Dogmen

Name: Dogmen
Uploaded: 2026-11-02T12:47:57+00:00
Duration: 1 h 17 min 30 s
Channel: SpookyTVGermany
Description: Abenteuer, Antike ,Mythologie

SpookyTVGermany

vor 13 Minuten

Abenteuer, Antike ,Mythologie

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00:00:00Die Kinder in den letzten Jahren

00:00:02Die Kinder in den letzten Jahren

00:00:03Die Kinder in den letzten Jahren

00:00:04Die Kinder in den letzten Jahren

00:00:06Die Kinder in den letzten Jahren

00:00:10Before the era of grand estates

00:00:13along the shores of Lake Erie,

00:00:15back when the land in eastern Michigan

00:00:17was still wild and unyielding,

00:00:20a trapper named Simenay

00:00:22made his home at Grosse Pointe.

00:00:25After the death

00:00:25of his wife, he poured all of his strength

00:00:28into raising their daughter, Archange.

00:00:30To Simenay,

00:00:32she was his pretty flower,

00:00:33and to the young men of the settlement,

00:00:35she was the belle of every dance.

00:00:38Among them was Pierre Lafontaine,

00:00:41a simple farmer

00:00:42who won her heart.

00:00:44As their wedding day neared,

00:00:46Pierre would row across the lake

00:00:47just to spend a few moments with her on the beach.

00:00:50But one evening,

00:00:51Archange found herself face to face

00:00:54with a monster.

00:00:56It had the head of a wolf,

00:00:58the body of a man,

00:00:59and eyes that froze her where she stood.

00:01:02Simenay came bloody

00:01:03when he heard her scream,

00:01:05though he only caught a glimpse of the creature

00:01:07as it vanished into the trees.

00:01:09But he had heard stories.

00:01:12Everyone had.

00:01:13The Lou Guru,

00:01:14a shape-shifting half-beast, half-human,

00:01:17known to haunt the wilderness,

00:01:19searching for young women.

00:01:22Simenay consoled his daughter,

00:01:23but he couldn't shape the dread.

00:01:26On the day of her wedding,

00:01:28Archange was gathering wildflowers

00:01:30when she once again encountered the creature.

00:01:32She fled, narrowly escaping.

00:01:35But the celebration went on.

00:01:37That is, until the Lou Guru returned,

00:01:40bursting into the festivities

00:01:41and snatching the bride from her husband's arms

00:01:44and vanishing into the forest.

00:01:46Pierre led a desperate pursuit

00:01:48but returned broken and defeated.

00:01:50His bride was gone.

00:01:54Pierre would often be seen wandering the swamps,

00:01:57clutching a scrap of his wife's dress,

00:01:59lost in his own madness.

00:02:02They still say the footprint of the wolf remains,

00:02:06pressed forever into the rocks along Lake Erie.

00:02:13The End

00:02:14The End

00:02:19The End

00:02:20The End

00:02:22The End

00:02:52Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

00:03:22Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

00:03:31Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

00:03:31I think the viewpoint that most people have of Michigan is as a rust belt industrial because of Detroit and

00:03:37the auto industry and so forth.

00:03:39And in the southern part of the Lower Peninsula, that's largely true.

00:03:43But once you get north of, say, Clare and start to understand that there are far more trees than there

00:03:52are people, it's really a spectacularly beautiful place, especially along the lake shores.

00:03:58And the Great Lakes are literally inland seas.

00:04:02Yeah, the state of Michigan, as most people know, looks just like the thumb.

00:04:05You know, they call it the mitten state.

00:04:07The southern part where I live is kind of like more urban.

00:04:11But then if you go maybe two miles outside of Flint, Michigan, it gets very foresty, a lot of lakes.

00:04:18So Michigan, in my opinion, is more rural, more wild spaces.

00:04:27There's lots of country, there's lots of woods, lots of forest, lots of farmland and orchards that fill the rest

00:04:35of Michigan.

00:04:36And those make prime habitats for anything that wants to be an apex predator.

00:04:43It's a melting pot.

00:04:44Where I live, there's a very large Polish population.

00:04:49There's a very large Finnish population.

00:04:52My wife, in fact, comes from Finland or Finnish heritage.

00:04:56So you get a lot of that northern sector.

00:05:00If you've ever watched the movie Fargo, you kind of get a sense of the way of people speaking and

00:05:07that sort of thing.

00:05:09When people think of Michigan, they often picture Detroit, the motor city.

00:05:14But Michigan's story stretches back much further than the rise of the automobile.

00:05:19Long before highways and factories, this was a land shaped by waterways and forests.

00:05:24Home to the Ojibwe, the Ottawa, and the Potawatomi tribes, who co-existed with the rhythms of nature for thousands

00:05:33of years.

00:05:34Then came the French.

00:05:37Explorers like Etienne Brule and Samuel de Champlain ventured into the Great Lakes region in the early 1600s,

00:05:44laying claim to territories and opening up trade routes.

00:05:47In 1668, Father Jacques Marquette founded a mission at Sault Ste. Marie,

00:05:53the first permanent European settlement in what would become Michigan.

00:05:57Just a few decades later, Fort Pontchartrain, today's Detroit, was established by Anton de la Montcatiac.

00:06:04Control changed hands from the French to the British, and eventually, after the Revolutionary War, to the Americans.

00:06:12Michigan became part of the Northwest Territory in 1783, but its path to statehood wasn't exactly smooth.

00:06:20A strange border dispute with Ohio, known as the Toledo War, held up the process.

00:06:26The resolution gave Michigan the Upper Peninsula instead of Toledo, which, in time, proved to be more than a fair

00:06:33trade.

00:06:33By the dawn of the 20th century, Detroit was becoming something entirely new.

00:06:39The hum of industry grew louder as Henry Ford and Ransom Olds laid the foundation for an empire built on

00:06:47steel and gasoline.

00:06:49The assembly line became a symbol of progress.

00:06:53But while Michigan's cities were growing, its forests still whispered the old stories,

00:06:59ones you wouldn't hear in a history book, because Michigan's past isn't just industrial, it's mythic.

00:07:07Tales of strange creatures have always been told in the shadow of the Great Lakes,

00:07:11and by the late 1800s, a very particular legend began to surface.

00:07:17Stories of a large, wolf-like creature that was said to walk upright began making their way into local lore.

00:07:25These weren't just campfire tales.

00:07:28They were sightings.

00:07:30And over time, they became something more.

00:07:34In 1987, a northern Michigan radio DJ named Steve Cook wrote and recorded a song called The Legend.

00:07:42It's a spooky song which tells the story of a creature called the Dogman.

00:07:47He said it was all made up.

00:07:49Listeners claimed the creature in the song matched something they'd seen,

00:07:53something they hadn't told anyone about in years.

00:07:56It was as if Cook had opened a door,

00:07:59and what came through was something older than the state itself.

00:08:28The first recorded sighting that I was aware of was back in like the 1930s.

00:08:331936 in Paris, Michigan.

00:08:35There was an alleged dogman who came up on a man's property,

00:08:40and it was just, they thought it was an oversized wolf.

00:08:42Then all of a sudden got up on two legs,

00:08:44turned around and ran back into the forest.

00:08:48Of course, we've all heard about Steve Cook.

00:08:51He came up with this jingle about the Dogman that he broadcasts on his radio platform.

00:08:56People caught a lot of attention, thought it was kind of funny.

00:08:59Of course, we all know about Linda Godfrey out in Wisconsin,

00:09:04about the Beast of Prairie Road.

00:09:05And then in Wexford, Michigan, not too long after that,

00:09:09because Wexford here in the state of Michigan

00:09:10is actually known as the Dogman capital of the world.

00:09:13That's what they say.

00:09:14That's their claim to fame.

00:09:16And not too long after that,

00:09:18there was an alleged report of these Dogman upright standing creatures

00:09:21roaming the valley of Wexford.

00:09:25Eleven lumberjacks near the Garland Swamp

00:09:28found an animal they thought was a dog.

00:09:31In a playful mood, they chased it around

00:09:34till it ran inside a hollow log.

00:09:36A logger named Johnson grabbed him a stick

00:09:40and poked around inside.

00:09:42Then the thing let out an unearthly scream and came out

00:09:49and stood upright.

00:09:54There was another outbreak that had been really not so widely reported

00:10:00up in Traverse City, Michigan.

00:10:02And the man who put it together, a DJ,

00:10:06was thinking he was just going to have some kind of a fundraiser

00:10:10for the local animal shelter.

00:10:11And so, being a musician, he put together sort of a ballad

00:10:15that was based on a few very old logging tales,

00:10:20an actual up-to-date modern-time police report

00:10:24of somebody who was reporting one of these things,

00:10:27and then some things that he just made up.

00:10:29You have to sort of understand the background of the song.

00:10:32It was written originally as just an April Fool's prank

00:10:35for the radio station where I worked.

00:10:38And the morning guy and I became kind of legendary

00:10:41for some of the pranks we would play on April Fool's.

00:10:45But he came to me really late in the year 87.

00:10:48It was the last week of March, and he said,

00:10:50we've got to do something.

00:10:51We haven't even thought about it or talked about it.

00:10:53So I sat down with a little toy $99 Casio keyboard,

00:10:58laid out a rhythm, laid out a little bit of a melody,

00:11:01and the thing just kind of fell together in about 20 minutes.

00:11:05In terms of the sightings, though,

00:11:07I've always sort of been a Crypto Creature fan.

00:11:09So when we talk about the verses in the song,

00:11:14every one of those verses illustrates a sighting

00:11:17that did take place.

00:11:19They're all based on actual accounts.

00:11:22But, for example, the lumberjack sighting,

00:11:25that was totally fabricated, totally created by me.

00:11:28And because the year that the song was written was 1987,

00:11:32I wanted to create sort of a cyclical nature

00:11:35to the appearances of the Dog Man.

00:11:37So every verse happens in a year ending in seven,

00:11:41and it goes back for 100 years.

00:11:43And so the first sighting was one

00:11:46that was just completely fabricated,

00:11:47but the rest of them were all based on actual sightings.

00:11:51And somewhere in the Northwood's darkness,

00:11:54a creature walks upright.

00:11:57And the best advice you may ever get

00:12:02is don't go out at night.

00:12:09Everything seems to go back

00:12:13to when the disc jockey released the song,

00:12:18The Dog Man.

00:12:19And it was a very popular song around Halloween time.

00:12:23But according to legends,

00:12:25this goes back to the early logging camps

00:12:28when men would go into the forest,

00:12:31so they would cut down the logs.

00:12:33And one of the original stories was

00:12:35that there was a group of dogs

00:12:37that ran into the loggers' camp,

00:12:39and the camp was, you know,

00:12:40had all these dogs running around,

00:12:41and the men were throwing rocks at these dogs.

00:12:44And they kind of isolated one

00:12:45and were throwing more rocks at that one.

00:12:47And then the dog stood up on its back legs

00:12:53and proceeded to retaliate.

00:12:55And that is said to be where,

00:12:59according to the early loggers,

00:13:03the Dog Man legend started.

00:13:04And then we've got reports of hunters being out in a boat

00:13:08or fishermen out in a boat.

00:13:09And what they thought was a hunting dog swam up to the boat.

00:13:13And they started trying to pull the hunting dog in

00:13:16because, hey, a loose hunting dog can be a valuable asset.

00:13:20But then they were kind of shocked

00:13:21when the dog took the initiative

00:13:23and put one arm over each side of the boat

00:13:26and was trying to pull itself in.

00:13:27And these were not dog paws.

00:13:29These were clawed hands.

00:13:31And so they promptly escaped from there.

00:13:34We do have Native American legends

00:13:36that suggest that there is a Dog Man-type creature

00:13:40here in the Great Lakes area.

00:13:42But most people became aware of the Dog Man legend

00:13:47when that song was released.

00:13:49And the footage that they said that they captured,

00:13:52first they said, oh, it's real.

00:13:54And then they said it was faked.

00:13:55And then they went back and said it was real.

00:13:57And I've seen the footage.

00:13:58And you're like, oh, that's too good to be true.

00:14:02And unfortunately, it was.

00:14:03But since then, people have come forward

00:14:06and what they initially thought were Bigfoot reports.

00:14:10Now they start remembering details.

00:14:13Like, well, our Bigfoot had a snout.

00:14:15It had ears.

00:14:16It had a tail.

00:14:17That's no longer a Bigfoot.

00:14:18That's a Dog Man.

00:14:21Actually, I was just trying to come up

00:14:22with a unique creature for Michigan,

00:14:25for northern Michigan specifically,

00:14:28because we have so many deep forests here.

00:14:31And people see things all the time

00:14:32that they really don't know exactly what they were.

00:14:35I kind of wanted to create a creature

00:14:37that was an amalgam of all of the crypto creatures out there

00:14:41between Bigfoot and Chupacabra.

00:14:43And the one thing I didn't want to do

00:14:45was try to duplicate something that already existed.

00:14:47The werewolf is one that always sort of got to me personally

00:14:51as being a really frightening creature.

00:14:55But a werewolf is something that transitions

00:14:57from human being to a wolf.

00:14:59A Dog Man is an actual species.

00:15:02He is kind of caught in the middle,

00:15:03and he doesn't change.

00:15:05I also think that the song gave people

00:15:08a picture in their mind of,

00:15:10oh, that thing that I saw that I didn't know what it was,

00:15:12maybe that's what it was.

00:15:14And their memory maybe sort of morphs

00:15:16into having seen a Dog Man.

00:15:18And I had no idea when I created it

00:15:21that I was recreating something

00:15:23that had existed for thousands of years.

00:15:26I think it was just because of the song,

00:15:28and just to be honest with you,

00:15:29everyone thought it was funny.

00:15:31Just like, you know, with a Bigfoot,

00:15:33you know, beef jerky, you know, jack-o-ling.

00:15:35So that was the, I think really the person

00:15:38that really made it more popular was Linda.

00:15:40When Linda Godfrey started publishing the books

00:15:44that primarily focused on the Beast of Bray Road

00:15:47in Wisconsin, suddenly people were coming forward

00:15:50and saying, you know,

00:15:51we've got that creature here in Michigan too.

00:15:53And Linda did come to Michigan

00:15:56on quite a few different occasions

00:15:58to investigate the Dog Man reports.

00:16:02The descriptions people gave of the Michigan Dog Man

00:16:04were no different than the descriptions people gave

00:16:07of the Beast of Bray Road.

00:16:09And in some southern states,

00:16:10they would call it the Lou-garou,

00:16:12which is French for werewolf,

00:16:14or the Rougarou, which is the Cajun variation.

00:16:17So every place had their sightings

00:16:19and their local names,

00:16:20not realizing this was a very widespread phenomenon.

00:16:24The song played twice on the air that morning,

00:16:28and I said, when you play it, don't say anything.

00:16:31Just play it, sandwich it between two country songs,

00:16:34and nothing happened well during the morning show

00:16:37until he got off the air,

00:16:40and as he was going back to his office,

00:16:42the front desk phone rang,

00:16:45and a man named Robert Fortney called,

00:16:47and he said that in 1937,

00:16:51he had been fishing along the banks of the Muskegon River,

00:16:54and he was approached by a pack of dogs.

00:16:57And one of them stood up on his hind legs

00:17:00and stared at him.

00:17:02He said he had a .22 rifle with him at the time

00:17:05because he'd been rabbit hunting earlier in the day.

00:17:08And he shot a shot into the air.

00:17:10The other dogs ran off,

00:17:11but that one that stood up stayed for quite some time.

00:17:15And the words that really got to me that he said

00:17:18was he was swearing that that dog was smiling at him.

00:17:21And when he called us,

00:17:24he said it was the first time

00:17:26he had told that story in 50 years.

00:17:28He had never told his kids,

00:17:30never told his wife,

00:17:31because he thought he had had some sort of a hallucination.

00:17:34But when he heard the song,

00:17:36it just brought that back to reality,

00:17:38and he had to call.

00:17:39And that sort of started a cascade of people calling

00:17:43and saying,

00:17:44you know, that crazy song you played this morning,

00:17:47that's a real thing.

00:17:48That's no joke.

00:17:49And from that point forward,

00:17:52the calls just kept coming

00:17:54from people saying,

00:17:55my uncle saw this,

00:17:56or we had our hunting cabin was trashed at one time,

00:18:01and we could never explain what did it.

00:18:03But then the real light went on

00:18:06when I heard from one of the elders

00:18:09of one of the Native American tribes,

00:18:10and he said,

00:18:12this is a creature that is described in their stories

00:18:16going back generations.

00:18:18In the very beginning,

00:18:20they almost uniformly said something

00:18:22that was five to seven feet tall on its hind legs,

00:18:25looked like a German shepherd or a wolf

00:18:27with the tall ears, the long muzzle,

00:18:30walking on its toe pads like dogs do,

00:18:32and a tail,

00:18:33and that immediately, to my mind,

00:18:35ruled out Bigfoot

00:18:36because it's just obviously a canine species.

00:18:39Over time, I've noted there have been variations.

00:18:42I don't think that everything everyone sees all the time

00:18:46is the same phenomenon.

00:18:48For instance, there's another subtype

00:18:50that seems to pop into people's houses

00:18:53that are upright canines,

00:18:55but they don't look like the normal wolfish,

00:18:58German shepherdish type of thing.

00:19:00They're very tall.

00:19:02People describe them as reminding them of Anubis,

00:19:05the jackal-headed god of the dead of the Egyptians.

00:19:08The body is much more like a human

00:19:11than like an upright canine,

00:19:14even though the head is completely canine.

00:19:16They're normally very dark or black fur,

00:19:20shorter fur, not shaggy like the other ones.

00:19:26The song played, as you know, on April 1st,

00:19:28and like any novelty song,

00:19:30for a couple of months,

00:19:31it had been the most requested song on the radio,

00:19:34and then it just sort of faded away.

00:19:35And by the middle of June,

00:19:38things had started to calm down,

00:19:39and we'd kind of forgotten about it.

00:19:41And then in July,

00:19:43right around the middle of July,

00:19:45we got a call from the Department of Natural Resources,

00:19:48an officer in the Lake County area.

00:19:51He had been called to a hunting cabin

00:19:53in the Luther area,

00:19:55and that hunting cabin had been mauled on the outside.

00:19:59A screen door had been torn off it.

00:20:02It had claw marks and teeth marks

00:20:04all the way around the door casing,

00:20:07all the way around a window casing.

00:20:09And the deputy sheriff who showed up out there

00:20:12brought a tape measure,

00:20:13and there were scratch marks

00:20:14that were over seven feet tall.

00:20:16And the only tracks they could find

00:20:18in the dirt outside the cabin

00:20:20were dog tracks.

00:20:22And the DNR officer described those

00:20:24as the size of a pie plate.

00:20:26He'd never seen dog tracks that big.

00:20:28And we put that story on the air

00:20:31as part of our newscast,

00:20:33and the newspaper picked it up,

00:20:36and then they sent it to the Associated Press.

00:20:39They sent it all over the United States.

00:20:42From that point,

00:20:43it just catapulted into this phenomenon.

00:20:45We started getting requests from all over the world.

00:20:47How can I get a copy of this song?

00:20:52In the late 1980s and early 90s,

00:20:55strange reports began surfacing all across Michigan.

00:20:59People were seeing a creature,

00:21:01tall, covered in hair,

00:21:03walking on two legs,

00:21:04with the head of a dog or a wolf.

00:21:07A lot of those reports came from the area

00:21:10around Manistee National Forest.

00:21:11And over time,

00:21:13that stretch of woods would become known as

00:21:16Dog Man Country.

00:21:18People reported something following them

00:21:20through the trees,

00:21:21pacing their cars at night,

00:21:23or heard it howling deep in the forest.

00:21:25Whatever it was,

00:21:27it wasn't going away.

00:21:28And it was no longer just a story.

00:21:31But those sightings didn't start in the 1980s.

00:21:34They go back decades.

00:21:36Long before Cook's song gave it a name,

00:21:39people were seeing the same creature

00:21:41in the same places.

00:21:42Old stories from the Manistee area

00:21:45describe something that fits the Dog Man description.

00:21:48Something that shouldn't be there.

00:21:51And once people heard the song,

00:21:53they started talking.

00:21:54The reports came in quickly,

00:21:56and what they described wasn't new.

00:21:58It had been there all along,

00:22:00just waiting for someone to notice.

00:22:23It was an evening down in New Ego,

00:22:27which was right at the bottom edge

00:22:29of the Manistee National Forest.

00:22:30This was 1964.

00:22:33It was my grandma and grandpa,

00:22:35and they had seven kids,

00:22:38and it was a foggy night,

00:22:40and then their German shepherd started barking.

00:22:44Next thing they know,

00:22:46the German shepherd came crashing through the window

00:22:49with a chain wrapped around his neck

00:22:51and was dead on the floor.

00:22:54So something had chucked it

00:22:56through the picture window.

00:22:58My grandpa was a World War II vet,

00:23:00so he just snapped into action.

00:23:03They pushed the bookcase

00:23:05in front of the broken window,

00:23:06and while they were doing that,

00:23:08something started jiggling in the door handle,

00:23:11and they could hear scraping on the door.

00:23:14And after that settled down,

00:23:16my grandpa kind of got things settled down,

00:23:18and he had four sons,

00:23:21and so they went outside looking around.

00:23:23They could hear something walking around and growling.

00:23:26Grandpa didn't want to get ambushed,

00:23:28so what he did was they put a ladder up,

00:23:30and then they climbed up on the roof,

00:23:32and each kid had a flashlight and a shotgun.

00:23:37At some point,

00:23:39after maybe an hour or so on the roof,

00:23:41they got a look at what grandpa said was an upright,

00:23:45looked like a wolf,

00:23:46walking around on two legs,

00:23:47but it had like a huge mane.

00:23:50And before he could get a shot off,

00:23:52it was back in the fog.

00:23:54So they sat up there most of the night,

00:23:56and they could hear it walking around,

00:23:58and they were just waiting to get another look

00:24:00to take a shot at it.

00:24:03But unfortunately,

00:24:06by the time daylight came

00:24:07and the fog started to lift,

00:24:08whatever it was had walked off.

00:24:11So they never did get another look.

00:24:13They heard it for a couple hours,

00:24:14but to me it was like a boogeyman story.

00:24:18You know, like,

00:24:19don't go too far because, you know,

00:24:21Snoopy the dogman's going to get you.

00:24:23And then it was just a couple years ago

00:24:26once I started doing

00:24:28more into the Bigfoot thing,

00:24:30I asked my mom a couple years ago,

00:24:31I said, you know,

00:24:32that dogman story,

00:24:34what was that about?

00:24:35And she kind of looked at me,

00:24:36I go, is that true?

00:24:38And she said, yeah.

00:24:40I said, you're not, you know,

00:24:42bullcrapping me,

00:24:43you're not pulling my leg,

00:24:44you know,

00:24:44that wasn't just to keep us out of the woods.

00:24:46And she's like, no,

00:24:47that really happened.

00:24:48So I don't know if it killed the dog,

00:24:51maybe just because of the fact

00:24:52the dog was in alarm.

00:24:54I'm guessing there,

00:24:54my mom has never said that.

00:24:56And she wouldn't elaborate

00:24:58on any more details either.

00:24:59She would have only been 10 years old.

00:25:02So when I asked her,

00:25:03I said, would you be willing to come,

00:25:04you know,

00:25:04talk about Bigfoot

00:25:06and that dogman thing?

00:25:07She said, no,

00:25:08absolutely not.

00:25:09She's a campground host now

00:25:12out in Texas,

00:25:12so she works for the state out there.

00:25:15And, you know,

00:25:15the officials don't talk about,

00:25:17and she's worried about

00:25:18losing her campground job.

00:25:44Michigan is a state defined by its forests,

00:25:46and nowhere is that truer

00:25:48than in the west central part of the state

00:25:50where over a million acres of pine,

00:25:53oak,

00:25:53and aspen

00:25:54stretch across the land

00:25:55like a living sea of green.

00:25:58This is Manistee National Forest.

00:26:00The name itself

00:26:01is an early English translation

00:26:03of a native word

00:26:04which means

00:26:05the spirit of the woods.

00:26:07It's definitely fitting.

00:26:09There's something about this place

00:26:11that feels alive.

00:26:12The forest runs through nine counties

00:26:15and is stitched together

00:26:16by rivers, lakes,

00:26:17and old roads.

00:26:18In the daylight,

00:26:19it's rather peaceful,

00:26:21but after dark,

00:26:22the woods seem to shift.

00:26:24The forest we know today

00:26:25was shaped by fire,

00:26:27by the axe,

00:26:28and eventually by restoration.

00:26:30In the late 1800s,

00:26:32Michigan led the nation

00:26:33in lumber production.

00:26:34What was once marked

00:26:35by towering stands

00:26:36of pine and hemlock

00:26:38became open,

00:26:39barren land.

00:26:40The devastation sparked

00:26:42a conservation movement

00:26:43that would span decades.

00:26:45During the Great Depression,

00:26:47the Civilian Conservation Corps,

00:26:49young men with no work

00:26:50and few options

00:26:51were sent into the woods

00:26:53to plant trees,

00:26:54build roads,

00:26:55and protect what was left.

00:26:57They rebuilt the forest

00:26:58from the barren earth

00:27:00tree by tree.

00:27:01Nearly 500 million pines

00:27:03were planted during this time,

00:27:05more than any other state.

00:27:07This majestic forest

00:27:08was reborn due to the efforts

00:27:10of human hands.

00:27:12But there's another side

00:27:13to Manistee,

00:27:14something older than the New Deal

00:27:16or the logging camps.

00:27:18For as long as people

00:27:19have lived near these woods,

00:27:21stories have circulated.

00:27:23Strange sounds in the night,

00:27:24shapes moving

00:27:25just beyond the tree line,

00:27:27and eventually,

00:27:28sightings.

00:27:29The deeper you go into Manistee,

00:27:32the more it starts to feel

00:27:33like something's watching you.

00:27:35For years,

00:27:36locals have talked

00:27:37about a creature

00:27:37who roams these woods

00:27:39on two legs.

00:27:40It's part man,

00:27:42part wolf.

00:27:43Some call it dog man.

00:27:45Others don't give it

00:27:46a name at all.

00:27:47But if the stories

00:27:48are indeed true,

00:27:49then it's been here

00:27:50far longer than we have.

00:27:53Maybe this forest

00:27:54was never ours

00:27:55to begin with.

00:28:04I'm maybe a mile

00:28:06from the Manistee National Forest.

00:28:08I live on eight acres

00:28:09by myself

00:28:10in my camper,

00:28:11so I hear everything

00:28:13out there.

00:28:15About ten years ago,

00:28:16an ex-boyfriend and I

00:28:18went camping,

00:28:18and we were on the

00:28:20north end of Hamlin Lake

00:28:22in free soil,

00:28:24and we were just

00:28:26having a campfire

00:28:27and doing our thing,

00:28:29and the woods got

00:28:30very, very quiet.

00:28:33Now, my family's been

00:28:34in that area

00:28:35for a long time.

00:28:37We hunt, we fish,

00:28:38even us girls,

00:28:39you know,

00:28:40we're outdoor enthusiasts,

00:28:42the entire family.

00:28:43and we heard this

00:28:47growl slash howl,

00:28:50and it couldn't have been

00:28:52maybe 200 yards

00:28:54from us

00:28:54down by the lake.

00:28:56And at that point,

00:28:58my boyfriend at the time

00:29:00says,

00:29:01what was that?

00:29:02And I said,

00:29:03I don't know.

00:29:05I've been in these

00:29:06north woods

00:29:07since I was a kid.

00:29:08I have no idea,

00:29:10but I'm going to get

00:29:11my 30-30 out of the tent.

00:29:12So I went and grabbed

00:29:14my rifle,

00:29:15loaded it,

00:29:15and we sat there.

00:29:17And like I said,

00:29:17the woods became

00:29:19eerily quiet.

00:29:21And at that point,

00:29:22I had a little dog,

00:29:24and he barked

00:29:25at everything.

00:29:26He got really nervous.

00:29:28So I said to Matt,

00:29:30I said,

00:29:31I think we better go

00:29:32into the tent

00:29:33or into the car

00:29:34because something

00:29:36just does not feel right.

00:29:37The woods do not

00:29:38get quiet like this

00:29:39unless there's a predator

00:29:40in the area.

00:29:41So, you know,

00:29:43and you try to rationalize

00:29:44when you hear

00:29:45things like that,

00:29:47but it wasn't a sound

00:29:49that I've ever heard before.

00:29:51So we ended up

00:29:52going into the tent.

00:29:53My little dog

00:29:54crawled under

00:29:56the sleeping bag,

00:29:57and he was not

00:29:58coming out.

00:30:00And I heard something

00:30:01coming up behind us

00:30:03and bipedal.

00:30:05When you hunt

00:30:06and fish

00:30:07and stuff like that,

00:30:08you get to know

00:30:08the sounds of the woods.

00:30:09And you know

00:30:10if a critter's

00:30:11on four legs

00:30:11or two,

00:30:13and the guy

00:30:14I was with,

00:30:15he's like,

00:30:15what is that?

00:30:16There's something

00:30:17out there.

00:30:17I said,

00:30:18be quiet

00:30:19so I can figure

00:30:20this out.

00:30:22At first,

00:30:22I thought it might

00:30:23be a man.

00:30:24You know,

00:30:25somebody stumbled

00:30:25upon the camp,

00:30:26but I'm like,

00:30:28you know what?

00:30:29This just doesn't

00:30:30feel right.

00:30:30You get that

00:30:31feeling inside.

00:30:33You just know

00:30:34that you've

00:30:36just become prey.

00:30:38And something

00:30:40growled,

00:30:41this low,

00:30:42guttural growl.

00:30:44It was crazy.

00:30:46And I'm like,

00:30:48okay,

00:30:48whatever predator

00:30:49that is,

00:30:50it's out there.

00:30:51And honestly,

00:30:52I thought it was

00:30:53a Bigfoot.

00:30:53Because my family,

00:30:55being Native

00:30:55American descent

00:30:56and stuff,

00:30:57we have stories

00:30:57of those things.

00:30:59and I have

00:31:00curiosity killed

00:31:01the cat.

00:31:02That's me.

00:31:02I had to unzip

00:31:03the window

00:31:04and I had

00:31:04the flashlight

00:31:05and I hit it

00:31:06and all I see

00:31:07is this creature.

00:31:08It's about,

00:31:09I'm going to say

00:31:10anywhere from

00:31:10six to seven feet

00:31:11tall,

00:31:13solid black

00:31:15and pointy ears

00:31:16with a wolf face.

00:31:20And as soon

00:31:21as the light

00:31:22hit it,

00:31:22I caught it

00:31:23as it turned

00:31:25and it was

00:31:26like three steps

00:31:27and it was

00:31:28down a hill

00:31:29and gone.

00:31:37As a person

00:31:38who did a lot

00:31:40of hiking,

00:31:40I can tell people

00:31:43that generally

00:31:44when you have

00:31:45a Bigfoot sighting

00:31:46while you're hiking,

00:31:47it's a mistake

00:31:48by the Bigfoot.

00:31:48If you see a dog

00:31:49man while hiking,

00:31:51it's not.

00:31:52And it's not

00:31:52the dog man

00:31:53that you see

00:31:54that you have

00:31:55to worry about

00:31:55because I do believe

00:31:56they work in a pack

00:31:57just like any

00:31:58other canine

00:31:59species will.

00:32:01And the one

00:32:02that you see

00:32:03is the one

00:32:04that is going

00:32:05to jump scare you.

00:32:07And when humans

00:32:09are scared,

00:32:10they release

00:32:11a pheromone

00:32:12or a scent

00:32:12for stress

00:32:13and fear

00:32:14that dogs

00:32:15pick up on.

00:32:15So if you have

00:32:17a group of dogmen

00:32:18hunting you,

00:32:19they're following

00:32:21that scent

00:32:21and either

00:32:22they're chasing

00:32:23you out

00:32:23or they are

00:32:25forming a hunting

00:32:26party on you.

00:32:27We've got a lot

00:32:28of missing person

00:32:29reports from

00:32:30hunters who go missing,

00:32:32hikers who go missing,

00:32:33people who just want

00:32:34to go out for a walk

00:32:35in the woods,

00:32:36missing.

00:32:36These are people

00:32:38who know the trails,

00:32:39they know the areas

00:32:40that they're going into

00:32:42and they're never heard

00:32:43or seen from again.

00:33:11After the sightings

00:33:12picked up

00:33:13in the late 1980s,

00:33:14stories started pouring in.

00:33:16Not just from campers

00:33:18or hikers,

00:33:19but from people

00:33:20who had lived in the area

00:33:21their whole lives.

00:33:22A man remembered

00:33:24something his grandfather

00:33:25had told him.

00:33:26An encounter

00:33:27in the forest

00:33:27back in the 1950s

00:33:29that sounded eerily familiar.

00:33:31Others described

00:33:33being followed

00:33:33through the trees,

00:33:34hearing low growls

00:33:36just outside their tents

00:33:37or finding claw marks

00:33:39in the dirt

00:33:40come morning.

00:33:41Some laughed it off.

00:33:43They called it folklore.

00:33:44But those who lived

00:33:46closest to the forests

00:33:47were not laughing.

00:33:48They merely nodded,

00:33:50knowing full well

00:33:51what was living there

00:33:52among them.

00:33:54Dogman stories

00:33:55are not the only

00:33:56strange tales

00:33:57creeping from the Manistee.

00:33:59Bigfoot sightings

00:34:00go back just as far.

00:34:01Tall, hairy figures

00:34:03crossing empty roads,

00:34:04heavy footsteps

00:34:05in the underbrush

00:34:06and eyeshining too high

00:34:08off the ground

00:34:09to belong to a known animal.

00:34:11Some of the stories

00:34:12have been told for decades,

00:34:14passed down through families

00:34:15like warnings.

00:34:17A few researchers

00:34:18have spent years

00:34:19chasing leads

00:34:20through these woods,

00:34:21recording howls,

00:34:22interviewing witnesses,

00:34:23and collecting reports

00:34:25and collecting reports

00:34:25that all seem to circle back

00:34:26to the same quiet places

00:34:28on the map.

00:34:29But it's not all creatures

00:34:31and shadows.

00:34:33Manistee has its share

00:34:34of real darkness too.

00:34:36Bodies have been found here,

00:34:38dismembered

00:34:38and left deep in the woods.

00:34:40There's the shocking story

00:34:41of Marvin Gabrion,

00:34:43a serial killer

00:34:44who used the forest

00:34:45as a dumping ground.

00:34:46And drug operations

00:34:48hidden beneath the canopy

00:34:49have turned large portions

00:34:51of the woods

00:34:51into places locals

00:34:52know to avoid.

00:34:54Whatever the forest

00:34:55is hiding,

00:34:56it's not always folklore.

00:34:59Still,

00:35:00there's something

00:35:00about the way

00:35:01these stories stick,

00:35:02how they seep

00:35:04into local culture.

00:35:05The haunted trails,

00:35:06the park service

00:35:07asking for spooky encounters

00:35:09like it's part

00:35:09of the visitor experience.

00:35:11Even the laughter

00:35:12carries an edge to it,

00:35:14like everyone is in

00:35:15on something

00:35:16they don't quite

00:35:17want to say out loud.

00:35:19Manistee looks like

00:35:20any other national forest

00:35:21during the day.

00:35:22But once you know

00:35:23what's out there,

00:35:24once you've heard

00:35:25the stories,

00:35:26it never feels

00:35:27quite the same.

00:35:32This was out in the woods

00:35:34in the Manistee National Forest

00:35:35about 15 miles

00:35:36east of Ludington.

00:35:37So I went to a spot

00:35:39and I was going to camp.

00:35:40I had my old Jeep

00:35:41and I was setting up

00:35:42my campsite.

00:35:42It was roughly

00:35:44an hour before dark.

00:35:45So I was kind of

00:35:46in a hurry

00:35:46because I wanted

00:35:46to get my stuff set up.

00:35:48And I made sure

00:35:48nobody else was out there.

00:35:50I drove to the end

00:35:50of this trail

00:35:51where sometimes people

00:35:52camp and nobody

00:35:53was back there.

00:35:54And all of a sudden

00:35:55I hear footsteps

00:35:56come across the trail

00:35:57to my side

00:35:58where I'm at.

00:35:59And I thought to myself,

00:36:01well,

00:36:01that sounds weird

00:36:03because I know

00:36:03how deer sound.

00:36:04It didn't sound like a deer.

00:36:06It sounded like something

00:36:07walking on two feet.

00:36:08So I could hear it

00:36:09walking around to my

00:36:11right,

00:36:11to the west,

00:36:12and it circled in

00:36:13behind me,

00:36:14but it stayed back

00:36:15about 20 yards

00:36:16in the woods

00:36:16where I couldn't get

00:36:17any kind of good visual.

00:36:19So then I yelled out

00:36:20to it because I thought,

00:36:21well,

00:36:21maybe it's some drunk camper

00:36:23that's way back

00:36:23in the woods

00:36:24and they've stumbled

00:36:24up here or something.

00:36:26So I said,

00:36:26hey, you know,

00:36:27what are you up to?

00:36:28What are you doing?

00:36:28Or something like that.

00:36:29And it just stopped walking.

00:36:31It never answered.

00:36:32So I'm finishing

00:36:33setting up my tent

00:36:34and stuff.

00:36:35And I hear it

00:36:37start walking again

00:36:37and it probably walks

00:36:38another 30 feet

00:36:40and it's directly

00:36:41behind me now.

00:36:42So I get this kind

00:36:43of creepy feeling

00:36:44like whatever this is,

00:36:45it's watching me.

00:36:46So I'm like,

00:36:47okay,

00:36:47I went back

00:36:48to setting my stuff up

00:36:49and now it's getting

00:36:50almost dark.

00:36:51And in my Jeep,

00:36:51I have a bag

00:36:52with a LED spotlight.

00:36:55I have a hatchet,

00:36:56a machete I use,

00:36:58like chopping up firewood,

00:36:59stuff like that.

00:37:00And I thought,

00:37:01well,

00:37:01I'm going to take

00:37:02the machete

00:37:02and I'm going to get that out.

00:37:03I'm going to set it

00:37:04right here on my bumper.

00:37:05Then I hear it walking again

00:37:06and it takes up a position

00:37:07right behind this

00:37:08big pine tree

00:37:09right behind me.

00:37:10And by then,

00:37:11it's almost totally dark.

00:37:12I start getting more stuff

00:37:14out of my Jeep

00:37:15and you can hear its feet.

00:37:16Boom, boom, boom, boom.

00:37:18And it's coming

00:37:18straight at me.

00:37:19So I grabbed the machete.

00:37:22I put that in my hand

00:37:23like this.

00:37:24I charged at it

00:37:25and I yelled at it

00:37:26and stopped my feet.

00:37:27And I thought,

00:37:28well,

00:37:28if it is a black bear,

00:37:29I'm going to hear it

00:37:30run off through the woods.

00:37:31I'm going to scare it away.

00:37:32But no,

00:37:33this thing,

00:37:33that didn't scare it at all.

00:37:35It stopped.

00:37:36It started emitting

00:37:37a low growl

00:37:38like,

00:37:41and the growl

00:37:42came from higher,

00:37:44taller than me.

00:37:45So that made me think

00:37:46its mouth was

00:37:47at least a couple feet

00:37:48taller than I am.

00:37:49And when it backed up

00:37:50and I heard the branches

00:37:51break,

00:37:52I thought it's a bigger creature.

00:37:53It's huskier,

00:37:54heavier,

00:37:55because I wouldn't have

00:37:56snapped any branches

00:37:57backing straight up

00:37:58like that.

00:37:59But this thing did.

00:38:00And it went right back

00:38:01behind that same tree

00:38:02and it sounded

00:38:04like all I did

00:38:05was made it really mad.

00:38:09And then by that point,

00:38:11I'm like,

00:38:11I've never left

00:38:12a campsite before,

00:38:13but I did that night.

00:38:14I got in my Jeep,

00:38:15I started it up,

00:38:16and as I left

00:38:17and turned out

00:38:18onto the trail,

00:38:18I heard a,

00:38:19it sounded like a log

00:38:20or a branch

00:38:21bounced off the top

00:38:22of my Jeep.

00:38:22And I thought,

00:38:23good God,

00:38:23this thing is actually

00:38:25either jumping on my vehicle

00:38:27or threw something

00:38:27at the vehicle.

00:38:29And I headed down the trail

00:38:30and I got out

00:38:31by the main road

00:38:32and I just kind of

00:38:33took in everything

00:38:34that happened

00:38:34and I thought,

00:38:35well,

00:38:35do I want to go

00:38:36get my stuff?

00:38:37Because I got like

00:38:37my tent,

00:38:38my cooler,

00:38:39my stuff is sitting

00:38:39out there.

00:38:40And I thought,

00:38:41no,

00:38:41hell no,

00:38:42I'm not going back

00:38:43there in the dark

00:38:43with just me.

00:38:44But I never actually

00:38:45saw the thing

00:38:46to say for sure

00:38:47what it was.

00:38:48I don't feel

00:38:49it was a bear,

00:38:50the things that live

00:38:51in this part of Michigan.

00:38:52There are black bears

00:38:53in that area

00:38:54because it seemed

00:38:55too big

00:38:56and it seemed

00:38:57like it had

00:38:58a lot of intelligence,

00:38:59like it knew

00:38:59what it was doing.

00:39:00It was watching me

00:39:02and it stayed there

00:39:03for basically

00:39:04a 45 minute

00:39:05probably time span.

00:39:06It circled around me.

00:39:14Here in Michigan,

00:39:15there is an area

00:39:16called Omar Plains

00:39:17and you have

00:39:18the witchy wolves

00:39:19of Omar Plains.

00:39:20It is not easy

00:39:21to find,

00:39:22but I have been there.

00:39:24And there is a story

00:39:25that it is

00:39:26a homestead grave.

00:39:28There are three impressions

00:39:30in the ground

00:39:31which could have been

00:39:32where something

00:39:34like a casket

00:39:35was buried.

00:39:35There's an average

00:39:36man size,

00:39:37there's a woman sized,

00:39:39and then there's

00:39:40a child sized impression

00:39:41into the ground.

00:39:43And it's,

00:39:43I would say,

00:39:44they are probably

00:39:45about three feet

00:39:46into the ground.

00:39:47And what typically

00:39:48happens is

00:39:48when you approach

00:39:51those indentations

00:39:52in the ground,

00:39:53the wind will start

00:39:53picking up.

00:39:54And that's said

00:39:55to be part of

00:39:56the activity

00:39:57of the witchy wolves.

00:39:59And this is out

00:40:00in the middle

00:40:01of the woods.

00:40:01My K2 meter

00:40:02was going crazy

00:40:04when we were

00:40:05near the graves.

00:40:07We walked in a circle

00:40:08about 30 feet around.

00:40:10The farther we got

00:40:11from the graves,

00:40:12our K2 meters

00:40:14stopped activating.

00:40:15When we got back

00:40:17up to the graves,

00:40:18the whole rainbow

00:40:18colors on the K2 meter.

00:40:20so the witchy wolves

00:40:22of Omar Plains

00:40:23is just in that area.

00:40:25And that's,

00:40:26it's a spectral wolf

00:40:27that is said

00:40:28to protect

00:40:28the Native American

00:40:30burial grounds.

00:40:31There was this couple

00:40:32that was out

00:40:33before us

00:40:34doing their camping

00:40:35in their normal spot.

00:40:37And they just

00:40:38had this eerie feeling

00:40:39that for whatever

00:40:40the reason,

00:40:41something wasn't right.

00:40:42Like somebody was out

00:40:43there in the woods

00:40:44peering in on them.

00:40:46So they were kind of

00:40:47creeped out

00:40:47over about all this.

00:40:48so they start

00:40:50hiking back

00:40:51and as they're walking

00:40:52towards their vehicle,

00:40:53they thought

00:40:54that they were

00:40:55being parallel.

00:40:56And now the man

00:40:57says every time

00:40:58he stopped

00:40:59with his wife,

00:41:00the footfall

00:41:01paralleling them,

00:41:02it would stop.

00:41:03And they would start

00:41:03up in unison

00:41:04with them,

00:41:05then stop.

00:41:06I found it

00:41:07very interesting

00:41:07because I think

00:41:08that your predator,

00:41:10your average predator,

00:41:11like a wolf,

00:41:11a cougar,

00:41:12they do that as well.

00:41:13They will parallel you.

00:41:15Stop as you stop

00:41:16and go as you go.

00:41:17So they got a little spook

00:41:18and they were kind

00:41:18of thinking

00:41:19what type of animal

00:41:20predators out there.

00:41:21So they continue on.

00:41:22And then

00:41:23they're maybe

00:41:2520, 30 yards

00:41:26from their vehicle

00:41:28and they notice

00:41:29that the footfall

00:41:30wasn't there

00:41:31but when they look

00:41:32they see a set

00:41:32of glowing red eyes

00:41:33peering in at them,

00:41:34hovering maybe

00:41:35four foot above

00:41:36the ground.

00:41:38They get in their vehicle

00:41:39and they're driving

00:41:40down a dirt road

00:41:42and they're going

00:41:42maybe 25,

00:41:4326 miles an hour.

00:41:44and all of a sudden

00:41:45the wife goes

00:41:46to the husband,

00:41:47honey,

00:41:47take a look to the right,

00:41:48slow down a little bit.

00:41:49Those red eyes

00:41:50are paralleling them

00:41:51at 25 miles an hour

00:41:52as they're going.

00:41:53You see these red eyes.

00:41:55Okay,

00:41:56that's strange.

00:41:57They pick up

00:41:57a little more speed.

00:41:58They're doing 30,

00:41:5932,

00:42:00again,

00:42:00can't go too fast

00:42:01because the road

00:42:02is kind of,

00:42:02you want to keep

00:42:04at a lower rate of speed

00:42:06and this thing's

00:42:07paralleling and paralleling

00:42:09and finally

00:42:10it stops.

00:42:11Their eyes are gone.

00:42:13So they're finally

00:42:14getting home.

00:42:15Okay,

00:42:16long day.

00:42:16They go in the house

00:42:18and they're just sitting

00:42:18there talking about

00:42:19the weird experience.

00:42:20They're on their back porch

00:42:21looking up at the tree line,

00:42:22looking at the forest

00:42:23and they look

00:42:24and they see

00:42:25those red eyes

00:42:26peering in from the tree line

00:42:28and the husband

00:42:29and the wife

00:42:30they kind of freak out

00:42:31a little bit like

00:42:31whatever this is,

00:42:33how it was home.

00:42:34Ten minutes

00:42:35into their conversation

00:42:36and then they hear

00:42:37the red eyes flutter

00:42:39and they hear

00:42:40what appears to be

00:42:41the sound of a wolf

00:42:43in a distance.

00:43:09Most Dogman sightings

00:43:11happen where you'd expect

00:43:12in the woods

00:43:13on back trails

00:43:15deep in the forests

00:43:16along rivers

00:43:17that wind through places

00:43:19with no names.

00:43:20But now and then

00:43:21something stranger happens.

00:43:24People report seeing

00:43:25the creature

00:43:26just outside their homes

00:43:27or standing

00:43:29at the edge of town

00:43:30half in shadow

00:43:31half in street light.

00:43:33Sometimes

00:43:34it's not even

00:43:35on the outskirts

00:43:36sometimes

00:43:37it's right in the middle

00:43:38of things

00:43:39on a quiet street

00:43:40in a backyard

00:43:43or outside

00:43:44a bedroom window

00:43:45as if it hadn't

00:43:47physically walked there

00:43:48just appeared

00:43:49wrong

00:43:50and out of place

00:43:51like it stepped

00:43:53through a seam

00:43:53between worlds.

00:43:56Northern Michigan

00:43:57is filled with towns

00:43:58that back right up

00:43:59to the forest.

00:44:00One minute

00:44:01you're on Main Street

00:44:02and the next

00:44:02you're surrounded

00:44:03by trees.

00:44:05The boundary

00:44:06between what we think

00:44:07of as civilization

00:44:08and wilderness

00:44:09here is razor thin.

00:44:11Maybe the Dogman

00:44:13doesn't stay hidden

00:44:14because it can't.

00:44:15Maybe it's just wandering

00:44:17stepping out of its domain

00:44:19and into ours

00:44:20without warning.

00:44:21Not hunting

00:44:22not hiding

00:44:23just watching

00:44:25passing through

00:44:28and that's what makes

00:44:29it all feel

00:44:30so much stranger.

00:44:32Why does it come

00:44:33so close?

00:44:34Why does it want

00:44:35to be near where we live

00:44:36and work

00:44:37and play?

00:44:38What is it

00:44:39that draws something

00:44:40like that

00:44:40into the places

00:44:41we feel the safest?

00:44:48This was back

00:44:48in 2009.

00:44:50My daughter was

00:44:50a little girl

00:44:51about eight years old

00:44:52at the time.

00:44:53We were on a bike ride

00:44:54on the north side

00:44:55of Luddington.

00:44:55We weren't like

00:44:56way out in the country

00:44:57or anything.

00:44:58That's what was kind

00:44:58of shocking about this

00:44:59to me.

00:45:00But anyway,

00:45:01we're on our bike ride

00:45:02shortly before dark.

00:45:03We went by a corner

00:45:06and all of a sudden

00:45:07my daughter was ahead

00:45:08of me and she stopped

00:45:08and she was just looking

00:45:10in like her mouth

00:45:10was wide open

00:45:11and she's just

00:45:12pointing behind us.

00:45:13And I'm thinking

00:45:13what the heck

00:45:14is she pointing at?

00:45:15So I stopped my bike

00:45:16and I turn around

00:45:17and look

00:45:17and there's this

00:45:18big black creature

00:45:20covered in hair

00:45:22pointy ears

00:45:22like what you'd think

00:45:25of a werewolf

00:45:26on a movie.

00:45:27It's probably

00:45:28if I had to guess

00:45:29probably eight foot tall

00:45:30and it's just staring

00:45:31at us.

00:45:32The crazy thing

00:45:33was it was right

00:45:33at a corner

00:45:34we had just rode by

00:45:35on our bikes

00:45:36like 20 seconds before

00:45:37and there was

00:45:38nothing there.

00:45:39It was right

00:45:39on the edge

00:45:40of a guy's yard

00:45:41at a corner.

00:45:42It was actually

00:45:42standing in this man's yard

00:45:44like the grass

00:45:45was mowed

00:45:45where it was standing.

00:45:46I turned around

00:45:47and looked at it

00:45:48I had an unobstructed view

00:45:49there was nothing

00:45:50in the way.

00:45:51There was actually

00:45:52a street light

00:45:52kind of close to it

00:45:53so you could see

00:45:54it rather well

00:45:56and it had shiny

00:45:57black hair

00:45:59it looked well built

00:46:01you know you could see

00:46:02it had

00:46:02it was kind of muscular

00:46:04but it made

00:46:05no threatening movements

00:46:06it didn't growl

00:46:07it didn't do anything

00:46:08it just watched us.

00:46:10I probably looked at it

00:46:11for a total of

00:46:12not more than 10 seconds

00:46:13and I turned around

00:46:14and just said

00:46:15let's go

00:46:15and let's ride away

00:46:16and we turned away

00:46:17from the creature

00:46:18and we rode home

00:46:20I thought

00:46:21wow God

00:46:22who knows what

00:46:22this thing could do

00:46:23maybe it'll chase us

00:46:24but it didn't

00:46:25and we made it home

00:46:26safely

00:46:27and had no

00:46:28nothing happened

00:46:29after that.

00:46:31The thing that shocked me

00:46:32is I'd never

00:46:33thought that they're real

00:46:35and then to actually

00:46:36see one

00:46:36it totally changed my mind

00:46:38and I thought

00:46:38well they have to be real

00:46:39because you could tell

00:46:41this was no man

00:46:42in a costume

00:46:43this was no fake

00:46:45I don't think

00:46:46I could have seen

00:46:47this thing any better

00:46:48than I did that day

00:46:49I mean it was probably

00:46:50not more than 20 yards away

00:46:52and my daughter

00:46:54she'll always remember it

00:46:55you know

00:46:55she's in her early 20s now

00:46:59I've thought

00:46:59throughout the years

00:47:00like what could this thing

00:47:01be doing here

00:47:02why would it be here

00:47:04because to get to

00:47:05where it was at

00:47:06even to get there

00:47:07it would have had to

00:47:08cross a couple

00:47:08of the main roads

00:47:09on the northern side

00:47:10to Ludington

00:47:11I don't see how

00:47:12it would walk

00:47:12through there

00:47:13without possibly

00:47:14a homeowner seeing it

00:47:16somebody in a car

00:47:16seeing it

00:47:17it's not like

00:47:18there was a swamp

00:47:19or a thick wooded area

00:47:20super close to that

00:47:23and that's to me

00:47:24the strangest part

00:47:25of the whole thing

00:47:25is why would it be there

00:47:26and how would it

00:47:27even get there

00:47:31I do believe

00:47:33that what people

00:47:34are seeing

00:47:34is a flesh and blood

00:47:36creature

00:47:36but whether

00:47:38they're interdimensional

00:47:39we have not been

00:47:41able to determine

00:47:42that

00:47:42with the dogman

00:47:44there's nothing

00:47:45in the fossil record

00:47:46that says that

00:47:47there should be

00:47:48a bipedal

00:47:49apex predator

00:47:51canine

00:47:52running around

00:47:53the planet

00:47:53whereas with Bigfoot

00:47:55we have

00:47:56the fossil record

00:47:57of the primate

00:47:58family tree

00:47:59that says yeah

00:48:00Bigfoot fits in there

00:48:01so are these

00:48:03interdimensional

00:48:04are they extraterrestrial

00:48:06are they

00:48:07something else

00:48:08you know

00:48:09entirely

00:48:10we know that

00:48:11they're here

00:48:11we don't know

00:48:12why they're here

00:48:14I think they've

00:48:15come from a

00:48:15different dimension

00:48:16in some cases

00:48:17how come they

00:48:18were there

00:48:18in an instant

00:48:18and gone in an instant

00:48:19you know if you

00:48:20go back

00:48:20Ron Moorhead

00:48:21always talks about

00:48:22the quantum

00:48:22Bigfoot

00:48:23the quantum

00:48:24theory

00:48:24Ron Moorhead

00:48:25is a stand up

00:48:26guy and I

00:48:26believe what he

00:48:27says when he

00:48:27talks to me

00:48:28he was the guy

00:48:29the years ago

00:48:29when I talked

00:48:30to him

00:48:31I interviewed him

00:48:31and he says

00:48:3230 years ago

00:48:33Rob if you

00:48:33would have told

00:48:34me that you

00:48:35believe in the

00:48:36quote unquote

00:48:36woo or

00:48:37supernatural

00:48:38when it comes

00:48:38to Bigfoot

00:48:39I'd say young

00:48:39man turn around

00:48:41talk to me

00:48:41some other time

00:48:42it's flesh and

00:48:43blood

00:48:44he was just

00:48:44on my show

00:48:45maybe three

00:48:45months ago

00:48:46four months ago

00:48:46and we had

00:48:47the same

00:48:47conversation

00:48:48and he says

00:48:49Rob I don't

00:48:50have blinders on

00:48:51these things

00:48:51are from

00:48:53another dimension

00:48:53he said that

00:48:55so he even

00:48:57suggested

00:48:57something could

00:48:58be alien

00:48:59right

00:48:59he goes I'm

00:49:00not saying

00:49:00Bigfoot

00:49:01dogmen

00:49:01are aliens

00:49:02but we

00:49:03don't know

00:49:03and I must

00:49:04tell you

00:49:05it explains

00:49:07the way

00:49:07a lot of

00:49:08things that

00:49:08don't make

00:49:09sense

00:49:09that we

00:49:10can't process

00:49:10I think

00:49:11spiritual

00:49:12element

00:49:13supernatural

00:49:14element

00:49:14especially

00:49:15if you

00:49:15go back

00:49:15to some

00:49:15of the

00:49:16tribal

00:49:16nations

00:49:16they

00:49:17think

00:49:17absolutely

00:49:17spirit

00:49:18form

00:49:36senior year

00:49:37high school

00:49:37I live

00:49:38live at

00:49:38this house

00:49:40and I

00:49:40let the

00:49:41dog out

00:49:41I had

00:49:41a beagle

00:49:42now we

00:49:42had about

00:49:43an acre

00:49:44and at

00:49:44the time

00:49:45there was

00:49:46a fairly

00:49:47large pole

00:49:47barn on

00:49:48the back

00:49:48corner of

00:49:49it and

00:49:49a large

00:49:50wood pile

00:49:50that's what

00:49:50we used

00:49:51for heating

00:49:52and I

00:49:52hooked the

00:49:53dog up

00:49:53to the

00:49:53chain

00:49:53and my

00:49:54beagle

00:49:54went nuts

00:49:54I've never

00:49:56heard a

00:49:56beagle

00:49:56sound so

00:49:57violent

00:49:57and aggressive

00:49:59and she

00:50:00was pulling

00:50:00from the

00:50:00chain

00:50:01and when

00:50:01I looked

00:50:01up

00:50:01there

00:50:02was

00:50:05yeah I

00:50:06don't know

00:50:06what this

00:50:07thing was

00:50:07it looked

00:50:09like a

00:50:09dog

00:50:10but it

00:50:11was

00:50:11considerably

00:50:12larger

00:50:12than

00:50:14anything I've

00:50:15ever seen

00:50:15now my

00:50:15buddy down

00:50:16the street

00:50:16from us

00:50:17he had a

00:50:17great dane

00:50:18this thing

00:50:20was considerably

00:50:21larger than

00:50:21a great dane

00:50:22it was a

00:50:23lighter gray

00:50:24in color

00:50:25like a smoke

00:50:25gray

00:50:26and very

00:50:27short hair

00:50:28slender build

00:50:29and it

00:50:31was staring

00:50:31at me

00:50:32it had

00:50:33eye shine

00:50:33very intense

00:50:34eye shine

00:50:35but there

00:50:35was the

00:50:36only light

00:50:36that we

00:50:37had was

00:50:38the light

00:50:38on the

00:50:39front of

00:50:39the pole

00:50:39barn

00:50:39this was

00:50:40behind it

00:50:41its eyes

00:50:42were like

00:50:43I compare

00:50:44it to an

00:50:44arc welder

00:50:45that's how

00:50:45bright it

00:50:46was they

00:50:46almost

00:50:46sparkled

00:50:47and I

00:50:48said some

00:50:49teenage words

00:50:50at that

00:50:50point

00:50:50and my

00:50:51buddy said

00:50:51what are

00:50:51you seeing

00:50:51what are

00:50:52you seeing

00:50:53and I

00:50:53said there's

00:50:54a I said

00:50:54werewolf

00:50:55I don't

00:50:55know why

00:50:55I just

00:50:56did it

00:50:56and we

00:50:57were messing

00:50:58with guns

00:50:58and stuff

00:50:59like that

00:50:59they were

00:50:59checking

00:50:59each

00:51:00other's

00:51:00guns

00:51:00one had

00:51:01a kind

00:51:02of like

00:51:02an AR-15

00:51:03style

00:51:03one had

00:51:03a 12

00:51:04gauge

00:51:04I had

00:51:04a 30

00:51:04out 6

00:51:05they grabbed

00:51:06the guns

00:51:07and they

00:51:08started getting

00:51:08their way

00:51:09out the

00:51:09door

00:51:09and I

00:51:10ran upstairs

00:51:10and got

00:51:11out on the

00:51:12porch

00:51:12if I could

00:51:13see it

00:51:13where it

00:51:13was going

00:51:14this thing

00:51:14stood there

00:51:15it was like

00:51:16it was waiting

00:51:16for

00:51:17and when they

00:51:18started advancing

00:51:19this thing

00:51:19just nonchalant

00:51:20walked behind

00:51:21the pole

00:51:21barn

00:51:21and they

00:51:22come up

00:51:22and they

00:51:23Keith

00:51:23man we

00:51:23don't see

00:51:24anything

00:51:24back here

00:51:24out of the

00:51:25corner of

00:51:25my eye

00:51:26this thing

00:51:26is on

00:51:26this side

00:51:27street

00:51:27and it

00:51:28stopped

00:51:28at the

00:51:29corner of

00:51:29Hickory Ridge

00:51:30Road

00:51:31and it

00:51:32was staring

00:51:32at me

00:51:33and I

00:51:33put them

00:51:34crosshairs

00:51:34that 30

00:51:35out 6

00:51:35right between

00:51:36its eyes

00:51:38I don't know

00:51:38how to say

00:51:39this

00:51:39it was

00:51:41it's like

00:51:41I got trapped

00:51:42in its eyes

00:51:43like I didn't

00:51:44want to shoot

00:51:45it you know

00:51:45I was going

00:51:45to shoot it

00:51:46out of fear

00:51:46but there

00:51:47was nothing

00:51:48there

00:51:49it was like

00:51:50an intelligence

00:51:50behind it

00:51:51and this

00:51:52thing kind

00:51:52of looked

00:51:53at me

00:51:54I set the

00:51:54gun down

00:51:54I'm still

00:51:55looking at

00:51:55you could

00:51:56see this

00:51:56thing

00:51:56and it

00:51:57kind

00:51:57of

00:51:57almost

00:51:57nodded

00:51:58its head

00:51:58a little

00:51:59bit

00:51:59like it

00:52:00acknowledged

00:52:00what I

00:52:00was doing

00:52:01evidently

00:52:02and in

00:52:02one leap

00:52:03it cleared

00:52:04the road

00:52:05gathered

00:52:05itself

00:52:06and this

00:52:06was on

00:52:06all fours

00:52:07and then

00:52:07across the

00:52:08street from

00:52:08us was

00:52:09a horse

00:52:09farm

00:52:10had its

00:52:116 foot

00:52:12fence

00:52:12or whatever

00:52:12with the

00:52:13wire on

00:52:13top of

00:52:14it

00:52:14and the

00:52:15second

00:52:15jump

00:52:16cleared

00:52:16that

00:52:16and was

00:52:16gone

00:52:17and that

00:52:17was the

00:52:17only time

00:52:17I saw

00:52:18that

00:52:18one

00:52:22now

00:52:23this

00:52:23takes us

00:52:24to October

00:52:24of 94

00:52:26and it

00:52:27was the

00:52:27week before

00:52:29Halloween

00:52:29clear night

00:52:30full moon

00:52:31and he went

00:52:32a little further

00:52:33down this road

00:52:33Livingston Road

00:52:34pretty thick woods

00:52:35on one side

00:52:36swampy on the

00:52:37other a little bit

00:52:37he said I want to

00:52:38go check out

00:52:39this area

00:52:39so we pull

00:52:40into this lot

00:52:41and he wanted

00:52:43to go check out

00:52:43this swamp

00:52:44he walked

00:52:46down that

00:52:47trail going

00:52:48to the swamp

00:52:48and he was

00:52:49probably about

00:52:49100-120 yards

00:52:51away

00:52:51he wasn't

00:52:52far

00:52:52well he gets

00:52:53down by

00:52:54that swamp

00:52:54area

00:52:54and you saw

00:52:55something

00:52:55it was white

00:52:57it was I guess

00:52:58it was probably

00:53:00laying down

00:53:00or whatever

00:53:01in a tall

00:53:01grass

00:53:02Dave went

00:53:03down there

00:53:03and we saw

00:53:04this thing

00:53:04kind of perk

00:53:05up

00:53:05it was on

00:53:05four legs

00:53:06it jumped

00:53:07over the

00:53:08tall grass

00:53:08not all

00:53:09of it

00:53:09it was probably

00:53:09about 15 feet

00:53:10or so

00:53:12and it landed

00:53:13behind him

00:53:14so Dave

00:53:15he turns around

00:53:16and it startled

00:53:16him

00:53:16evidently he heard

00:53:17it

00:53:18and it took

00:53:18off back

00:53:19towards the

00:53:19swamp

00:53:20Dave comes

00:53:20running up

00:53:21he cleared

00:53:22the guardrail

00:53:23I've never

00:53:23seen the guy

00:53:24hurdle anything

00:53:25he's scared

00:53:26we got just

00:53:27a little

00:53:27he's probably

00:53:28doing 40

00:53:29and what I saw

00:53:32was whatever

00:53:33it was decided

00:53:33it was going

00:53:34to chase us

00:53:35I said Dave

00:53:36you got to move

00:53:37whatever you

00:53:37pissed off

00:53:38down there's

00:53:38coming

00:53:38and I saw

00:53:39it ran

00:53:40down the trail

00:53:40jumped over

00:53:41the guardrail

00:53:42cleared it by

00:53:43probably 10-15

00:53:44feet easy

00:53:45and it caught

00:53:46up to us

00:53:47never saw

00:53:48face

00:53:48never saw

00:53:49eye shine

00:53:49or anything

00:53:50like that

00:53:50he takes

00:53:51off and they

00:53:52kept up

00:53:52with us

00:53:52for probably

00:53:53a couple

00:53:53hundred feet

00:53:55and then just

00:53:56darted off

00:53:56back into

00:53:57the woods

00:53:59and that

00:54:00was it

00:54:00at that

00:54:00point

00:54:01it was just

00:54:02kind of

00:54:03we didn't

00:54:03I didn't go

00:54:04back there

00:54:05again until

00:54:0698

00:54:0799

00:54:09we talked

00:54:09about it

00:54:10with our

00:54:10friends

00:54:10for what

00:54:11we can

00:54:11because again

00:54:12you say

00:54:13werewolf

00:54:14everybody thinks

00:54:15you're a nut

00:54:15and then

00:54:16in

00:54:17I think

00:54:17it was

00:54:1899

00:54:19I think

00:54:20it was

00:54:20winter time

00:54:21we went

00:54:21out and

00:54:22we went

00:54:22by this

00:54:22old ranger

00:54:23station

00:54:25and pull

00:54:25onto this

00:54:26side road

00:54:26and I had

00:54:27a two million

00:54:27candle power

00:54:28light

00:54:28I said

00:54:29give me a light

00:54:29I just want

00:54:30to see what's

00:54:30down this

00:54:31road

00:54:31but as I

00:54:32lit that

00:54:32light up

00:54:33there was

00:54:33a large

00:54:36hardwood tree

00:54:37oak or maple

00:54:37or whatever

00:54:38and I caught

00:54:39eye shine

00:54:40again

00:54:40it was like

00:54:40a light blue

00:54:41color

00:54:42and you

00:54:43could actually

00:54:43see arms

00:54:45part of the

00:54:45head

00:54:46I look at

00:54:46Rob

00:54:47he says

00:54:47okay

00:54:48now I see

00:54:49it

00:54:49I see it

00:54:50now

00:54:50and his

00:54:50friend

00:54:51she's from

00:54:52Arizona

00:54:52talked about

00:54:53the skin

00:54:53walkers

00:54:54or whatever

00:54:54she started

00:54:55crying

00:54:56I said

00:54:56just watch

00:54:57it

00:54:57I'm going

00:54:57to turn

00:54:58the light

00:54:58off

00:54:59and when

00:54:59the glow

00:55:00dies down

00:55:00I'm going

00:55:01to hit

00:55:01the light

00:55:01again

00:55:02and I

00:55:03did that

00:55:04and when

00:55:04I hit

00:55:05that light

00:55:05again

00:55:05we caught

00:55:06it

00:55:06basically

00:55:07mid stride

00:55:08turning to

00:55:08go behind

00:55:09the rest

00:55:09of the

00:55:09tree

00:55:10and then

00:55:11it just

00:55:11disappeared

00:55:12at that

00:55:12point

00:55:16that's

00:55:16where a lot

00:55:17of people

00:55:17actually

00:55:18have their

00:55:19sightings

00:55:19because

00:55:21roads are

00:55:22a natural

00:55:24crossing area

00:55:25for all

00:55:25species

00:55:26whether it's

00:55:28a turkey

00:55:28a bigfoot

00:55:29a dogman

00:55:30deer

00:55:31because it

00:55:32offers an

00:55:33open plain

00:55:33for them

00:55:33to cross

00:55:34so most

00:55:35people

00:55:35generally

00:55:36have the

00:55:37sightings

00:55:37in the

00:55:37early morning

00:55:38or in

00:55:39the late

00:55:40afternoon

00:55:40generally

00:55:41when they're

00:55:41driving home

00:55:43or driving

00:55:44to work

00:55:44now I have

00:55:45a theory

00:55:46that the

00:55:47dogmen

00:55:47actually

00:55:48and the

00:55:48bigfoot

00:55:49also

00:55:49take advantage

00:55:50of this

00:55:51time period

00:55:51because they

00:55:52know

00:55:53cars are

00:55:54coming

00:55:54and if

00:55:55they don't

00:55:56want to

00:55:56expend a

00:55:57lot of

00:55:57energy

00:55:57chasing

00:55:58down

00:55:59a herd

00:55:59of deer

00:56:00they will

00:56:01just chase

00:56:01the deers

00:56:02out into

00:56:02the road

00:56:02the cars

00:56:03hit the

00:56:03deer

00:56:04and then

00:56:04once

00:56:05all the

00:56:06vehicles leave

00:56:06they just

00:56:07go grab

00:56:07the deer

00:56:08and walk

00:56:09off

00:56:09I think

00:56:10that their

00:56:11intention

00:56:11is just

00:56:12to scare

00:56:12you

00:56:12let you

00:56:13know

00:56:13that

00:56:13they're

00:56:14there

00:56:14stay away

00:56:15stay out of their domain

00:56:15but it always seems like

00:56:17you even hear stories

00:56:19about which I've heard

00:56:20about dogmen

00:56:21paralleling your car

00:56:22and looking into

00:56:23the side of the car

00:56:24and like giving you

00:56:25that grin

00:56:25which is so hard to do

00:56:27with the snout

00:56:28right

00:56:28I mean you get

00:56:29stories like that

00:56:30I just think

00:56:31they just want to

00:56:31scare us

00:56:32keep us away

00:56:33you know people

00:56:34will disagree with me

00:56:35and say they're devil

00:56:36demon dogs

00:56:37I don't think

00:56:38they're nice

00:56:38I don't think

00:56:39that I'd want

00:56:40to hang out

00:56:40with one

00:56:41I don't think

00:56:42I'd want one

00:56:42roaming my backyard

00:56:44are they guardians

00:56:45of the cemetery

00:56:47are they guardians

00:56:47of the forest

00:56:48you know

00:56:49are they the protector

00:56:50of the land

00:56:51all that stuff

00:56:52for debate

00:56:52depends on

00:56:53who you talk to

00:56:54different nationalities

00:56:56different cultures

00:56:57they all have

00:56:58their variety

00:56:58of opinions

00:56:59what's right

00:56:59what's wrong

00:57:00I don't know

00:57:00I think that maybe

00:57:01they're a lost soul

00:57:02somewhere sometimes

00:57:03and they just want

00:57:04to terrorize people

00:57:22Michigan has more

00:57:23public roads than

00:57:24any other state

00:57:25over 120,000 miles

00:57:27of them

00:57:28some connect

00:57:29small towns

00:57:30to big cities

00:57:31others snake

00:57:32through farmlands

00:57:33and dense woods

00:57:34a few lead all the way

00:57:36to the Canadian border

00:57:37crossing rivers

00:57:38and lakes

00:57:39before vanishing

00:57:40into another country

00:57:41these roads

00:57:42don't just move people

00:57:44they cut through

00:57:45the landscape

00:57:46splitting forests

00:57:47tracing rivers

00:57:48and winding through

00:57:49some of the most

00:57:50remote terrain

00:57:51in the Midwest

00:57:52and that's where

00:57:53things get really strange

00:57:54because for all

00:57:56the dogman sightings

00:57:57that happen deep

00:57:58in the woods

00:57:59just as many

00:58:00take place

00:58:01along the roadside

00:58:02drivers report

00:58:03seeing tall

00:58:04upright creatures

00:58:05crossing just ahead

00:58:06of their headlights

00:58:07sometimes it's just

00:58:09a flash of movement

00:58:10other times

00:58:11there's something

00:58:12much closer

00:58:13almost too close

00:58:15these aren't chance

00:58:17encounters

00:58:17on back trails

00:58:18these are sightings

00:58:20happening on the same

00:58:21roads people take

00:58:22to work

00:58:22the same roads

00:58:23where kids

00:58:24ride the bus

00:58:25to school

00:58:25whatever this thing

00:58:27is

00:58:27it has no problem

00:58:29stepping into our world

00:58:30right where the trees

00:58:31give way to pavement

00:58:33and the most terrifying

00:58:34encounter of them all

00:58:35is said to have

00:58:36happened on a road

00:58:37near the edge

00:58:38of the Manistee National Forest

00:58:42driving my truck

00:58:43that day

00:58:44in early summer

00:58:45of 2017

00:58:47it was June

00:58:48I was picking up

00:58:50a load of pavement rolls

00:58:51on the highway

00:58:53I started seeing

00:58:54my air

00:58:55on my gauge

00:58:56was losing

00:58:58pressure

00:58:59when I pulled off

00:59:00to take a look

00:59:01at my air leak problem

00:59:04and I got under

00:59:05the trailer

00:59:06I could see a little bit

00:59:07of a cut

00:59:08in the line

00:59:09going into

00:59:10the brake chamber

00:59:11just cut it

00:59:13put it back together

00:59:14it took a few minutes

00:59:15and you know

00:59:16it doesn't get dark

00:59:17until 9.30

00:59:1710 o'clock

00:59:18it's like 7 o'clock

00:59:19I thought I saw

00:59:20in the tree line

00:59:22I could see movement

00:59:23like there was something

00:59:24back there

00:59:26as I got back

00:59:27in the truck

00:59:28I just

00:59:28I didn't think

00:59:29a lot about it

00:59:30really

00:59:31tested everything

00:59:32got going down the road

00:59:33and as I looked

00:59:34over to my right

00:59:35there was

00:59:36this werewolf

00:59:37in my window

00:59:38looking at me

00:59:39and I'm

00:59:40nine feet in the air

00:59:41sitting in my rig

00:59:43and there's a werewolf

00:59:45in my passenger window

00:59:46and he's just

00:59:47trotting along

00:59:48and it's huge

00:59:49it's just crazy

00:59:50big

00:59:51and it's

00:59:53kind of even

00:59:54looking down

00:59:55even

00:59:56as high as I'm

00:59:57up in the air

00:59:58it's looking down

00:59:59like this at me

01:00:00and it has these

01:00:01you know

01:00:02huge teeth

01:00:02and you know

01:00:03it's jet black

01:00:04yellow eyes

01:00:06I just didn't know

01:00:07what to think

01:00:08about it

01:00:08of course

01:00:09I started to think

01:00:11roll the window up

01:00:12I mean

01:00:12you know

01:00:13I mean

01:00:13it's like absurd

01:00:15right

01:00:16as it was looking

01:00:18in the cab

01:00:19it was

01:00:19eyes were darting around

01:00:21and it had this

01:00:22intelligence in his eyes

01:00:23that it's just

01:00:25not an animal

01:00:26it's just

01:00:26it looks like a wolf

01:00:28but when you look

01:00:29in his eyes

01:00:30it's a human

01:00:31like intelligence

01:00:33there

01:00:33you can see it

01:00:34as all this is

01:00:36happening

01:00:36in real time

01:00:38it's just

01:00:38this is all happening

01:00:40in seconds

01:00:41a lot of times

01:00:42there's people

01:00:43that's had encounters

01:00:44say that

01:00:45they communicate

01:00:47telepathically

01:00:48or whatever it is

01:00:48I don't know

01:00:49if it was that

01:00:50but

01:00:50what I

01:00:53got in my mind

01:00:54when this was going on

01:00:56is that

01:00:56I got you

01:00:57and there's nothing

01:00:58you can do about it

01:01:00I'm at the mercy

01:01:01of this thing

01:01:01whatever it wants to do

01:01:03it did scratch my door

01:01:04with its claws

01:01:06the weather seal

01:01:08and the rubber part

01:01:09well as

01:01:10as I got that message

01:01:11that there's nothing

01:01:12I can do about it

01:01:13I carry a weapon

01:01:15on me all the time

01:01:16I have a concealed carry

01:01:17and I thought about it

01:01:20for a split second

01:01:21and I didn't hesitate

01:01:23so I pull it

01:01:25and I shot twice

01:01:26like boom boom

01:01:27you know

01:01:28and it went down

01:01:29like you know

01:01:30like ton of bricks

01:01:31I was in shock

01:01:34but I did know

01:01:35that really happened

01:01:37you know

01:01:38I need to go back

01:01:40and make sure

01:01:41that

01:01:42if this happened

01:01:43this thing is really dead

01:01:45if

01:01:45you know

01:01:46I'm sure it is

01:01:47but

01:01:47I gotta just see it

01:01:48I turned around

01:01:49and at the bottom of the hill

01:01:51I get there

01:01:51and there's another

01:01:53there's a jeep there

01:01:54and there's two people

01:01:55outside of the jeep

01:01:56and they're in that area

01:01:57and the thing is gone

01:01:59but you can see where

01:02:00it slid

01:02:02and went off to the side

01:02:03you can see

01:02:04that something big was there

01:02:06I pulled over

01:02:07and I said

01:02:08well

01:02:08hey

01:02:09do you need any help

01:02:10and they're like

01:02:11they're looking at me confused

01:02:12like

01:02:12at the time

01:02:14I know what

01:02:14those

01:02:15who those people were now

01:02:16but I didn't

01:02:17at the time

01:02:18like what are you

01:02:19stopping for

01:02:20you know

01:02:21they said something

01:02:22to the effect

01:02:23that they were

01:02:24watching a couple of bears fight

01:02:26I'm like

01:02:27well

01:02:28okay

01:02:29if you're alright

01:02:29then I'm

01:02:30I guess

01:02:31you know

01:02:32I'm out of here

01:02:36I was never into

01:02:38cryptids

01:02:40and even

01:02:41being born and raised

01:02:42in Michigan

01:02:43I never even heard

01:02:44of a dog man

01:02:45after I gained my composure

01:02:47a little bit

01:02:47I just

01:02:49started researching

01:02:50into werewolves

01:02:52you know

01:02:52because I realized

01:02:54that did happen

01:02:55you know

01:02:56I was trying to

01:02:57talk myself out of it

01:02:59I've never

01:02:59had any

01:03:01mental health issues

01:03:02in my life

01:03:03so

01:03:03I'm thinking

01:03:04okay

01:03:05I am saying

01:03:06this did happen

01:03:07my whole

01:03:08you know

01:03:08view

01:03:09of what

01:03:10I thought I knew

01:03:11had been shattered

01:03:12you know

01:03:13in the world

01:03:13so I started researching that

01:03:15and finding out

01:03:15the history of things

01:03:16I realized

01:03:17that

01:03:18they had been around

01:03:20for a long time

01:03:21and come to find out

01:03:22they're

01:03:23more than just

01:03:24a natural creature

01:03:25there are

01:03:25elements of

01:03:27of the government

01:03:28that experiment

01:03:30with these things

01:03:31going back

01:03:32to the research

01:03:32this was back

01:03:34in like

01:03:342018

01:03:35there was this

01:03:36guy that does

01:03:38a YouTube channel

01:03:39at this time

01:03:40it was called

01:03:41Cryptid Brothers

01:03:42Investigations

01:03:43of Oklahoma

01:03:44I called

01:03:47Lance Hightower

01:03:48and I said

01:03:49I don't want to be

01:03:49on your show

01:03:50I just want to talk

01:03:51to you about this

01:03:52and he said

01:03:53yeah

01:03:54tell me your story

01:03:55so

01:03:56I told him the story

01:03:58he said

01:03:58man he was just

01:03:59amazed at it

01:04:00he says

01:04:01do you care

01:04:01if I narrate

01:04:02your story

01:04:03don't say who you are

01:04:04don't say where

01:04:05it happened

01:04:06or anything

01:04:06just

01:04:07yeah

01:04:07cool

01:04:08so he did

01:04:09a few months

01:04:10after that

01:04:11I get pulled

01:04:12into a way station

01:04:14and they told me

01:04:16to you know

01:04:17pull around

01:04:17to the back

01:04:18one of the

01:04:19DOT guys

01:04:20come out

01:04:20he said

01:04:21oh no

01:04:21we're not

01:04:22inspecting you

01:04:23we're just

01:04:23holding you

01:04:24for federal

01:04:25authorities

01:04:26I just want

01:04:26to talk to you

01:04:28well anyway

01:04:29they get there

01:04:31and they're

01:04:32in a

01:04:32you know

01:04:33like you'd expect

01:04:35men in black

01:04:36they were just

01:04:37you know

01:04:38reading me

01:04:38the riot act

01:04:39and we're going

01:04:40to tell you

01:04:40how things are

01:04:41we know

01:04:42what you did

01:04:43and I said

01:04:43about what

01:04:45and he says

01:04:46you know

01:04:46you killed

01:04:47our asset

01:04:47right

01:04:48you realize

01:04:49that

01:04:50I'm like

01:04:50that thing

01:04:52is your asset

01:04:53I was like

01:04:54floored

01:04:55I was like

01:04:56what

01:04:56oh yeah

01:04:57yeah

01:04:57and you're going

01:04:58to shut up

01:04:58about it

01:04:59and if you don't

01:04:59this is

01:05:00the things

01:05:00we can do

01:05:02to make sure

01:05:03you stay quiet

01:05:04they did a lot

01:05:06of intimidating

01:05:07and they did

01:05:08take my gun

01:05:08and they just

01:05:10wanted to make

01:05:11sure

01:05:11they flex

01:05:12their muscles

01:05:13so I didn't

01:05:14talk about

01:05:14that anymore

01:05:15and I didn't

01:05:16really

01:05:16that was

01:05:17just a narration

01:05:18but they

01:05:19figured out

01:05:20who it was

01:05:21is what

01:05:21happened

01:05:22it worked

01:05:23I shut up

01:05:24for like

01:05:24four years

01:05:25I didn't say

01:05:25Buddha

01:05:27about it

01:05:27and then

01:05:30in 2022

01:05:31there was

01:05:33that Dogman

01:05:34conference

01:05:34and that's

01:05:35when it

01:05:36blew up

01:05:37were you

01:05:37then

01:05:38and are you

01:05:38still concerned

01:05:39that they're

01:05:39going to

01:05:40try to

01:05:41shut you up

01:05:41about it

01:05:42I think

01:05:43after I decided

01:05:44to talk about it

01:05:46the way I did

01:05:47and I was

01:05:47I think I had

01:05:48enough support

01:05:50and there was

01:05:51enough people

01:05:51that knew about it

01:05:52that I think

01:05:54I was protected

01:05:55that way

01:05:56and I think

01:05:56they kind of

01:05:57shifted

01:05:57their

01:05:58maybe their

01:05:59tactic about it

01:06:00because after

01:06:01that happened

01:06:02miraculously

01:06:03my gun

01:06:04turned up

01:06:04back in my

01:06:05truck

01:06:05the gun

01:06:06they took

01:06:06four years

01:06:07ago

01:06:22there's something

01:06:23deeply unsettling

01:06:24about being

01:06:25followed

01:06:26for most people

01:06:27that feeling

01:06:28fades with

01:06:29daylight

01:06:30but for Linda

01:06:31Godfrey

01:06:32it was the

01:06:32beginning

01:06:33of a life's

01:06:34work

01:06:34Linda was a

01:06:36journalist first

01:06:36in the early

01:06:381990s

01:06:38she was assigned

01:06:39to cover a

01:06:40series of

01:06:41strange reports

01:06:41coming out of

01:06:42Elkhorn

01:06:42Wisconsin

01:06:43witnesses claimed

01:06:45they'd seen

01:06:45something on a

01:06:46stretch of

01:06:46lonely road

01:06:47something upright

01:06:49hairy

01:06:49and wolf

01:06:50like

01:06:51it walked on

01:06:52two legs

01:06:53and could

01:06:53bound across

01:06:54the road

01:06:54in just a few

01:06:55strides

01:06:55the locals

01:06:57called it

01:06:57the Beast of

01:06:58Bray Road

01:06:58at first

01:06:59Linda thought

01:07:00it might be

01:07:01nothing more

01:07:01than an urban

01:07:02legend

01:07:03but then the

01:07:04stories kept

01:07:05coming

01:07:05what began

01:07:06as a single

01:07:07article turned

01:07:08into years of

01:07:09research and

01:07:10books

01:07:10Linda became

01:07:11the first person

01:07:12to seriously

01:07:13document what is

01:07:14now known as

01:07:15the dogman

01:07:15phenomenon

01:07:16she tracked

01:07:17sightings not

01:07:18just in

01:07:18Wisconsin

01:07:19but across the

01:07:20country

01:07:21many of them

01:07:22right here in

01:07:22Michigan

01:07:23without her

01:07:24most of these

01:07:25stories would

01:07:26have been

01:07:26forgotten

01:07:27but she

01:07:28understood that

01:07:29something unusual

01:07:30was happening

01:07:30and that someone

01:07:32needed to take it

01:07:32seriously

01:07:33then in time

01:07:35Linda had her

01:07:36own encounter

01:07:37and maybe that's

01:07:38the part that

01:07:39sticks with you

01:07:39the most

01:07:40after all the

01:07:42interviews

01:07:42the books

01:07:43the research

01:07:44Linda had looked

01:07:46into darkness

01:07:46for so long

01:07:47and eventually

01:07:48it looked back

01:07:51there was a long

01:07:52time when

01:07:53you know

01:07:53I really

01:07:54was not

01:07:55too averse

01:07:56to looking at

01:07:57these creatures

01:07:58as something

01:07:59sort of fun

01:08:01in a way

01:08:01interesting

01:08:03nothing really

01:08:04to think

01:08:05too darkly

01:08:07about

01:08:07but

01:08:08the moment

01:08:10that really

01:08:11changed all

01:08:12of this for me

01:08:13was when

01:08:14I was on

01:08:15assignment with

01:08:16a TV show

01:08:16in Michigan

01:08:18and we had

01:08:19set up

01:08:20a spotlight

01:08:21in the road

01:08:22and it was next

01:08:23to an old building

01:08:23that I think

01:08:24was once a school

01:08:25house

01:08:25that was

01:08:26abandoned

01:08:27and that was

01:08:28known as more

01:08:28sort of a ghosty

01:08:29type place

01:08:30and these three

01:08:31college students

01:08:33went out

01:08:33one night

01:08:34and

01:08:36saw a seven

01:08:37foot tall

01:08:38gray creature

01:08:39that looked like

01:08:40an upright dog

01:08:41man

01:08:41and that chased

01:08:43their car

01:08:43so

01:08:44we had

01:08:45a cameraman

01:08:46who had his

01:08:47camera set up

01:08:48on a tripod

01:08:48we had been

01:08:49there all day

01:08:51with these three

01:08:52witnesses

01:08:52and I had a

01:08:54Native American

01:08:55who was

01:08:57also

01:08:57a game warden

01:09:00for a Native

01:09:01American land

01:09:02reserve

01:09:02and he was

01:09:04the one

01:09:04that sort of

01:09:07sobered me up

01:09:07to the possibility

01:09:08that there could

01:09:09be a lot more

01:09:09to these creatures

01:09:10he had

01:09:12brought some

01:09:13venison

01:09:14to leave out

01:09:15for them

01:09:15because it would

01:09:16be the natural

01:09:16food

01:09:17he had a ritual

01:09:18that he wanted

01:09:19the witnesses

01:09:20to go through

01:09:21and none of this

01:09:23ended up on

01:09:24the TV show

01:09:25a little bit of it

01:09:26did

01:09:26he seemed to think

01:09:27that there was

01:09:28a connection

01:09:29with Native American

01:09:30practices

01:09:31and some

01:09:33occurrences

01:09:34of sightings

01:09:34of these creatures

01:09:35and when you're

01:09:37standing out

01:09:37on a gravel road

01:09:38literally in the

01:09:39middle of nowhere

01:09:40it was like

01:09:422 or 3 a.m.

01:09:43in the morning

01:09:44we're standing out

01:09:45totally defenseless

01:09:46on this gravel road

01:09:47and all night long

01:09:48we'd been seeing

01:09:49like yellow eye shine

01:09:51in the bushes

01:09:51one time we heard

01:09:53something

01:09:54shaking itself out

01:09:55like a wet dog

01:09:56in the foliage

01:09:57maybe 30 feet away

01:09:58at the most

01:09:59and I turned

01:10:01around toward

01:10:02the spotlight

01:10:03and saw

01:10:04something

01:10:05I just saw

01:10:07the spine

01:10:08of something

01:10:09as it started

01:10:10to cross the road

01:10:11just out of range

01:10:12and all that

01:10:14was illuminated

01:10:14was the spine

01:10:15and it was

01:10:16gray fur

01:10:16and at that moment

01:10:19I thought

01:10:20this could be

01:10:20something real

01:10:21and it could get us

01:10:22you know

01:10:23and what's stopping it

01:10:24and you have that feeling

01:10:26and one of the

01:10:27witnesses also saw

01:10:28the cameraman

01:10:29of course

01:10:29had his camera

01:10:30pointed the other direction

01:10:31it's probably why

01:10:32the creatures

01:10:33chose that moment

01:10:34to you know

01:10:35get across the road

01:10:37and it was just

01:10:39kind of a sobering thought

01:10:40you know

01:10:41because you realize

01:10:42it's real

01:10:43and one of the witnesses

01:10:43that saw it

01:10:44just started freaking out

01:10:46because it was

01:10:47too much

01:10:48they had seen

01:10:49the full things

01:10:50and knew what it was

01:10:51and that was just

01:10:53kind of a watershed

01:10:55moment for me

01:10:58of all the voices

01:10:59that helped shape

01:11:00the understanding

01:11:00of the dogman phenomenon

01:11:02Linda's was

01:11:03the most respected

01:11:04the most balanced

01:11:06and human

01:11:07she passed away

01:11:08in 2022

01:11:09leaving behind

01:11:11a body of work

01:11:12that spans decades

01:11:13but more than that

01:11:14she left behind

01:11:16and a sense

01:11:16of permission

01:11:17for people

01:11:18to speak openly

01:11:19about the things

01:11:20they'd seen

01:11:20no matter how strange

01:11:22Linda never claimed

01:11:24to have all the answers

01:11:25she simply asked

01:11:27the right questions

01:11:28and she listened

01:11:30and maybe that's why

01:11:31her loss

01:11:31still feels so heavy

01:11:33because in a world

01:11:34full of shadows

01:11:35she was one of the few

01:11:37people who wasn't afraid

01:11:38to look into the darkness

01:12:02first I think it

01:12:04creates a really fun

01:12:05interesting campfire story

01:12:08at its lowest level

01:12:09that's what it does

01:12:10it's kind of now

01:12:11woven into the fabric

01:12:13of northern Michigan

01:12:14pretty much anyone

01:12:15up here

01:12:16if you mention

01:12:16the name Dogman

01:12:17unless they haven't

01:12:19lived here very long

01:12:21they're like

01:12:21oh yeah

01:12:22we know all about it

01:12:23and they'll have

01:12:24a story to tell

01:12:25so that was one benefit

01:12:27but the greater benefit

01:12:28at least to me

01:12:29personally

01:12:30is the Morningman

01:12:32and I agreed

01:12:33when this thing

01:12:34started to really

01:12:35take off

01:12:36that we

01:12:37and people

01:12:38were requesting

01:12:39copies of it

01:12:40if there's a profit

01:12:41made in this song

01:12:42we're going to donate

01:12:42the proceeds to charity

01:12:43so we did

01:12:44and we have ever since

01:12:45and I was the one

01:12:47who picked the charity

01:12:48because I wrote the song

01:12:49so I created a fund

01:12:52where I gave

01:12:53all of the profits

01:12:54of the song

01:12:54to animal rescue charities

01:12:56and that's been

01:12:57the part of the whole

01:12:59story that has been

01:13:00the most gratifying

01:13:01to me

01:13:01for me it's sort of

01:13:03like a legacy

01:13:04and I love that

01:13:06I was able to create

01:13:07something that

01:13:08is going to live

01:13:09longer than me

01:13:10all of us want to

01:13:12make some sort of

01:13:13an achievement

01:13:13or leave some sort of

01:13:14mark

01:13:15and the Morningman

01:13:16Jack O'Malley

01:13:17and I who worked

01:13:18together on creating

01:13:19the song

01:13:19he's even said

01:13:21this song will outlive

01:13:22us by many many years

01:13:25I think the song

01:13:27capitalized on

01:13:28some of the legends

01:13:30and stories

01:13:31but I have had

01:13:33people who have

01:13:34never really heard

01:13:35that song

01:13:35come up to me

01:13:36after I do

01:13:37presentations

01:13:39and say

01:13:40hey

01:13:41I've seen one

01:13:43and they generally

01:13:44will you know

01:13:45like they want to

01:13:46make sure the room

01:13:47is almost empty

01:13:47when they approach

01:13:48me and start talking

01:13:49they never want

01:13:50to give their full

01:13:51names

01:13:51they never want

01:13:51to give the exact

01:13:52location

01:13:53they just

01:13:54experience something

01:13:55really weird

01:13:56and they want

01:13:57you to know

01:13:58about it

01:13:59I'll give more

01:14:00dogman reports

01:14:01or stories

01:14:01sent in to me

01:14:02than I do Bigfoot

01:14:04and maybe

01:14:04I've gotten

01:14:05half a dozen

01:14:05from Michigan

01:14:06from all over

01:14:07the country

01:14:07I don't think

01:14:08that song

01:14:09was that powerful

01:14:10to have everybody

01:14:11start looking

01:14:11for a dogman

01:14:12I think they just

01:14:13kind of blew it off

01:14:14but I think

01:14:15it was just something

01:14:15that nobody wants

01:14:16to speak about

01:14:17because let's face it

01:14:18if you say

01:14:18you had a Bigfoot

01:14:19encounter

01:14:27it's hard to say

01:14:28where the dogman

01:14:28story truly begins

01:14:30some believe

01:14:31the legend was born

01:14:32with Steve Cook's

01:14:33song in 1987

01:14:34a monster tale

01:14:36set to music

01:14:37that struck a nerve

01:14:38across Michigan

01:14:39others argue

01:14:40the stories

01:14:41were already there

01:14:42waiting in the dark

01:14:43passed down

01:14:44in whispers

01:14:45and warnings

01:14:45long before anyone

01:14:47gave the creature

01:14:47a name

01:14:48like so many things

01:14:50tied to the shadowy woods

01:14:51the truth can feel elusive

01:14:54caught somewhere

01:14:55between folklore

01:14:56and actual experience

01:14:59what we do have

01:15:01is the work

01:15:01of Linda Godfrey

01:15:02she was the first

01:15:03to take these stories

01:15:04seriously

01:15:05to treat witnesses

01:15:06with respect

01:15:07and ask the kind

01:15:08of questions

01:15:09most reporters

01:15:10wouldn't bother with

01:15:11she helped shape

01:15:12the modern understanding

01:15:14of the dogman

01:15:14not just in Michigan

01:15:16but across the country

01:15:19and in the end

01:15:20it's strangely fitting

01:15:22that Linda's only

01:15:23first-hand encounter

01:15:24with the creature

01:15:25happened here

01:15:26in the same state

01:15:27where the name

01:15:28dogman first took hold

01:15:30as if the story

01:15:32had been following her

01:15:33all along

01:15:34just waiting

01:15:35to come full circle

01:15:37maybe the dogman

01:15:38is just a myth

01:15:39maybe it is

01:15:41something real

01:15:42or maybe it lives

01:15:43in the space

01:15:44where memory

01:15:45and mystery

01:15:46blur together

01:15:47but if there is

01:15:48one thing

01:15:49Michigan has taught us

01:15:50it's that the woods

01:15:52are older than we are

01:15:53and sometimes

01:15:55they remember things

01:15:56we've tried so hard

01:15:58to forget

01:16:03so

01:16:04and

01:16:12so

01:16:19and

01:16:49Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

01:17:19Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

01:17:27Untertitelung des ZDF, 2020

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