A concrete imprint of what appears to be a rodent has been a curio on West Roscoe Street for decades, but it became a destination attraction this week after a Chicago artist posted it. photo of it on social media. X’s posts, formerly known as Twitter, have since been viewed more than 5 million times and attracted hundreds of people a day. ah and ahlaughing and taking pictures at the decades-old splatmark.
“When you look at this, it seems very viscerally stupid,” Winslow Dumaine, who posted the photo, told The Washington Post.
Dumaine, who moved to Chicago in 2017, first heard about the rat hole last week. On Saturday, he was heading to the Roscoe Village area to visit a store that sells his work. His friend Haley Hudson told him that since he was in the area, he should be careful of Chicago’s ratholes.
“I didn’t understand what she was saying,” he said.
Still, Dumaine continued on his journey and started laughing at what his friend was saying.
“It’s just a perfect example of visual storytelling. When you look at it, you know exactly what happened. It’s something that transcends language barriers,” he said, adding, ” “If you show this to someone from 500 years ago, they’ll know exactly what happened.”
Dumaine took a photo and posted it on X. Within an hour, the photo went viral, which didn’t come as a surprise to Dumaine. He doubted it might be a hit. It was interesting, physical, and animal related.
“Everyone just thinks it’s fun. It’s incredibly hard to find something like that, something that’s pure and funny and silly.”
Cindy Nelson said the traces have been there since she and her husband moved to the neighborhood in 1997, and a neighbor who has lived there since the early ’90s told her it was still there. The block’s residents are close-knit, communicate frequently through group chats, and celebrate, if perhaps a bit surprised, the neighborhood’s incredible surge in popularity.
“We love these little creatures,” Nelson said. “I had no idea people would find it so exciting.”
As Nelson and her husband raised their three children across the street from the splatter, they noticed a pattern. Someone will walk by the trace, notice it, take a closer look, and laugh. Then they looked up to see what was causing it.
Years ago, Nelson said, there was a “huge, old, beautiful” oak tree on top of the engraving, which was actually a squirrel that fell from the tree and crashed into the fresh cement, becoming what became known as “the oak.” He added that he believes it may have happened. rat hole. The tree eventually became diseased and was cut down, leaving passersby looking only at the sky in recent years apparently confused as to how the trail was created.
Nelson and Dumaine said Chicago’s Mouse Hole embodies its namesake city. For Nelson, the brash, decades-old imperfection captures the way Chicagoans laugh at themselves. Dumaine said Chicago’s weather can be harsh, noting that the city’s weather in 2019 was colder than Antarctica. But Chicagoans have the same kind of grit as the cement-covered rodents that were enshrined on random sidewalks decades later.
“The rat fell into the cement, brushed himself off and went to work,” he added.
Dumaine said she posted the photo of the rat hole so others could share the joy they get from it. Although he admits that his art is “really gruesome, dark and morbid,” Mr. Dumaine said he is an optimistic person who enjoys moments of joy whenever possible. After seeing Chicago’s now famous Rat Hole, he thought there was an opportunity for others to get involved.
“It’s a very small thing. It’s just a photo of a splatter. But it’s also part of a larger philosophy of trying to make as many people smile as possible.”
