Get ready for Mucket Madness

Townspeople resurrecting legend of mythical fish

HADDAM — Willimantic has the Frog Bridge and Essex has Essex Ed — town mascots, both of which have their own whimsical and celebratory events throughout the year.

Higganum resident and Vietnam veteran Arthur Wiknik Jr., townspeople and local officials are intent upon making Haddam’s good-luck symbol the “elusive” mucket, a ferocious-looking fish with a mouth full of menacing, sharp teeth.

The mucket has been part of Higganum folklore since the 1950s, according to Wiknik, who wrote a cleverly inventive and widely popular story in 1982 about a fictitious “deranged” fish that only lives in Candlewood Hill Brook.

“It can do anything. It swims in the brook but then it can go on land and tip over garbage cans and it can leap a dam in a single bound — whatever craziness you want to put in there,” he said.

The town is looking forward to Mucket Madness Day, set for Aug. 15 at the Higganum Green in the center of town. The celebration is sponsored by the Haddam Economic Development Commission.

Plans are for a sprint biathlon, 100-unit tractor parade, food truck fest, battle of the bands, local business displays, hiking at Swan Hill, a basketball tournament, and kayaking at Frismars and the Higganum Reservoir, a carbo-load spaghetti dinner fundraiser, concert by the Dizzyfish and more.

Organizers, self-dubbed “mucketeers,” are hoping to make this an annual event.

The legend’s popularity “died out” in the 1960s. “People’s attention was more focused on that,” Wiknik explained. “It gets resurrected every once in a while, primarily by me. I think it’s a cool thing.”

Years ago, new recruits of the fire department were “required” to go down to the brook behind the building to catch a mucket, he said, laughing at the memory.

Wiknik used to be a prolific

letter-to-the-editor writer, then one day decided his time would be better served by writing fiction. He tries to inject humor into everything he pens. His piece, which has several versions, was written in the early 1980s and published in a Hartford magazine.

“The mucket is a pliable creature: You can make it what you want it to be,” he said. “It’s something for the town to rally around and has no political affiliation. I have a twisted sense of humor so it wasn’t hard,” said the author, who would like to see any proceeds from the event go to the food bank or HaddamKillingworth High School Project Graduation.

“In June 1982, southern Connecticut was hit with a severe rainstorm that dumped up to 10 inches of rain in less than twentyfour hours. One of the hardest hit locations was Higganum Center, where the water depth averaged three feet deep on Route 81 and up to ten-feet deep near the post office and other places,” the story begins.

“It’s our history. Sure, it’s a myth, but it’s something unique to us,” said Selectwoman Kate Anderson, also chairwoman of the EDC. Having something joyful to look forward to is energizing

residents, as so many are under self-imposed isolation due to the coronavirus.

“It’s a conversation-starter. It’s interesting, too, that it’s bringing out even more stories from third-generation families who’ve been in town for 300 years,” she said.

First Selectman Robert McGarry welcomed the idea.

“It’s a great idea if we can pull it off. Mark’s got a lot of people working to help with that, so I think he will. It may be somewhat scaleddown from the initial ambition. One of things we have to do to revitalize Higganum Center is to get people to come down there who may not otherwise. Festivals like this are one way to do it. I’m excited by the opportunity it presents,” he said.

The logistics were too cumbersome to have a triathlon, said project manager Mark Lundgrun, a former first selectman who learned about the creature at the end of 2019, when the town planner held a series of planning charrettes connected with revitalization of the village center.

He was in charge during the flood of 1982.

“I was my hardest sell to do this. I’m so happy they went ahead. It’s taken on a life of its own,” Lundgren added. “It’s unique to Higganum — something nobody

else has. It’ll put Higganum on the map.”

The town received a grant of between $2,000 and $3,000 from the National Main Street Center two years ago.

The municipality was able to meet the matching funds requirement through crowd-funding. The idea for the statue was the brainchild of pharmacist and Higganum Pharmacy owner Greg McKenna, who asked Anderson if she could get the ball rolling, because he didn’t have enough time and manpower to execute it.

Icon Poly of Nebraska has been charged with creating the sculpture: a black figure which stands upright, made of a type of resin based on input from Wiknik. The creature has horns, a large head and eyes, scaly belly and sharp teeth — its pectoral fins akimbo

“From Art’s point of view, it’s not a mean old mucket. It’s a nice fairy tale creature. This is his vision, so we’re trying to balance an appealing figure with the idea of ferociousness,” Anderson explained.

“When a man is bitten by a mucket, toxic venom is injected into his blood stream and causes alopecia, a condition more commonly known as receding hair, or male pattern baldness. It is bad enough for men to lose their hair naturally but when it is caused by an

alien fish — then it means war!” according to Wiknik’s story.

Two sizes of the statue will be available for purchase by residents and business owners: a 3-foot one ($440) and another smaller version sized at 7 inches ($39). The cost of shipping will be spread out over all the orders, An

derson said.

Everyone involved is hoping the coronavirus pandemicrestrictions will be lifted by summer, and it’s looking that way, the first selectman said.

“By all the predictions I’ve seen, we should be through at least this wave of the pandemic by then. It’ll be good for people to get out. It gives them something to look forward to. It’ll be good for all of us to get out and reconnect and enjoy a festival,” McGarry said.

Volunteers are being sought to help with activities. For information, visit Mucket Madness Day on Facebook, where Wiknik’s story can be read in full.

Contributed image Haddam writer Art Wiknik Jr., who wrote a story about the local folk creature, paid an illustrator $100 to conjure up the “fearsome” fish said to inhabit the waters of Candlewood Hill Brook.