It seems that the infamous, yet very elusive “Dogman” of Michigan is
once again on the prowl within the Manistee National Forest, and the
surrounding area. On the weekend of July 24th two separate accounts of
sightings with Michigan's creature from folklore were reported to the
state police. Mrs. Davis of Brethren, MI., who has a farm on the
northwest outskirts of the National Park, said she went to investigate
her horses and other livestock making a ruckus when she walked around
the corner of her barn and came face to face with the creature. She
described the beast as on all fours sniffing near the barn entrance when
she first spotted it. Mrs. Davis has quoted the following account.
“I
was less than 30' from it when it saw me and stood up on its hinds
legs. It must have been at least 7' tall, covered in long shaggy hair,
and a long snout for a face. It looked right at me and snarled. I had
this strange sense that it was smiling at me. I instinctively shined my
flashlight on it and its eyes reflected like burning red coals. It
cocked it's head at me came down on all four legs again and hit the
nearby brush at a run so fast it was gone in like one second.”
When
Mrs. Davis was asked why she didn't run when she first saw the creature
she said her father had known of the Dogman and also had an experience.
She remembered him once telling her never to run from it, to stand her
ground and it would most likely leave. If advanced upon she was to
slowly back away. “My dad was a very smart man and knew the forest
around here well. I knew well enough to trust his advice” she said. The
second accounted sighting was near Custer, MI. just west of Brethren and
the couple who sighted it while hiking were so traumatized by their
encounter that the only real information the police could get was that
they were sure there was more than one.
The Dogman, or even
Dogmen are Michigan's version of werewolfs. Its unclear how they became
known as Dogman. After some research I found some theories that the
Michigan Dogman could possibly be related to the infamous native
American Indian warriors of the same title. The theory states that these
Indian warriors, known to native American's as “Skinwalkers” were
capable of shape shifting. Some even go so far as to claim they may even
be the same warriors of the 1830's as not only do they shape shift but
they are also ageless.
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