Michigan Dogman Sightings — Wexford County, Michigan (1887–present)

The Michigan Dogman is a cryptid described as a seven-foot-tall, bipedal, canine creature first reportedly sighted in 1887 in Wexford County, Michigan. According to the earliest account, two lumberjacks working in the forests near the town of Paris encountered a creature they described as having the body of a man but the head of a dog. The creature stood on its hind legs, snarled at the men, and retreated into the forest. Reports of a similar creature have surfaced from across northwestern and central Michigan in the decades since, with a notable concentration in Manistee, Wexford, and Luther counties. Witnesses consistently describe a large, muscular, canine creature capable of bipedal locomotion — walking or running on two legs — with a dog-like or wolf-like head, pointed ears, and glowing amber eyes. The creature is typically sighted at night, often near rural roads, forested areas, and farmland. In 1987, exactly one hundred years after the first reported sighting, a disc jockey named Steve Cook at WTCM-FM in Traverse City recorded a song called 'The Legend' about the Dogman as an April Fool's joke. The song, set to a haunting melody, described the creature's alleged history and included a pattern of sightings occurring in years ending in seven. The song went viral — in pre-internet terms — generating thousands of calls to the station from listeners who claimed to have had their own encounters with a similar creature.