A map of the United States purporting to show where hunting unicorns is legal has circulated for years on social media platforms including Instagram, X (archived), Facebook (archived) and Reddit (archived). It shows 49 states in red, signaling "no," and one state in green for "yes" — Michigan.
One example of the map was shared to X on Oct. 6, 2024:
In the 1970s, Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, launched the Department of Natural Unicorns as to monitor the hunt, or "quest," of unicorns across the state.
While LSSU does indeed offer a unicorn-hunting license (the request form is available here), this does not equate to any sort of legal code or legislation that makes Michigan the only state to allow unicorn hunting, as social media posts claim. (There is no scientific evidence that unicorns have ever existed, of course.)
It does not appear that any law or regulation in the state legitimately recognizes unicorn hunting. For example, a search of the Michigan Legislature's law for the word "unicorn" returned no results. In an email to Snopes, the Michigan Secretary of the Senate's Office wrote that "as far as our records go, we do not see any law or regulation regarding hunting unicorns."
The state's Department of Natural Resources lists 15 types of hunting and fishing licenses on its website – none of which include unicorns. In an email, the DNR wrote: "Michigan law does not offer a unicorn license because there is no scientific evidence that unicorns exist; they are mythical creatures."
Snopes also contacted the Archives of Michigan and will update this story if we receive responses.
According to the Unicorn Quest Regulations, adapted from the "original bylaws, history, lore, myths and whimsy," the notion of the unicorn quest originated as a publicity stunt dating back to 1971. W.T. Rabe founded the Unicorn Hunters "as one tongue-in-cheek way to garner more publicity for LSSU" after it established itself as an independent school," the university wrote in 2021 during the whimsical department's 50th anniversary.
Other publicity events that started at the school the 1970s include a snowman burning on the first day of spring to bid goodbye to winter and an end-of-year Banished Words List as a safeguard against "misuse, overuse, and uselessness of the English language."
An Oct. 12, 1974, article in the Buffalo Courier Express covered the unicorn hunt. Headlined "Unicorn Hunt Sweeps College," it was syndicated by United Press International. It read, in part:
SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (UPI) – Hunters had but one more day Friday to complete the hunt for the mythical unicorn.
The unicorn is a creature of lore with the head of a horse, the hind legs of a stag, the tall of a lion, and a single horn in the middle of the forehead.
The hunt is for real. The 5,000 persons who have obtained unicorn hunting licenses from Lake Superior State College haven't had much luck so far. Nobody, of course, has proved the creature ever existed.
The hunters who belong to the unicorn Lts., conglomerate at this upper peninsula college, are dedicated to the proposition that "every man has a unicorn he is destined to hunt."
[…]
Michael Gendzwill, poet laureate of the college's unicorn hunters, admitted Friday that not a single unicorn has been taken since the season officially opened last week.
According to the Department of Natural Unicorns' guidelines, questing territories include enchanted forests, Earth, outer space, and one's own imagination. The questing season is every day except the "24 consecutive hours of love" that occur on Valentine's Day, and hours include "day or night except when the Tooth Fairy or Santa Claus is around" as there is "only so much magic available at one time."
Questers are limited to one unicorn per month and cannot take a female unicorn as "no one has ever sighted a female unicorn" and it is "believed that males reproduce asexually." Additionally, potential licensees are required to "attend no meetings" and be "nice to people and unicorns alike."
Below is a complete copy of the Unicorn Questing Regulations available on the LSSU website:
(LSSU)