North American history is riddled with strange animal and so-called monster encounters. The mysterious woods, plains, swamps, and mountains hid mysteries that preyed on people’s minds and fueled the legends and stories told around family hearths.

Monster sightings were as popular in the 1800 and early 1900s as they are today. However, instead of posting their sightings to social media accounts, the people of the past went to the newspapers, where their stories were published and immortalized. And, of course, that means they can still be read today.

10 Half-Man And Half-Frog

The idea of aquatic or amphibian men is nothing new. Since antiquity, people have been spotting these strange creatures across the world. However, a more recent sighting from 1902 happened in North America.

According to one newspaper report, a half-man, half-frog creature came out of Colonial Lake, a tidal pond in South Carolina. It was late at night, and witnesses said the curious creature crawled onto the bank and began making strange sounds. They may have been distress cries, according to some accounts, but after about 30 minutes, the creature returned to the water.

The event was witnessed by a truck driver, a carpenter, and numerous other people who were out late that night. According to a statement made by the carpenter:

It was too horrible looking to describe. The head resembled that of a huge frog, the wide, protruding eyes burning with a lurid light. It had arms and shoulders like a man, but the body tapered down like a serpent’s. It was covered with large, greenish scales, and I should say it was at least eight feet long from head to tail. Its mouth was filled with crooked fangs, which it snapped together with a vicious click.^[1]

9 Disappeared In Green Smoke

Wildcat sightings, as well as black panther sightings, have always been a popular topic in newspapers, but this particular sighting in Slick, Oklahoma, was a bit different from those other wildcat stories.

It was during the summer of 1921 when people began seeing an unusual wildcat. According to one report, “The monster was seen [ . . . ] by a woman and two children who were picking dewberries in a swamp at the top of a hill on the outskirts of the city. It spat fire, snarled fiercely and gave a weird howl when it beheld the trio, disappearing in a sudden burst of speed and green smoke.”^[2]

A local reporter and scientist headed to the swamp to find the spitfire cat. The scientist made impressions of the cat’s large, unfamiliar footprints and muttered, “Wildcat, but not still.” The reporter wanted to follow the tracks to find the cat, but the scientist was quite unwilling to go any further.

8 Georgia’s Hairy Man-Monster

Long before the creatures were called “Bigfoot,” there were strange sightings in the mountains of Georgia. An early account from the summer of 1812 tells how a party of hunters came across a 2.4-meter-tall (8 ft) man-creature. It was covered in bluish hair and had large ears, similar to the ears of a donkey.^[3]

Two years later, a group of adventurers from Virginia decided to try and find the mysterious man-monster. As they traveled across the undeveloped land, they spoke to numerous locals who either believed that the hairy man existed or had seen the creature themselves. Fortunately for the monster, the party of men were unable to locate its dwelling.

To this day, hikers and Bigfoot researchers claim to have seen or heard the mysterious monsters that live in Georgia.

7 Duchesne River Monster

A post trader visited the Ute people in Eastern Utah back in 1889 and began talking to them about their culture, raising children, and the local industries. Soon, the conversation moved onto local superstitions, and the trader, who was accompanied by a local newspaper reporter, was told about the Duchesne River monster.

According to the Ute, there is a spot near the head of the Duchesne that was inhabited by “a horrible monster, half man and half beast, with all the powers of an evil spirit.”^[4] The monster lived in the valley, and the locals all avoided venturing into the area, believing that the creature would kill them if it caught wind of them.

Of course, instead of believing the Ute, the reporter felt that perhaps the people were confusing the half-man monster with the Gila monsters of Arizona. However, this makes very little sense because Gila monsters were recognized as animals, not actual monsters, among Native American tribes.

6 The Red-Whiskered Devil

New York state had its own unique monster problems in 1891. Residents near Gravesend Beach claimed they saw a devil of sorts and described it as a “monster all covered with hair, with flailing red whiskers and a Satanic howl.”^[5] People were frightened out of their wits, and it was reported that women and men were staying indoors instead of venturing out at night.

Unionville was also being terrorized by the Red-Whiskered Devil. One night, a train dispatcher saw the strange creature, and, he said, it “gave a roar like thunder, grinned in a most ghastly manner and then started off.” The train dispatcher said that since he did not believe in ghosts, he decided to chase after it. Holding a monkey wrench, the man followed the creature for 3.2 kilometers (2 mi). Then it disappeared right in front of him so suddenly that the man gasped in fear.

Afterward, numerous people came forward to say they had seen the creature. While the witnesses were described as intelligent, one newspaper report ventured to say that the creature was more than likely a man dressed in a bear suit, scaring residents for his own personal thrill.

5 Half-Man And Half-Dog

There was something rather alarming running around Virginia. In 1882, it was reported that a large number of people had spotted a half-man, half-beast creature in the Petersburg area. People were so frightened that they were requesting police escorts whenever they had to travel the neighborhood at night.

Three years later and over 160 kilometers (100 mi) away, the people of Lynchburg, Virginia, had similar sightings. In this case, the monster was described as being half-man and half-dog. It was spotted chasing after children, who believed that the monster was out to eat them.^[6]

In both of these cases, newspaper reports touted that the stories of the dog-man were told by superstitious, uneducated people. No other theories were given as to what the creature or creatures could have been. However, dog-man sightings continue today in the state of Virginia.

4 Idaho’s Hair-Covered Man

It was a cold winter in Chesterfield, Idaho, in 1902. The young adults, eager to socialize and spend time outdoors, went to the local river and put on their skates.

As they skated across the river ice and gossiped, a strange figure appeared. It was 2.4 meters (8 ft) tall, covered in hair, and carrying a club. The man-like creature let out strange yells, and the young people made a mad scramble to their wagons. They escaped, unharmed.

After reaching their little town, they told their parents and neighbors what they had seen. It wasn’t long before the older adults returned to the scene. There, they discovered footprints that measured 56 centimeters (22 in) long and 18 centimeters (7 in) wide. The creature had only four toes on each foot.^[7]

As people began to talk among each other, they found out that similar prints had been discovered in the past, albeit further down the river.

Idaho Bigfoot sightings remain common to this very day.

3 It Turned Itself Inside Out

Something rather odd was plaguing the cattlemen of Bloody Basin, Arizona, back in 1913, and there were reports of men selling out, packing up, and leaving the area just to avoid whatever it was.

According to one witness, he and two other cowmen were crossing the hills when they saw a strange-looking creature ahead of them. The men were so frightened by it that they emptied their guns into the thing.

It was no use. According to the account, the beast was unharmed:

Quick as a flash it wriggled and one side actually went through the other. In other words, it turned wrong side out, reversed, revamped itself, reorganized, changed its general plan and specifications, so that the long legs moved over to the side just occupied by the short ones. Then, with a roar and a swish of the tail it fled back around the hill.^[8]

Arizona continues to offer up strange creature sightings, as well as UFO sightings and Bigfoot.

2 Pennsylvania Devil

A strange creature was seen in Springvale, Pennsylvania, back in 1910. Locals called it a devil, and it was likened to the Jersey Devil, which had been acting up in the Pine Barrens again.

William Smuck, a local of Springvale, saw the creature firsthand and said it sort of looked like a large dog, but it had hind legs shaped like those on a kangaroo. Other people who saw it likened its fur to porcupine quills, but no one was brave enough to stick around for a closer look whenever it showed itself.

After the creature had been accused of tearing apart a local dog, people were afraid to go out at night. When they had to venture out, they would do so in groups, and many people began carrying shotguns and rifles with them.

According to the locals, the devil creature was ferocious. It moved like a panther, was fast, and hunted among the local farms.^[9]

1 Dismal Swamp Monster

While people in other parts of the US dismissed Virginians as superstitious, the Virginians themselves were having a terrible beast problem back in 1902. This is not surprising, since 20 years prior to this latest incident, Virginians were having problems with a dog-man.

According to old newspaper reports, something came out of the Dismal Swamp area and began eating people’s dogs and livestock. The creature, said to have had eyes that glowed in the dark like phosphorous, was hunted down and supposedly killed.

Shortly afterward, however, another Dismal Swamp monster came out of the area to terrorize the neighborhood. A farmer witnessed the strange creature kill seven of his dogs, but when he went after it with a pistol, the creature attacked him and tore his clothing to shreds.^[10]

Another neighbor saw the creature. He described it as an animal that was larger than a wolf, “with shaggy, yellow hair, long head, and sunken eyes.” About two weeks later, it was reported that the creature had been killed again, but this time, it was described as being similar to a wolf but far larger.

Today, the Dismal Swamp area is often visited by thrill-seekers who want to catch sight of the ever-elusive Bigfoot that has been spotted in the area by numerous eyewitnesses.

Elizabeth is a full-time freelance writer and enjoys researching early American history. When she is not busy digging through newspaper archives, she is usually traveling to historical sites throughout the US.

Most UFO sightings are witnessed by only one person, which makes it harder to convince others that the sighting was not just a figment of someone’s imagination. However, some encounters take place in front of multiple witnesses—and this changes things entirely.

Even if these events are not alien in nature, the fact that so many people witnessed these incidents at the same time means that “something” took place. Perhaps more importantly, this suggests that these episodes are not purely the products of the imagination.

10 Lesser-Known UFO Crash Incidents

10 Hudson Valley Sightings
New York, Early 1980s

With Fourth of July celebrations fast approaching in late June 1983, part of the evening sky over New York’s Hudson Valley was awash with fireworks. This was the result of early Independence Day celebrators. Out of the mini explosions of color suddenly came a low humming sound that brought with it a huge disc-shaped craft “about the width of 16 or 17 houses!”

As it hovered over the witnesses, the strange humming ceased and the craft simply hung in the air in chilling silence. Several minutes after the UFO first appeared, the humming began again and the disc shot off at great speed.

This was just one of many UFO sightings in Hudson Valley in the early 1980s. But it was not the only one to have multiple witnesses to the event.

On March 24, 1983, there were so many reports of a sighting of a strange craft and weird lights in the sky of Yorktown that the town’s switchboard almost went into meltdown. That evening, the Taconic parkway became gridlocked with vehicles that had stopped suddenly. Their mesmerized drivers now stood beside their cars staring up at the assumed UFO passing over them.^[1]

9 Arthur Kill River Incident
New Jersey Turnpike, 2001

On the evening of July 14 and into the morning of July 15 in 2001, at least 15 people witnessed strange golden-orange lights over the Arthur Kill River at the New Jersey Turnpike. They appeared to be in a V-formation. However, it wasn’t clear from the many accounts if the lights were separate entities or if they belonged to one large V-shaped craft.

Others reported that the lights were in a more “scattered” formation and simply disappeared into the night sky one by one. Newark Airport was contacted, but they hadn’t detected anything abnormal on their radar. According to the National Weather Service, there was no unusual weather that evening, either.

Witness Veronica Bagley managed to capture the lights on video. Meanwhile, another witness, Patty Ercallino, stated that the whole incident was “very peaceful, very serene, and very beautiful.” She even believed that they had observed “some type of miracle!”^[2]

8 The Cosford Incident
Western England, 1993

According to UFO expert Nick Pope, over 100 people reported seeing a UFO on the evening of March 30 and into the early hours of March 31, 1993, over the west of England. What’s more, many observers were active police and military personnel. Pope worked on the case personally as was his remit during the time he spent with the British Ministry of Defense.

Most sightings described triangular craft that moved through the night sky at a blistering pace. One particular witness—a policeman—was with a group of scouts on the Quantock Hills in Somerset. They described the objects as “like two Concordes flying side by side and joined together!”^[3]

There were more reported sightings in Cornwall, Devon, and West Midlands as well as over two RAF bases in Shropshire—RAF Shawbury and RAF Cosford. Neither base managed to pick up the mysterious craft on radar. At the time, Pope described this in his report as being of “considerable defense significance” that should be investigated further.

7 Ellsworth Air Force Base Sighting
South Dakota, 1953

Numerous military personnel saw a UFO on the evening of August 5, 1953, near Ellsworth Air Force Base. There were also 45 concerned residents of nearby towns who witnessed the bizarre events.

The first sighting was reported just after 8:00 PM in the town of Blackhawk. Mrs. Kellian, a volunteer member of the Ground Observer Corp, had observed a strange glowing red light in the clear night sky.

As she was trained to do, she reported her sighting immediately. She was eventually put through to the on-duty radar operator at Ellsworth Air Force Base.^[4]

The craft was picked up on radar clearly heading toward the base. An F-84 jet fighter on patrol in the area was directed toward the object. As the F-84 got to within 5 kilometers (3 mi) of the disc-like craft, the UFO moved away fast.

Although the F-84 attempted to give chase, it was unable to match the UFO’s speed and returned to Ellsworth. A second F-84 made its way to the area. The pilot confirmed that he could visually see the object. Also unable to keep up with the UFO, the F-84 suffered strange malfunctions of his aircraft.

6 Exeter
New Hampshire, 1965

Norman Muscarello was hitchhiking home to Exeter, New Hampshire, in the early hours of September 3, 1965. Patiently making his way along Route 150 as he looked out for his next potential ride, Muscarello noticed a strange light in the dark early morning sky. Within seconds, the light was heading straight toward him.

Fearing that he would be struck by the strange craft, Muscarello flung himself to the ground on the roadside. However, at the last moment, the UFO changed direction. Muscarello got up and fled the area as quickly as he could.

Around an hour earlier a short distance away, Eugene Bertrand, an on-duty policeman, had come across a parked vehicle on the side of the road. Inside sat a woman who frantically informed Bertrand that she had been chased by a “flying object.”

However, Bertrand assured the woman that there was no cause for concern. Genuinely believing that the lady had been mistaken, he went on his way.^[5]

It was around 3:00 AM by the time Muscarello made his way to the Exeter Police Station. Shortly after, Bertrand returned and listened to the story himself. He then drove the young man back to Route 150 to investigate.

After parking on the same stretch of road, the two men soon spotted the strange craft. As it had done before, the object moved closer to the pair. Unnerved, the two men quickly made their way back to the police car. A short time later, calls about more sightings began to flood in.

10 Fascinating Early UFO Sightings

5 The Greifswald Lights
Germany, 1990

Strange spherical lights had been reported regularly from the coast along the Baltic Sea from the beginning of August 1990. By August 24, the lights appeared to have moved inland and were reported by residents of Greifswald, a coastal town in eastern Germany.

At first, the strange spheres hovered in the air almost motionless for around 30 minutes. Many witnesses managed to capture photographs and even video footage. The case is regarded as one of the best-documented UFO sightings.^[6]

It seemed to consist of two separate sets of lights. The first set formed a circle and remained largely still. When they did move, they moved as one. The second set of lights seemed to be in the shape of a Y. Of more import, they appeared to move freely of each other.

Neither the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON) nor mainstream scientists have been able to offer a solid or satisfactory explanation.

4 Fort Beaufort
South Africa, 1972

Bennie Smit believed without a doubt that he and his workers had witnessed a strange craft over his farm on June 26, 1972. However, he firmly believed that they had seen a top secret military craft and not visitors from another world.

Smit’s farm sat about 16 kilometers (10 mi) away from Fort Beaufort, a town in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. On that June morning, Smit found his workers cowering in a shed on the farm. They claimed that something strange was hovering above the trees in one of the fields.

Smit went to investigate and did indeed see a strange object. The farmer promptly fired at it with his .303 rifle. He maintained that his aim was correct and that he did hit the target. The bullets, however, had no effect.

Smit contacted the local police, who arrived just in time to see the craft landing on the ground. The UFO appeared to be the same shape as an oil drum, with three distinct “legs” underneath it.

One of the policemen, Sergeant Kitching, also fired his weapon at the craft. The UFO appeared to react to the discharge this time. The strange object began to change color from black to green. Then it turned yellow before finally becoming a pale white.

The witnesses heard a “whirring” sound before the craft took off from the field and vanished.^[7]

3 Sighting Over Houston Goes Viral Online
Houston, Texas, 2014

On August 11, 2014, hundreds of people in Houston saw a circle of lights in the evening sky. Pictures spread like wildfire over social media accounts. When video footage of the encounter was made available on the Internet, however, it became apparent that the lights were moving independently and were not a static circle.

Dr. Carolyn Sumners of the Houston Museum of Natural Science cautioned that no one should assume that the strange object was an alien visitor. With UFO sightings, she stated, we need to figure out what else it could be instead of aliens. However, no official explanation or theory has since been made available.

Witnesses to the event have their own theories about it. Not surprisingly, many believe that the lights were indeed extraterrestrial in origin. However, others think they saw a government drone or even the reflection of lights from a nearby football stadium.^[8]

2 Mass UFO Sighting During Baseball Game
Vancouver, Canada, 2013

During a minor league baseball game between the Vancouver Canadians and the Everett AquaSox in 2013, hundreds of people had their attention drawn away from the game as a strange object appeared over the field.

The UFO had a triangular shape with lights around its edges. Even the players seemed to notice the aerial anomaly. One spoke on social media after the contest about the “alien spaceship” that had been seen.^[9]

Many photographs and videos soon surfaced online, although no official explanation was initially offered. A local newspaper, however, speculated that the UFO could have been—and most likely was—a remote-control helicopter.

But the truth about this “UFO” was revealed just a couple of weeks later. The whole thing was a marketing ploy to publicize a new planetarium theater at the H.R. MacMillan Space Center in Vancouver.

Maybe that’s why Vancouver had more UFO sightings in 2013 than any other Canadian city.

1 The Trindade UFO Incident
1958

In October 1957, the Brazilian navy set up a scientific research base on the island of Trindade. By January 1958, they were witness to some of the most bizarre UFO sightings of the 20th century.

Upon establishing the base, personnel began to report strange silvery objects that seemed to be observing their actions. On the morning of New Year’s Day 1958, the entire garrison witnessed a strange light passing overhead. The following evening, a glowing object circled around one of the navy ships for 10 minutes. It executed sudden and precise turns as it did so.

On January 6, Commander Carlos A. Bacellar launched a weather balloon. However, he realized that the signals it should have been emitting had suddenly stopped. When he looked at the sky, he saw the balloon being “sucked up” into a cloud and disappearing.

Ten minutes later, it reappeared, only without its instruments. A little while later, a silver object exited the same cloud and calmly made its way from the scene.^[10]

On January 16, the entire crew of a navy ship off the coast of the island witnessed a strange bright object. It was making its way over the ship and toward the island. One observer managed to take several photographs of the airborne craft. Once the photographs had been developed, they were promptly released to the press.

10 Eerie Videos Of UFOs Captured On Live Television

About The Author: Marcus Lowth is a writer at Me Time For The Mind and Me Time For The Mind on Facebook.

The werewolf is one of the most iconic monsters of history, both fictional and historical. From the Legend of King Lycaon to the leading wolfman in, well, The Wolfman, the idea of a walking, upright half-wolf-half-man has invaded many a fantasy enthusiast’s imagination. One would be hard-pressed to call a werewolf a cryptid, though, and that is where our new friend, The Dogman, steps in.

Also referred to as “The Michigan Dogman,” “The Beast of Bray Road,” or simply as an “upright canid,” these de facto modern werewolves have been spotted from the start of the 20th century through to even this day. Most of the sightings, though, have taken place in the U.S. states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Here is a list of ten modern werewolf sightings in the areas around Lake Michigan, listed in order from earliest to latest. However, this list hardly scratches the flea-bitten surface of these mysterious canine encounters.

Related: Top 10 Cryptids You’ve Never Heard Of

10 1936: Racine, Wisconsin

One of the first Dogman sightings to take place around the Great Lakes took place in the Wisconsin city of Racine, right on the western coast of Lake Michigan and very near to the border of Illinois.

A man by the name of Mark Shackleman was working as a night watchman for the St. Coletta Convent in 1936. One night, during his rounds, Shackleman saw a canine-looking, black-furred, and carrion-smelling creature with what he described as long claws. The dogman was kneeling and scratching at an Indigenous people’s burial ground near the convent, but he fled as soon as Shackleman approached to investigate.

He returned the next day, only to find footprints and claw marks, although, apparently, two of the fingers seemed to be withered, from what the night watchman could tell from the markings.

Shackleman, scheduled to work two nights in a row, went back the next night, and once again, he witnessed the creature scratching at the mound. However, this time, the animal didn’t run away; it stood up, six feet tall, and made eye contact with Shackleman. And then it spoke.

It was only one word, though less of an actual word, and more of a name: “Gadarah.” The nightwatchman summoned up his courage and refused to run away. He simply maintained eye contact before praying to God, turning around, and walking slowly away. The dogman sneered at Mark, still staring menacingly, but didn’t move. Mark Shackleman never saw the creature again, though he did often smell the dead meat scent.^[1]

9 1938: Paris, Michigan

Our next story takes us to Michigan and the domain of the Michigan Dogman. Though most pre-1987 sightings of the Dogman are showcased in Steve Cook’s April Fool’s Day song, “The Legend,” the story of Robert Fortney is one of the first to take place that doesn’t show up in the music. This is important to bring up because most of the werewolf encounters in Steve Cook’s piece are fictionalized, with Cook believing that he made the legend up. However, this story proves that The Dogman has actually, truly been around before his song was published in the late 1980s.

Robert Fortney was fishing one summer day on the Muskegon River, closest to the town of Paris, Michigan. The year was 1938, and Fortney was 17 years old. Suddenly, Fortney was attacked by a pack of wild dogs—six, as far as Fortney could count. The teenager was lucky to have his rifle handy. Before any of the dogs could lunge, he fired one warning shot into the air. After that, all of the dogs scattered, save for one.

This black-fur canine proved to be no ordinary dog, however, and as soon as the shot rang out, it proceeded to stare into Fortney’s eyes with his own piercing blue gaze from a distance of ten feet. Then, it started grinning. Not succumbing to fear, Robert Fortney fired one more warning shot, this time causing the maybe-werewolf to run off. However, instead of skedaddling on all fours, this would-be werewolf stood up to around six feet tall before running away on two legs.

Fortney would be one of the many callers that Steve Cook would receive in 1987, after putting his song, “The Legend,” on the radio. The creature that Cook made up as a prank turned out to be very, very real to the long-time Michigan native, Robert Fortney.^[2]

8 1961: Big Rapids, Michigan

This next story is one of the rare encounters in which someone allegedly captured a photograph of this upright canid cryptid.

It was the year 1961, though the anonymous narrator fails to specify which month it is. It was around three in the morning in the Michigan town of Big Rapids, where the unknown source was up late at night at his home. He lived right across from the manufacturing plant that he worked at as a night watchman. The plant sat right next to the Haymarsh State Game area, and this is where the source claims to have seen someone, or something, making noise by the chain-link fence bordering the property.

Thinking it was an intruder, the narrator goes from his work to his house to grab a gun, but when he returns outside, he instead sees a six-foot-tall, greyish/brownish upright canid shambling about in his driveway. Thinking quickly on his feet, the anonymous source rushes into his house to try and grab his camera instead.

When he returned outside, the dogman was already out of his driveway and further into the dark street. However, at one point, the creature did move near a streetlight, where the anonymous source was able to snap one of maybe four or five alleged pictures of the Michigan Dogman before it ran off into the night.^[3]

7 1988: Alto and Lowell, Michigan

This story is remarkable in as much as it details a man who claims that a dogman has followed him since he was young, with two separate encounters spanning twenty years apart.

The first one takes place in 1988, in Alto, Michigan, just southeast of the city of Grand Rapids. The anonymous source, in elementary school at the time, was playing during recess, around ten in the morning. He decided to run out into the woods adjacent to the elementary school playground to hide (and also cheat) at the game of War. He made his way to a river by some train tracks when he heard a huge splash and witnessed a dark-furred dogman bolt into the woods, switching between two and four legs to run before disappearing.

At this point, the narrator ran straight home to his bed, keeping silent about his sighting until adulthood. He described it as 8-ish feet tall, 300 pounds, blue-eyed this time, and seeming almost like a timber wolf, but upright and with longer legs.

The second sighting took place in the nearby town of Lowell in the winter of 2008. The anonymous man now has a family, all sleeping soundly, when he heard a thud on the roof. His canine-related childhood memories immediately flooded back without prompting.

He quietly snuck outside, and that was when the very same blue-eyed dogman poked his head out from the top of the roof, staring directly at him. Then, the dogman leaped thirty feet from the roof and bolted on all fours to the tree line, only to stand up and stare at the anonymous man for a full minute. He fully ran at the dogman with a machete that he had brought with him. The dogman just stared at him, almost grinning now before uttering a single, audible “Don’t.” The man stopped dead in his tracks and was overwhelmed by a supreme, weird sense of calm. He dropped his machete and backed away slowly, and the dogman turned and walked calmly into the woods, disappearing.^[4]

6 1989: Elkhorn, Wisconsin

Bray Road is a modest stretch of road running east from the modest Wisconsin town of Elkhorn. It is also the particular stretch of road in which the Beast of Bray Road gets his name, though a sighting in 1989 would be the first in this beastly cryptid’s illustrious career.

It is a brisk fall night, around 1:30 am. All is dark and quiet on the backcountry Bray Road, connecting Highway 11 and County Road NN. Lori Endrizzi is driving home from her job as a manager of an Elkhorn lodge, and that’s when she sees it. At the side of the road, a dark-brownish-grey figure is kneeling with its back turned to her, short pointed ears being the only real thing to stand out.

As Endrizzi drove closer, it turned, showing off its strangely canine face. “Its elbows were up, and its claws were facing out, so I knew it had claws,” claims Endrizzi. “I remember the long claws.” Those claws seemed to be holding roadkill, and its eyes reflected the glow of her headlights. It appeared to be five-foot-seven and 150 pounds, from what she could tell at a fleeting glance.

However, unlike most wild animals, this canine creature didn’t run off but instead gazed directly into her eyes. Endrizzi drove off. She felt as if it were so like a human that there could be no trace of a wild animal being felt in those eyes. “To this day, I believe it was satanic,” she says, “It was just my feeling. I don’t really believe in werewolves, per se, but I believe something could be conjured up. My grandmother was very religious, and she believed it too.”

At some point later, Lori Endrizzi went to report her story to the Walworth County Animal Control, and hers would be one of the first to enter into animal control officer Jon Fredrikson’s manila envelope labeled “Werewolf,” and where the first of many sightings of the Beast of Bray Road would first be collected.^[5]

5 1991: Elkhorn, Wisconsin

The second story to enter into Jon Fredrikson’s report, however, wouldn’t take place until two years later. Though, it would happen on the exact same stretch of road where Lori Endrizzi saw her furred fiend.

Pat Lester, Lori Endrizzi’s mother, was a part-time school bus driver, and in 1991, she would actually have a student on her bus with a report of a walking dogman, except to further add to the legend of the Bray Road Beast, this one took place on Halloween night.

Doris Gipson was driving to a friend’s house to pick up another friend from a party when she hit something on the thoroughly foggy stretch of Bray Road, causing her front tires to lift off the ground. She got out of her car to investigate, thinking she had hit a small animal, but found signs of neither animal nor injury, so she made her way back to her car.

That was when it lunged at her through the fog; brown, straight fur, a canine face, a muscular frame, and striding on two legs. Gipson quickly bolted to her car door, not particularly in the mood to get a closer look. “I just put my foot on the gas pedal, and I started going.” However, as soon as she tried to pull out of there, the upright canid tried holding onto the rear bumper of the car to prevent it from getting away. It is claimed that deep scratch marks were etched into the car’s rear the next day.

This is not where the story ends, though. On the way back that night, Gipson’s new passenger and friend shouted, “Look at that thing!” The two of them saw the same muscular werewolf-esque being, and Gipson took roughly 0 seconds before deciding to put the pedal to the floor and get out of there.^[6]

4 2006: Fitchburg, Wisconsin

One of the suburbs of Madison, Wisconsin’s capital, is Fitchburg, which lies to the southwest of the city. And it is in Fitchburg that this next 2006 encounter of a potential dogman takes place.

It is a cool night in fall, September to be exact, at around 2:00 am in the morning. A Minnesota college student named Matt was up late, working on his homework, when he heard strange, popping sounds, almost like bubble wrap being played with, coming from the walls. Then, all of a sudden, thousands upon thousands of birds were startled and flew off loudly, an odd thing for the middle of the night, and that was when he felt it—the tremors of a minor earthquake.

This answered all of the questions for Matt regarding the weirdness, so he went back to his work. That was when another sound pierced through the air, almost seeming to ring across the whole neighborhood: a blood-curdling, almost murder victim-like scream. Worried about potential harm stemming from the earthquake, Matt rushed outside. The screaming continued as he ran out into the street, and just as a car approached, shining its headlights, Matt saw something unusual in the glow of the car—a humanoid creature with a wolf-like head.

The screaming stopped, and the canine cryptid ran off as soon as the car approached, making it hard for Matt to parse out too many details. The car then stopped behind Matt, turning out to be a police officer, who proceeded to ask the college student, “Are you the one who called?” Apparently, though, the officer wasn’t checking up on any screaming, only on concerns coming from the earthquake itself. Still, after the officer left to investigate the neighborhood further, Matt would hear the same noise intermittently throughout the rest of the night, and indeed, a handful of nights afterward as well.^[7]

3 2007: Reed City, Michigan

This story takes place in the north-Michigan town of Reed City in November 2007. A man named Sam and his two friends were out hunting, each positioned in their own stand until 4:30 pm rolled around, and the sun started to set.

That was when the sounds of birds and insects completely stopped. A silence hung in the air for a minute but was broken by three deer running right past Sam in his stand, followed by a foul scent similar to a mothball. That was when it appeared; a hulking, hunched over, yellow-eyed, two-legged cryptid, breaking from the bushes to pursue the deer. Perturbed, Sam stayed put until his friends arrived, though they proceeded to make fun of him. Despite that, the three started to head home, opting to return the next day.

The day would prove to remain objectively calm until around 5 pm, when Sam heard shots being fired from about 100 feet away, followed by screaming from his walkie-talkie. His friend, panicked, described the exact same dogman that Sam had seen, though thankfully, it ran away this time as well. Either they lacked foresight or were sufficient in courage because they decided to hunt for two more days.

The third day of hunting was completely quiet in terms of dogman-related matters, but the fourth day proved that this canine cryptid was still on the prowl. This time, the pseudo-werewolf didn’t even wait until noon before he ran into a well-lit clearing, right in front of two of the three hunters. He stared at them directly and started grinning. Sam’s friend aimed a gun at the canid, and it ran off immediately, making a growling, hissing noise. About an hour later, the third friend radioed in, and said “Um, you guys, are you in a werewolf suit at my blind? Because it’s not funny.” Before Sam could answer, he heard five distinct shots ring out in the distance.

The third friend was safe, but Sam reported that he had deep, distinct claw marks in the butt of his rifle. When they returned to their cabin later, the trio saw the snowy ground riddled with large canine footprints and the very same claw marks embedded in the front door of the cabin.^[8]

2 2009: Shelby, Michigan

This story takes place in the heart of the frigid, Michigan winter. On a cold right, thirty minutes to midnight, retired law enforcement officer Laura Love was riding shotgun with a friend of hers who, for the sake of this story, wished to remain anonymous, only being referred to as “C.” The two were heading north on US-31, near the West Weber Road overpass, when they had got a look at something lycanthropic on the cold, moderately snowy road.

“We saw a large, tall, dark, and oddly shaped creature run out from the left side of the overpass…” claimed Love, “and hit the rear quarter panel of the small truck in front of us, causing the truck to fish-tail.” The other truck didn’t even stop to check for damage; it just sped off. However, Love and her compatriot were able to get a look at the lunar-lit lupine.

She describes it as an almost seven-and-a-half feet tall, dark-furred, bipedal figure, with backward-looking knees and nearly a lion mane’s worth of fur sitting on its neck like a fancy fur collar from the twenties. She also claimed that the dogman had a face like a border collie.

The creature didn’t stop to put on any further show for its audience of two; it ran off, disappearing into a patch of weeds and trees. Love and C drove home silently, stunned, and didn’t discuss their encounter until they were in the safety of Love’s home. Only then were the two able to admit to each other that both had, indeed, seen the Michigan Dogman.^[9]

1 2016: Duluth, Minnesota

Though barely outside the border of Wisconsin, the city of Duluth can be found in Minnesota, right at the westernmost point of Lake Superior. This report, taking place on November 7, 2016, comes from a graphic designer, though she wishes to keep her name anonymous. That being said, having skills in the arts did let her sketch up a pretty good drawing of what she saw.

It was a cold night on Maple Grove Road, a stretch of road that sits right at the border of residential Duluth and the more rural area to the northwest of town. The anonymous source witnessed an upright cryptid running from the edge of where the lampposts of the residential area are able to illuminate before dashing into a field with a very old barn. She described the creature as probably being seven feet tall if it were not running on all fours with an extremely hunched back. It had a wolfish face with a long snout and short, pointed ears, and it moved stiffly and awkwardly as if it were walking on its haunches like a gorilla.

The graphic designer was frozen for a second, watching the dogman move, until she saw a passing pair of headlights illuminate behind it, bringing into focus the creature’s silhouette much, much more clearly. She panicked and drove to a well-lit gas station, where she waited for her husband to come home, and she described an overwhelming, almost supernatural fear weighing down on her “like a thick sludge.”

The story doesn’t end there, though. As soon as the anonymous reporter told her family about the brief encounter, her sister confessed to having seen the same hunched wolf-like being years back, standing at the edge of her property and ominously staring into her house with piercing red eyes.^[10]