Legend of the Wisconsin Werewolves and Michigan Dogmen

Editor’s Note: This is a post by Bigfoot Evidence contributor Vicki W.

Be afraid...be very afraid. Are the northern states of the US and much of Canada's provinces inhabited by werewolves? For years sightings of menacing wolf-like creatures which stand and even walk on their two back legs have been reported. The creepy part is that something about them appears human, but not quite. Could there really be a strange canine lurking in the shadowy darkness of our northern forests? They have come to be known as "dogmen" or "man-wolves". Wisconsin boasts the "Beast of Bray Road", so named for the street near it's favorite haunt.

What does a dogman look like? Those that have witnessed it describe an animal that looks like a large wolf. Spotting a wolf in the northern areas of the United States and Canada is certainly possible so what's the big deal? The main problem is this wolf is walking around on two legs--and it isn't wearing a circus hat. It's usually described as gray or black and standing approximately 7 feet tall with eerily menacing yellow eyes. Perhaps the most disturbing experience often reported is the feeling of dread and the distinct impression that the strange animal appears angered that it has been seen. Eyewitnesses maintain the creature appeared aggressive and threatening, and a few go as far as to say they felt a sense of evil. Though there are no known attacks on humans by the elusive canine, people do go missing in forests and national parks every year. Just pick up a copy of David Paulides' latest novel, "Missing 411", detailing hundreds of such cases, some of whom disappeared without a trace despite exhaustive search and rescue missions.

Dogman sightings have been around for longer than you think. French explorers spoke of the "loup-garou" (wolf-man, werewolf), a human which shape-shifted into the form of a wolf. One of the earliest dogman accounts was taken from a diary entry from 1857 which reads, "Near the barn, it stood as if a man, but had the countenance of a grey wolf." In 1887 a couple of lumberjacks claimed they saw a creature described as having a man's body yet bearing the head of a wolf. A man named Robert Fortney from Paris, MI had a frightening encounter with what he believed were a pack of feral dogs in 1938 while fishing along the Muskegon River. Firing a warning shot with his 22-caliber hunting rifle, all but one of the approaching canines scattered. Fortney watched as the largest of the pack shockingly stood up on it's hind quarters and glared at him with terrifying intensity. Fortunately, the animal retreated into the woods without attacking, leaving the shaken man with one hell of a fishing story. Sporadic reports have been going on ever since and continue today.

Researcher and prolific dogman/manwolf novelist Linda Godfrey has collected hundreds of sighting reports and creature encounters since she began investigating the tales in 1980. Godfrey is an award winning newspaper reporter and former art teacher, who has created many original illustrations for her books. She appeared on and co-produced the "MonsterQuest" episode entitled "The American Werewolf" and is a frequent guest on the syndicated radio program "Coast to Coast AM". Her first book on the Dogman, "The Beast of Bray Road" was published in 2003, followed by "Weird Wisconsin", "Weird Michigan", "The Michigan Dogman" and several others.

Godfrey's books and other websites are chock full of eyewitness reports. Let's take a look at some intriguing sightings.

Excerpted from Linda Godfrey's site http://www.beastofbrayroad.com/sightingslog2.html

APRIL 25, 2006, East of Powers Lake in Kenosha County, Wisconsin

"Currently under investigation, I am interviewing a high-security clearance employee of Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee who sighted the Manwolf three times now, twice in mid-February and then again April 25 while making his drive to work in the wee hours of the morning. The creature was spotted at approximately 3 a.m. and on the same 3-6 mile stretch of road each time. It was first observed crouching in the ditch, then rising easily to stand on two legs with its arms at its sides "much like a human's." According to the witness, who has observed it at close range and in several positions, it very closely resembles my sketch at right except the tail is longer and fuller, "about 18 inches," he estimates. He has seen the creature cross the road on all fours, as well, and estimated it was at least five feet long from nose to rump, and its back stood almost three feet off the ground. It appeared unafraid of him, and stared at him with yellow, glowing eyes. When it stood, it appeared slightly hunched over, as many other witnesses have said. I was contacted by a relative of his, who said the man has been a steadfast nonbeliever in the supernatural, and the relative coaxed him into talking to me. I am planning to stake out the exact road location in the very near future. In the meantime, the man is now carrying a camera on his way to work. Stay tuned!"

MANWOLF SPOTTED ON BRAY ROAD IN 2004

"Eating my words as dutifully noted in my blog, I must counter both my oft-repeated admonition that the Manwolf has not been reported seen on Bray Road for ten years or so, and the idea that no one who has ever gone out intentionally looking for the creature has succeeded in finding it. A 47-year old registered nurse from Greendale, her 16-year old daughter and 16-year old friend (they were 45, 14 and 14 at the time of the sighting) have told me that they saw what was definitely the Manwolf while driving down Bray Road about 8:30 p.m. October 30, 2004, for the express purpose of trying to scare the daughter's friend, Kevin. The woman and her daughter do not wish to be identified, but I have interviewed them at length in person and found them to be very credible witnesses. The woman is trained in anatomy, physiology, and kinesiology, and they estimate the creature was no farther than 9 feet away from them and illuminated in the headlights of their car. "We had been looking for it for years," said the woman as we sat at her kitchen table drinking iced tea.

"(My daughter's) friend Kevin had never been to Bray Road so she wanted to scare him," the woman told me. "We arrived about 8:30, drove up and down the road a few times, drove around Bowers Road...the whole thing was a lark. We went back onto Bray Road, driving slowly and under the speed limit, when something popped out of the corn about two miles down the road, heading toward Elkhorn.

"It stepped right out of the corn and it looked aggressive. We all screamed very loud, I put my foot on the gas, and we went away as fast as we could and did not go back. I was a wreck, I was shaking. What I saw doesn't make sense. A quadruped has its legs "backward' for speed and agility. But this creature had large powerful thigh muscles and its knee was backward (note from Linda: witnesses often say knee was backward, not realizing the canid's "heel" is at approximately the same height as our knee). It was covered in fur, with heavier fur on its back. It was dark in color but tipped silvery gray. It was in the oncoming lane of traffic so we were less than nine feet away, max. It was not a person in a suit, it was way too tall (about seven feet) way too brawny, and its eyes were glittery and dark, they had no sclera or whites like a human eye in a mask would have. It's head was big, almost too big for its body. It had an elongated snout, but pointy, not rounded like a Lab's.

"It stood there, and then it hunched over into an aggressive stance. It's arms were bent at the elbow and forward. I couldn't see the hands. Its ears were pointed, shaped like a German shepherd's, but laid back. Compared to your drawing of the indigenous dogman (see pic at right) the musculature on the legs was even heavier. It was looking right at me. I felt it was aggressive and would defend itself viciously.

"This wasn't a dog. Or a wolf. It had canine features but it was something else....something "other." It was canid. There was this feeling we were not safe. And we didn't get a picture although we had cameras all over that car...video, digital, disposable, we were prepared. But when we saw it, we all just screamed in unison and then I floored it."

The woman said she was not drinking any alcohol and does not do drugs. She has had a few incidents in her life she considers "somewhat" paranormal, but has never seen anything definite like this. All three witnesses saw the creature at the same time and agreed on its appearance. I will be interviewing Kevin by phone. Below are scans of her own drawings."

On one of Godfrey's many "Coast to Coast AM" guest spots, she recounts an unusual sighting of not less than 5 man-wolf creatures seen by a Maine couple who had been relaxing on their porch one evening. The pack were all standing on two legs and appeared to be arranged in a strategic flanking position. Were they planning to attack the couple? Hear the story as told on the recent episode to George Knapp:

Wisconsin Werewolf Sighting #3
Year: 1972
Location: Jefferson County, Wisconsin

A woman (name unreported) called 911 when she heard someone trying to break into her rural home in the middle of the night. Upon further investigation, it appeared that it was not a person, but a large animal that had tried to get in. A few weeks later the creature returned and again tried to forcefully enter the house. This time the woman saw the creature. She described it as around eight feet tall, covered in dark brown hair, and it stood on two legs. It had long arms with hands that had long, sharp claws on them.

When the creature couldn't get inside the house, it went out to the woman's barn and attacked a horse. The horse was alive, but had a deep cut across its back. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources investigated, finding a foot print that was said to be over a foot long.

http://www.gods-and-monsters.com/werewolf-sightings.html

Unlike Bigfoot, there are very few photos of manwolf creatures, their tracks or castings of tracks. A few are floating around and are quite interesting. The following is an account as told by the son of a nightwatchman in 1961 who managed to snap a photo of the creature.

"When I was a boy, my father was the night watchman at a manufacturing plant located in a rural area between Big Rapids and Chippewa Lake, Michigan. Our house (which if I remember right was a perk of the night watchman job) was across the street from the factory. The plant building was right next to a large wilderness area of State land. At that time it was simply known as the Haymarsh, but now it is officially called the Haymarsh State Game Area.

We didn't understand it at the time, but dad was always very skittish about letting us play outside after dark. He would sometimes talk about hearing coyotes or bears roaming around in the haymarsh when he was walking the perimeter of the building at night.

One night in the summer of 1961, dad walked back to the house to sit on the porch and have a cup of coffee and a sweet roll. He had a good view of the entire plant property. He saw some movement near a chain link fence behind the building. This was approximately 3:00am, so he felt quite sure this person wasn't there by accident.

He drew his gun and watched for a few minutes. That's when he noticed this was not a person at all, but something much taller. He said it appeared to be covered in brown/grey hair. It had very broad shoulders and a powerful chest. It alternated between walking on four legs, then standing up on two. He said it seemed to be looking for something along the driveway.

He said later he couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. He quietly moved into the house and grabbed his Kodak Signet 35mm camera, which was his pride and joy. At this point I should mention that dad was quite a photography buff. His father had owned one of the first camera stores in Ohio, and dad got the shutterbug from grandpa.

As he stepped back onto the front porch, the creature moved slowly along the driveway, directly under the lights. He adjusted the camera shutter for a long exposure, held it as still as he could (he said he was shaking pretty bad by then) and snapped a picture. I've enclosed a print of it in this letter. Dad said a few seconds later, the thing dropped back down to all fours, and slowly moved off into the woods (to the left in this picture).

He sent a print to the local newspaper, and sent copies to several magazines. One that I think was called "Mysterion" published the photo in their Spring issue of 1962. Dad had a copy of the magazine for years, but it was misplaced after he passed away.

I still have the negative strip that contains this image, if you would like to have someone examine it. I also still have dad's Kodak Signet. I haven't shot any pictures with it for several years, but I'm pretty sure it still works.

The Bendan Tracks

"This sighting report is told second hand, by the brother-in-law of a witness. The witness is a prominent person in local government, and wishes to remain anonymous."

"The situation started last Saturday night around midnight when he was coming home from a friend's house in Benzonia and taking the back way home to Traverse City. He stated that while traveling down Cinder Road, several miles outside of the town of Bendon, he observed a pair of eyes reflecting off his headlights ahead of him. Thinking that it was probably a deer along side of the road, he began to slow down. As he got closer however, he stated that the object was much larger and much darker than a deer. He said that by this time, he had slowed to around 30 mph and was at that point several hundred feet from the creature which still hadn’t moved. As he approached further, he stated that the only way he could describe the creature was being similar to a very large dark wolf, however he observed that this thing wasn’t on four legs, but was upright his back two legs standing near a road killed deer. He estimated that the creature stood a little over six feet tall and had very dark fur.

He stated that by now, he was going slow enough to bring his truck to a stop in the road and observe the creature which had not yet moved and was still staring at him. He told me that for a brief second, he believed that the object was a giant stuffed animal put there as some kind of joke due to the fact that he had never seen anything like this in his life, and that he was able to drive up on it as close as he was, without it having moved an inch. He told me however, that before he could finish that thought, the creature then dropped to all four legs and sprinted across the road and disappeared into the woods on the other side of the roadway.

He told me that he stayed frozen in his seat for a minute wondering in the middle of the road, of what the heck had just happened. I jokingly asked him if he had been drinking that night and with a deadly serious face, stated “No… whatever that was, it was for real”.

As perplexed as he was that night over what he had seen, he was deathly afraid to go wandering into the woods to investigate further.

He said that in using a flashlight, he observed an animals tracks leading into the woods on the opposite side of the road and was fortunate enough that night to have his digital camera with him. He showed me a photograph of the pawprint which he said appeared to be about 7 or 8 inches long. He had another picture of the same pawprint where he placed a shotgun shell in the middle of it for scale. He told me that he was lucky that the side of the road was so soft, because he wasn’t willing to go any farther than two or three steps away from the door to his truck to get a picture. I inquired if the animal had made any sounds before it disappeared and he said that he did not hear it make any noise and were it not for the picture, he would have thought that he had imagined the whole thing. . I asked him if it could have been a bear and he stated “absolutely not”. He bear hunts every year in the U.P., so he obviously knows what bears look like up close.

That's his story. Believe it if you like. If I didn’t know him as well as I do, and hadn’t seen the pictures, I would have said that he was out of his mind. I’ve heard the song and know some of the stories, but always believed it was just for entertainment value. After this happened though, I’m looking at all of this under a whole new light."

http://www.michigan-dogman.com/index

Despite the incredible number of dogman sightings reported, there are also plenty of skeptics. Youtube user "SumofAllFears2012" offers his explanation for what people are seeing:

Looking at the photos, obviously Canadian gray wolves can grow to be quite large. Here's another short video giving a little history on the creature which includes a photo of an amazingly tall timber wolf shot by a hunter back in 1935. Also included is an alleged call to "OnStar" services by a couple who wrecked their SUV after hitting what the caller said "looked like a big dog". Whether this call was real or not, it is pretty scary. It's Halloween, so let's just pretend it's legit for today. (By the way, rumor has it the SUV was found on it's side with no sign of the couple.) Spooky.

So what do you think? Do dogmen exist? Here's the enhanced photo from the above video--the better to scare you with, my friends. Happy Halloween, and hey--don't go in the woods....