(via Michigan in Pictures) The Dogman of Michigan is a spooky Michigan tale that’s near & dear to my heart…
Several years ago, Michigan Public Radio talked with Rachel Clark of the Michigan History Center about the legend of Michigan Dogman . She shared that the tale dates all the way back to the 1880s when two Wexford County lumberjacks saw a creature they described as having a man’s body and a dog’s head:
“So, the early reports are usually of men working in the woods who encounter this beast during their time there. And then over the years, it’s a lot of times people who are again alone, either on an isolated road or the woods,” Clark said. “Their encounters are very similar though. They do talk about this beast coming out of the woods, it is very agile, it jumps in front of their car or in front of them. It scratches at their houses or their tents.”
Most of the original reports came from logging camps. In the 1870s, Michigan was the leading white pine lumber producer in the nation. These encounters have been said to scare people to death. Someone recently called OnStar reporting that Dogman ran in front of his car—causing it to flip over.
My two connections with the Dogman are through filmmaker & friend Rich Brauer (see below) and the time my son and I were driving through the pine barrens near Fife Lake in Northern Michigan when we saw a weirdly tall black creature like a wolf or huge dog cross the road ahead of us on all fours. The legs appeared to be about 50% longer than a wolf or dog – very freakish. There are a bunch of ORV trails there and we briefly considered driving in to follow it before realizing we very much did not want to do that.
My friend Rich Brauer premiered his first Dogman film back in 2012 and followed up with Dogman 2: Wrath of the Litter in 2014. TOMORROW (Saturday, Oct 26) he premiers Dogman 3: Fight to the Finish at Frankfort’s Garden Theatre. Check out the work of Rich & his team at Brauer Productions and enjoy the trailer!
Almost forgot this post about the Dogman I did back in 2015 with more spooky stuff!
