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Great Lakes author discovers Michigan Dogman
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Photo courtesy Thomas Roche Creative Commons Commercial license @ flickr.com
When Linda S. Godfrey first heard reports of a wolflike creature that stood on its hind legs like a man and roamed the wilderness areas around the Great Lakes, she took them with a grain of salt.
As a person who writes books about cryptids for a living, Godfrey was used to readers contacting her with weird reports.
'Cryptids' are legendary creatures like the Loch Ness Monster, Bigfoot, and Ogo Pogo, that are widely believed to exist but for which no scientific support has yet been found.
Cryptid creatures usually exist in legend and myth and are also widely reported in actual sightings, leaving doubt as to whether they are supernatural or natural creatures, or whether they are just plain hokum and fraud pumped up to sell books. Researchers who specialize in the study of cryptids are called cryptozoologists.
At best, Godfrey hoped that a little research would show that reported sightings of the 'Michigan Dogman' were numerous enough to warrant a publishable book. She didn't set out to prove or disprove them, just to investigate enough to decide whether she had enough material for another publication.
What Godfrey discovered was a long and well-documented history of Michigan Dogman sightings dating all the way back the earliest exploration of the Great Lakes territories by French traders during the 19th century. In the earliest recorded sightings, the man-wolf creature is referred to as the 'loup-garou', which is French for werewolf.
According to a legend that dates back to Indian tribes who lived in Canada and the Great Lakes area before the white man ever came to Michigan, the 'loup-garou' is a man who, under enchantment, is turned into an enraged animal at night who roams the Great Lakes wilderness. During the day he grows more and more sickly and afraid, while every night he grows more and more fierce. The only way to break the spell is for someone to recognize the loup-garou or Dogman as an enchanted human and draw blood while he is in Dogman form.
Once the spell has been broken, it must never be spoken of by either Dogman or rescuer.
Since hearing those first Michigan Dogman reports, Godfrey has published not one, but four best-selling books on the phenomenon: The Beast of Bray Road (2003), Hunting the American Werewolf (2006), Weird Michigan (2006), and Werewolves: Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena (with Rosemary Ellen Guiley, 2008). She maintains a website about the Dogman at www.beastofbrayroad.com where visitors can report new sightings and keep up on the latest news, and is regularly featured at www.weirdmichigan.com and www.weirdwriters.com.
For more information on the Michigan Dogman as well as links to books, tapes, movies, and other related items, visit www.michigan-dogman.com.
For more Michigan Dogman updates, check out Examiner's Seattle Washington paranormal Chris Herget.
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