| Similar entities | Beast of Bray Road |
|---|---|
| Folklore | Cryptid |
| First attested | 1887 |
| Other name(s) | Michigan Werewolf |
| Country | United States |
| Region | Michigan |
| Part of a series on the |
| Paranormal |
|---|
In folklore, the Michigan Dogman was a creature allegedly witnessed in 1887 in Wexford County, Michigan, United States. It was described as a seven-foot tall, blue-eyed, or amber-eyed bipedal canine-like animal with the torso of a man and a fearsome howl that sounds like a human scream. According to legends, the Michigan Dogman appears in a ten-year cycle that falls on years ending in 7 and can be deterred by clapping loudly. [1] Sightings have been reported in several locations throughout Michigan, primarily in the northwestern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula.
This creature was unknown to most of the modern world, until very late in the 20th century. It is said to have been stalking the area around the Manistee River since the days when the Odawa tribes lived there. [1]
The first alleged encounter of the Michigan Dogman occurred in 1887 in Wexford County, when two lumberjacks saw a creature which they described as having a man's body and a dog's head. [2]
In 1937 in Paris, Michigan, Robert Fortney was attacked by five wild dogs and said that one of the five walked on two legs. [3] Reports of similar creatures also came from Allegan County in the 1950s, and in Manistee and Cross Village in 1967. [4]
Other sightings include a series of occurrences in Ottawa County, Grand Haven from 1993 to 1994. Most of these reports came from a man simply referred to as “Ben”. He claims to have seen the beast on three separate occasions. One such sighting was in December 1993, wherein he spotted the Dogman in his parents' driveway on Lakewood Drive. The creature was standing behind the car on its hind legs, only running off when Ben started screaming. [5]
Another separate account was from someone else in 1994 in the same area. This report was of a run in which the reporter hit a large animal with his car, thinking it to be a deer. There was no corpse to be found, instead only gray fur within the grill of the car. [5]
Linda S. Godfrey, in her book The Beast of Bray Road, compares the Manistee sightings to a similar creature sighted in Wisconsin known as the Beast of Bray Road. [3]
In 1987, disc jockey Steve Cook at WTCM-FM in Traverse City, Michigan recorded a song titled "The Legend", which he initially played as an April Fool's Day joke. He based the songs on myths and legends from around North America, and had never heard of an actual Michigan "dogman" at the time of the recording: [6]
I made it up completely from my own imagination as an April Fools' prank for the radio and stumbled my way to a legend that goes back all the way to Native American times.
— Steve Cook, Skeptoid.com, Wag the Dogman [1]
Cook maintains his skepticism about the possibility of a real dogman, he had this to say about the matter:
I'm tremendously skeptical, because I've sort of seen the way folklore becomes built from the creation of this song to what it's turned into ... but I do believe people who think they saw something really did see something. I also think the Dogman provides them with an avenue to explain what they couldn't explain for themselves.
— Steve Cook, Skeptoid.com, Wag the Dogman [1]
Cook recorded the song with a keyboard backing and credited it to Bob Farley. [7] After he played the song, Cook received calls from listeners who said that they had encountered a similar creature. In the next weeks after Cook first played the song, it was the most-requested song on the station. He also sold cassettes of the songs for four dollars, and donated proceeds from the single to an animal shelter. [3] Over the years, Cook has received more than 100 reports of the creature's existence. [8] In March 2010, the creature was featured in an episode of MonsterQuest . [8] In January 2017, the creature was featured in the season 2 episode "Great Lakes: Wolfman, Dogman, Wendigo" of Monsters and Mysteries in America .
Other references to Dogman include various Youtube channels including Dogman Encounters Radio, Dogman Narratives, Scary Stories NYC, Campfire Tales, Dogman Encounters with Jeffrey Nadolny, and Lilith Dread, as well as the creator Josh Nanocchio, the host of what lurks beneath.
Cook later added verses to the song in 1997 after hearing a report of an animal break-in by an unknown canine at a cabin in Luther, Michigan. [9] [10] He re-recorded it again in 2007, with a mandolin backing.
In late 2011, filmmaker Rich Brauer released a film called Dogman, starring Larry Joe Campbell. The movie premiered at the State Theater in Traverse City. [11]
The film included a brief segment of "The Gable Film", used with permission from Mike Agrusa, who received acknowledgement in the film credits.