one but this also finally blew up.

illustration by Margaret Ramsay Tryon, 1939

From "Fearsome Critters" (1939), written by Henry H. Tryvon and illustrated by Margaret Ramsay Tryon:

An uncommon, but nevertheless well-known and thoroughly authenticated animal. Paul Bunyan often met them in the Upside Down country. His description, given to me personally, was as follows: “A pot-bellied body, almost exactly like the bunkhouse stove, even to the umbilical damper, and covered with very tight, tough, black, shiny skin; a pair of long, powerful, monkey-like forearms, and a little round head and no neck. His head sets right down on to his shoulders like a hop-toad in a cool spot. He’s got three bowed rear legs, each with a clawed foot clutching an iron ball, the same as an iron stove. There’s no speed in these rear legs, but they’re handy for wading dumps. For real travel he’s got eight pairs of strong, springy legs set around his middle. He’s plenty rapid on these. He’ll go to a hill-top by swinging from branch to branch with his forelegs, then toss himself out a rod or two, landing sideways on the middle legs and rolling over and over down the hill, moving faster than the eye can see. That’s why he’s so rarely observed. The hides from the middle legs used to make fine waterproof boots, but they’re pretty scarce now.”

The Gumberoo was usually found in burnt lands. Practically an indestructible animal. Bullets always bounced from his taut hide, but heat would make him swell and explode. S. W. Allen photographed one, but the negative exploded.

Per "Encyclopedia of Beasts and Monsters in Myth, Legend and Folklore" (2015), written by Theresa Bane:

One of the fearsome critters from the lumberjack folklore of the United States of America, the ferocious gumberoo was a gigantic creature, larger than a bear and able to kill a man with a swipe of its paw. The gumberoo was said to resemble a walking football; its leathery hide was particularly resilient and could withstand attacks from arrows, axes, and bullets. The only means by which to kill a gumberoo was to set it on fire and wait until it exploded.