Michigan’s Dogman is Due to Make Another Appearance in 2027
The Michigan Dogman.
The name alone strikes terror and fear in the hearts of…….
Nobody.
Wikipedia describes it as “a seven-foot tall, blue-eyed, or amber-eyed bipedal canine-like animal with the torso of a man and a fearsome howl that sounds like a human scream.”
Most of Michigan’s population hear these ‘tales’ and laugh it off or shrug it off or smirk it off. So we've heard the stories about this thing...so what is it? According to eyewitnesses who say they saw it, it looks like either a large dog that can stand on its hind legs or a mutated human with a head shaped like a dog's.
The upcoming 2027 is said to be the year when Dogman will make his/her re-appearance. Every ten years – on the years that always end with a “7” - reports of Dogman sightings pop up in the news. Dogman was said to be spotted in Allegan County in 1957, and in Manistee and Cross Village in 1967. One guy in Grand Haven said he saw Dogman standing on its hind legs in his mom & dad’s driveway during the 1990s.
Tales of the Dogman go back to the late 1800s when it was supposedly sighted for the first time...not in the U.P. as one would think, but right here in the lower peninsula. The legend states the first time it was seen was in 1887, when the creature appeared before a group of lumberjacks in Wexford County. Figuring it was a large wild dog, they chased it until it attempted to hide in a hollow log. Trying to get it out of the log, these guys stupidly started jabbing it with a stick; the Dogman let out a weird shriek and jumped out of the log. Needless to say, the men practically soiled themselves and ran like scared rabbits.
In 1987, Steve Cook jokingly recorded a song about Dogman; but to some listeners, it wasn't a joke. They began relating their own terror-tales of personal Dogman encounters with more and more "eyewitnesses" coming forth on a regular basis.
But is there really some odd creature roaming our state? Self-proclaimed eyewitnesses say yes. Some say it’s a cougar, others say it’s a grizzly bear, others want to believe it’s a real Dogman or even a mutated Bigfoot. It’s not just a northern Michigan thing, as folks even from our area – Mid-Michigan – have said to have seen some creature similar to this.
One alleged encounter that stands out is that of Robert Fortney, who saw the creature in the late 1930s. While fishing in the Muskegon River near the small Michigan village of Paris, a pack of wild dogs came out of the woods; Fortney fired his gun and scared 'em off...all except one: a large black dog that stood up on its hind legs and attempted to scare Fortney by staring him down with its brightly staring blue eyes. Fortney shot in the direction of the creature, which then disappeared into the woods.
Many hoaxes have appeared ever since: humans dressed up in hairy costumes being the favorite. So is Dogman actually what its name says it is, or is it an offshoot of Bigfoot, werewolf, bear, wolverine, wolf, cougar.....what? Any of those possible?
