The Michigan Dogman is a cryptozoological creature first reported in 1887 in Wexford County, Michigan. Sightings have been reported in several locations throughout Michigan, primarily in the northwestern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula. In 1987, the legend of the Michigan Dogman gained popularity when a disc jockey at WTCM-FM recorded a song about the creature and its reported sightings.
History[]
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 actual reports of the creature. Cook recorded the song with a keyboard backing and credited it to Bob Farley. 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. Over the years, Cook has received more than 100 reports of the creature's existence. In March 2010, the creature was featured in an episode of MonsterQuest. Cook later added verses to the song 1997 after hearing a report of an animal break-in by an unknown canine at a cabin in Luther, Michigan. He re-recorded it again in 2007, with a mandolin backing.
Sightings[]
The first sighting of the Michigan Dogman occurred in 1887 in Wexford County, when two lumberjacks saw a creature whom they described as having a man's body and a dog's head. in Paris, Michigan, Robert Fortney was attacked by five wild dogs and said that one of the five walked on two legs. In 1907 a woman was meant to have dreamed a pack of Dogmen surrounded her house and screamed all night. Reports of similar creatures also came from Allegan County in the 1950's and in Manistee and in Cross Village in 1976. 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.
Identity[]
It has been hard to identify just what the Michigan Dogman may be. Some cryptozoologists suggest it to be a surviving prehistoric species like the Dire Wolf; others suggest it to be an escapee from a secret government facility which has either been deliberately set loose or accidentally broke out (Similar theories are posited about the Chupacabra.) Others believe a more supernatural explanation, that either these creatures are werewolves, or the legendary Skinwalkers or that they are shapeshifters like Skinwalkers who tried to transform from man to wolf but got stuck halfway, and they are now unable to transform back to their human selves.
