Hello and welcome to the program UFO Warning. In
this episode we're talking about the Michigan Dog Man.
That's correct, the Michigan Dog
Man. Now I know that might sound a
little bit off the beaten track from UFOs, but I
really enjoy these cryptid subjects, whether it's the
Michigan Dog Man, Bigfoot, these various non -human
entities, these large black wolves, these black panthers
that are in places that shouldn't be at. To
me it all ties in together in this UFO phenomena and
we're just trying to figure out how this fabric is
weaved. Now this first article gives us
a little background. This is from wikipedia .org, the
site we all love and sometimes hate. It
says, in folklore the Michigan Dog Man 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 a torso of a man and a fearsome
howl that sounds like a human scream. According
to legends, the Michigan Dog Man appears in a ten
-year cycle that falls on years ending at seven.
Sightings have been reported in
several locations throughout Michigan, primarily in the
northwestern quadrant of the lower peninsula. So
if you look at Michigan on a map, of course, it kind
of looks like a giant mitten there with the thumb
pointing to the right. That's
the lower peninsula and then those two peninsula
darting off the top there. That
would be the upper 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 Manisley River since the days when the Ottawa
tribes lived there. Original sources for alleged
sightings made prior to 1987. However,
have not been documented beyond Steve Cook's song
discussed below. The first alleged encounter of
the Michigan Dog Man occurred in 1887 in Luxford
County when two lumberjacks saw a creature which they
described as having a man's body and a dog's head. In
1937, a Paris Michigan Robert Fortney was attacked
by five wild dogs and said that one of the five
walked on two legs. Reports of similar creatures also
came from Alligan County in the 1950s and in Manisley
and Cross Village in 1967. Linda
Godfrey in her book, The Beast of Bray Road,
compares the Manisley sightings to a similar
creature sighted in Wisconsin known as the
Beast of Bray Road. It goes on to say that the
Cook song in 1987, this chalky 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 song on myths
and legends from around North America and had never
heard of an actual Michigan Dog Man at the time of
recording. I made it up completely from
my own imagination as an April Fool's prank for the
radio and stumbled my way to a legend that goes back
all the way to the Native American times. Quote
Steve Cook sceptoid .com, wag the dog man. Cook
maintains his skepticism about the possibility of a
real dog man and 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 the 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 dog man provides them with an
avenue to explain what they couldn t explain for
themselves. Some people think that well the
idea of this whole dog man thing came out of this
silly song written. A lot of people though say
look this thing s been around for a long time and
this guy says he s never heard of it. Whatever
that doesn t preclude us having seen what we ve
seen especially when you re talking about accounts going
back to 1887. So that s a little bit of
the background and now I want to take a look at
this original newspaper article. So
this article is from the Times Herald Port here on
Michigan. It says July 23rd, Thursday,
1987 written by Jim Minkeralal, Associated Press
reporter. Title, Interest in Legend Grows
After Dog Man Attacks. And then the headline says in
this decade called the 80s, the 7th year is here and
somewhere in the Northwood s darkness a creature walks
upright and best advice you ever get is don t go out
at night, Steve Cook, the legend. Now
the date liner says Luther, an animal attack on a
cabin in the northern Michigan village of Luther,
has sparked the imaginations of people from Lake County
to Travis City with tales of a half man, half dog
creature looking in the woods. Some
people think maybe it s true and Anne Cavender,
Bartender, Joyce S. Tavern and Luther were the main
topic of the conversation in recent days has been
the mysterious attack on a cabin outside of town. Now
you got to wonder could that be a black bear? It
says you have a lot of people who are superstitious
and your mind can work strange ways on you. The
incident created rumors of a wild dog man stems from
an animal attack on a cabin near Luther. Recently
DNR officers from the Baldwin Field Office
inspected the cabin and said there was considerable
damage to the screen and molding around a door and
window. An animal had ripped into the
screen and molding and both apparently trying to get
into the cabin. When the cabin owners called the
DNR they initially thought it might be a bear attack
but officers determined the damage had been done by a
dog. There were dog tracks around the
cabin, paw prints on the window and marks of a dog
s teeth on the molding the dog was never found. The
incident was minor but when word of the attack leaked
out last week it spread rumors that have spread
throughout northern Michigan. The
attack coincides with a prophecy made in a song
that has been very popular in the counties between
Baldwin and Travis City. The
song called The Legend tells of a mythical dog
man that appears during the 7th year of every decade.
In other words in 1947, 57,
67, 77 and so on the song was written and performed
by a character calling himself Bob Farley. It
is the brainchild of Stephen Cook production
director for the radio station WTCM in Travis
City. This spring Cook wrote the music
and lyrics as a promotional gimmick for the country in
Western station that can be heard in 26 counties from
Baldwin north to Charlevoix. Cook
28 performed the music and lyrics using his alter ego
Bob Farley, a combination farmer, philosopher and
social critic radio audiences have come to
accept as a real person. Since
first played April Fool's Day The Legend has created
a stir overnight becoming the nation's most popular
song and prompting calls from listeners inquiring
whether the tale is true. The
song also prompted downstate residents to call the
Travis City Chamber of Commerce to check whether
there really is such a creature. The
song itself has a Johnny Cash flavor, chronicling
sightings of fictional creatures that resemble dogs
but walk upright like men. The
lyrics explain that the creature first appeared in
the 1800s terrifying a crew of lumberjacks working near
the Mastie River. In 1897 the song continues a
farmer was found dead with dog tracks around his body.
In 1917 a sheriff in northern
Michigan found a team of horses alongside the road.
The expression in their dead
eyes suggesting they died of fright. The
song tells about Clalmark's seven feet four inches high
on a church store in 1957. A
report from a group of hippies staying in the
cabin in 1967 that a dog man was looking in and
grinning throughout the window and a report from
the village of Bel Air in 1977 of weird screams from
the woods. According to the song the creature
may be one dog man or a whole pack of them. Maybe
it's a whole sub society who knows cook said. Some
of the calls that came into the station after the
song was aired were reports of unusual happenings. For
example Robert Fortney of Cadillac said he had a
strange thing happen in 1937 the year he graduated
from high school. Fortney now 68 said he was target
shooting in the woods behind the fish hatchery in
Paris when he was attacked by five wild dogs. They
came out of the woods right at me he said. The
lead dog came right at my throat and had to shoot
him. The rest of them started to
sink away. The last dog to leave was a
giant black animal. Before it left Fortney said it
stood on his hind legs and glared at him. Now
that's a weird one. It's almost like we have this
light in life imitating art thing going on here with
this song written with these entertaining lyrics
and then people coming along and saying yeah well
actually I have had an experience like this almost
as if this Steve Cook was channeling something in a
way very weird. Now let's take a look at this
next article talking about some experiences people
claimed have had involving this dog man as we look
to decide whether this is just a figment of some
songwriter's imagination or a real thing. Now
this last article that we're looking at is from
listverse .com dated November 10th 2021. It
says by Aaron Fox and then fact checked by Darcy
Hinkinen 10 disturbing dog man sightings of the
American Midwest. The werewolf is one of the
most iconic monsters of history both fictional and
historical from the legend of king Lycon to the
leading wolf man in well the wolf man the idea of
walking upright half wolf half man has invaded many
a fantasy enthusiast imagination. One
would be hard pressed to call a werewolf a cryptid
though and that is where our new friend the dog man
steps in also referred to as the michigan dog man
the beast of bray road or simply as an upright canid
canid this de factoed modern werewolves have been
spotted from the start of the 20th century through
even to this day most of the sightings have taken
place in the u .s states of michigan and wisconsin
here is a list of 10 modern werewolf sightings in
the areas around lake michigan listed in order
from earliest to latest however this list hardly
scratches the fleet bit and surface of these mysterious
canine encounters yeah i'm not sure i'd call this
thing a werewolf actually to me this is a simple
type of cryptid and we really haven't decided if
it even exists yet but it is very interesting one of
the first dog man sightings take place around the great
lakes took place in the wisconsin city ever seen
right on the western coast of lake michigan and very
near to the border of illinois the man by the
name of mark shackleman was working as a night watchman
for the saint clutter cup convent in 1936 one night
during his rounds shackleman saw a canine looking black
furred incarious smelling creature with what he
described as long claws the dog man was kneeling and
scratching at an indigenous people's burial ground near
the convent but he fled as soon as shackleman's
approach to investigate he returned the next day only
to find footprints and claw marks although apparently
two of the fingers seemed to be withered from what
the night watchman could tell from the markings
shackleman scheduled to work two nights in a row went
back the next night and once again he witnessed a
creature scratching at the mound however this time the
animal didn't run away it stood up at six feet tall
and made eye contact with shackleman and then it
spoke it was only one word though less than an actual
word and more of a name gatteraw the night watchman
summoned up his courage and refused to run away he
simply maintained eye contact before praying to
god turning around and walking slowly the dog man
sneered at mark still stirring menacingly but
didn't move mark shackleman never saw the creature
again though he did often smell the dead meat scent
well that's pretty disturbing now of course
that was in 1936 and not in the year ending as
seven as some people insist here's one 1938 Paris
michigan this is number nine our next story takes
us to michigan and the domain of the michigan dog
man though most pre 1987 sightings of the dog man
are showcased in steve cooks april full -state song
the legend the story of robert fortney is one of
the first to take place that doesn't show up into
music this is important to bring up because most of
the werewolf encounters and steve cooks piece are
fictionalized with cook believing that he made the
legend up however this story proves that the dog
man was actually truly has been around before his song
was published in the late 1980s robert fortney was a
fit was fishing one summer day on the on the muskegon
river closest to the town of paris michigan the year
was 1938 and 40 was 17 years old suddenly fortney
was attacked by a pack of wild dogs six as far as
fortney could count the teenager was lucky to have
his rifle handy before any of the dogs could lunge he
fired one warning shot into the air after that all of
the dogs scattered saved for one this black fur
canine proved to be no ordinary dog however as
soon as the shot rang out it proceeded to stare into
fortney's eyes with his own piercing blue gaze from the
distance of 10 feet then it started grinning not
succumbing to fear robert fortney fired one more
warning shot this time causing the maybe werewolf
to run off however instead of scaling on all fours
this would be a werewolf this would be werewolf
stood up to around six feet tall before running
away on two legs fortney would be one of the many
collars that steve cook would receive in 1987 after
putting a song the legend on the radio the creature
that cook made up as a prank turned out to be
very very real to the longtime michigan native
robert fortney this number eight 1961 rapids michigan
says they have little videos going along with
some of these are pretty neat this story is one of
the rare encounters in which someone had allegedly
captured a photograph of this upright canid cryptid
it was the year 1961 though the anonymous
narrator fails to specify which month it is it was
around three in the morning in the michigan town of
big rapids where the unknown source was up late
at night at his home he lived right across from the
manufacturing plant that he worked at as a night
watchman the plant sat right next to the haymores
state game area and this is where the source claims
have seen someone or something making noise by
the chain link fence bordering the property
thinking it was an intruder the narrator goes from his
work to his house to grab a gun but when he returns
outside he instead sees a six foot tall grayish
brownish upright canid stumbling about in his
driveway thinking quickly on his feet the anonymous
source rushes into the house to try and grab his
camera instead when he returned outside the dog
man was already out of his driveway and feathered into
the dark street however at one point the creature did
move near a streetlight where the anonymous source
was able to snap one of maybe four or five alleged
pictures of the michigan dog man before it ran off
into the night it always helps to have names on
these things i will say that this is 1988 alto and
lull michigan it says this story is remarkable in as
much as it details a man who claims that a dog man
has followed him since he was young with two separate
encounters spanning 20 years apart the first one takes
place in 1988 in alto michigan just southeast of
the city of grand rapids the anonymous source in an
elementary school at the time was playing during
recesses around 10 in the morning he decided to run
into the woods adjacent to the elementary school
playground to hide and also cheat at the game of war
he made his way to a river by some train tracks
when he heard a huge splash and witnessed a dark
furred dog man bolt into the woods switching between
two and four legs to run before disappearing at this
point the narrator ran straight home to his bed
keeping silent about his sighting until adulthood he
described it as 80 feet tall 300 pounds blue eyed
this time it's seeming almost like a timber wolf
but upright and with longer legs the second sighting
took place in the nearby town of lull and the
winter of 2008 the anonymous man now has a
family all sleeping soundly when you heard a thud on
the roof his canine related childhood memories
immediately flooded back without prompting he quietly
snuck outside and that was when the very same blue
eyed dog man poked his head out from the top of
the roof staring directly at him then the dog man
leaped 30 feet from the roof and bolted on all
fours to the tree line only stand up and stare at
the anonymous man for a full minute he fully ran
at the dog man with a machete that he had brought
with him the dog man just stared almost grinning now
before uttering a single audible don't the man
stopped dead in the tracks and was overwhelmed by a
supreme weird sense of calm he dropped his machete and
backed away slowly and the dog man turned and walked
calmly into the woods disappearing wow it's kind
of like when we hear it these with these big foot
creatures sometimes people try to shoot him and the
things just disappear it's it kind of goes into this
whole interdimensional aspect of these things this is
from elkhorn wisconsin 1989 ray bray road is a modest
stretch of road running east from the modest
wisconsin town of elkhorn it is also the particular
stretch of road in which the beast of bray road
gets his name though a sighting in 1989 would be
the first in this beastly cryptids illustrious career
it is a brisk fall night around 1 30 a .m all is
dark and quiet on the back country bray road connecting
highway 11 and county road in in lori indrizi is
driving from her job as a manager of elkhorn large
and that's when she sees it at the side of the
road a dark brownish gray figure is kneeling with his
back turned to her short pointed ears bearing the
only real thing to stand out as indrizi drove closer
it turned showing off a strangely canine face its
elbows were up and his claws were facing out so i
knew it had claws claims indrizi i remember the long
claws those claws seem to be holding roadkill and its
eyes reflected the glow of her headlights it appeared
to be five foot seven and 150 and 150 pounds from
what she could tell at fleeting glance however
unlike most wild animals this canine creature didn't
run off but instead gazed directly into her eyes
indrizi drove off she felt as if it were so like a
human that there could be no trace of a wild animal
being felt in those eyes to this day i believe it
was satanic she says it was just my feeling i
don't really believe in werewolves but per se but
i believe something could be conjured up my
grandmother was very religious and she believed
it too at some point lori indrizi went to report her
story to the walroth county animal control and hers
would be one of the first to enter into the animal
control officer john frederickens manila envelope
labeled werewolf and where the first of many sightings
of the beast of bray road would first be collected
man that's crazy all right now i'm going to do one
last one and then if you want to go to this site
listfirst .com you can take a look for yourself really
interesting and i think well written reports there
this last one that we're looking at is from 1991
elkhorn wisconsin it says the second story to enter
into john frederickens report however wouldn't take
place until two years later though it would happen on
the exact same stretch of road where lori indrizi saw
her for a friend pat lustre lori indrizi's mother
was a part -time school bus driver and in 1991 she
would actually have a student on her bus with a
report of a walking dog man except to further add
to the legend of the bray road beast this one took
place on halloween night doris gibson was driving to
a friend's house to pick up another friend from a
party when she hits something on the thoroughly
foggy stretch of bray road causing her front tires to
lift off the ground she got out of a car to
investigate thinking she had hit a small animal but
found signs of neither animal nor injury so she
made her way back to the car that was when it
lunged at her through the fog brown straight for a
canine face a muscular frame and strutting on two
legs gibson quickly bolted to her car door not
particularly in the mood to get closer i just put my
foot on the gas pedal and i started going however as
soon as she tried to pull out of there the upright
canid tried holding on to the rear bumper of the car
to prevent it from getting away is claimed that deep
scratch marks were etched into the car's rear the
next day this is not where the story ends though on
the way back that night gibson's new passenger and
friend shouted look at that thing the two of them saw
the same muscular werewolf -esque being and gibson took
roughly zero seconds before deciding to put the the
pedal to the floor and get out of there wow
interesting stuff yeah there's some more sightings
here for just for sake of time i will go through
them all but this is a neat topic the dog man i
know some people really enjoy this topic really
follow it closely some folks think that they're
just mistaken identity cases that these things are all
black bears or pranksters or just a figment of
someone's imagination i think like a lot of
descriptive stuff they really deserve further
investigation especially the ones where we have evidence
of maybe a car being attacked or a house being
an attempt to break in on a cabin or something like
that until next time this is ufo over and out