The Dogman Files: Encounters from the American Wilderness

For over a century, witnesses across Michigan and Wisconsin have described the same impossible figure – upright, wolf-headed, and aware of being watched. Some walked away with scars, others with a story they were afraid to tell for decades.EPISODE BLOG PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/dogmanREAD or DOWNLOAD the full transcript of this episode: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckpcp8sFEATURED STORIES IN THIS EPISODE: Across Michigan and Wisconsin, encounters with an upright, wolf-headed figure span more than a century – from nineteenth-century logging camps to farm roads, deer stands, and suburban backyards. Witnesses describe a creature with human-like hands, glowing eyes, and an unsettling awareness of being watched, several of them staying silent about what they saw for years rather than risk being disbelieved. Hunters, drivers, and at least one retired sheriff's deputy all report the same detail – something that watches back, and in more than one account, something that speaks.CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…00:00:00.000 = The Foreboding00:06:13.435 = Show Open00:08:57.805 = Part One00:18:33.555 = Part Two ***00:46:24.349 = Part Three ***01:00:02.576 = Part Four ***01:14:17.255 = Part Five ***01:27:28.423 = Part Six ***01:34:00.844 = Part Seven ***01:46:18.276 = Show Close01:47:34.794 = SONG: “Dogman of Silver Creek” by Dark Weirdness*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad breakLISTEN ON PODCAST APPS: Look for this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, iHeart Radio, Amazon Music, Pandora, TuneIn Radio, and other podcast apps. Get a list of free listening apps here: https://weirddarkness.com/wdapps*No AI Voices Are Used In The Narration Of This Podcast*SOURCES and RESOURCES:PHOTO: 1961 photo of Dogman (at Strangeology.com): https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/muajp2myBOOK: “The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin’s Werewolf” by Linda Godfrey: https://amzn.to/43xNkroThe InBetween with Carol Ann (YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@TheInBetweenTalesMichigansThumb.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p98vf2cTetZoo.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/4maj49wkHangar1Publishing.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yc29e65aMythFolks.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8wdd24DiscoveryUK.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p88uxkjCreepyEncounters.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/yckncywhListVerse.com: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/mtybyttw(Over time links may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2026, Weird Darkness.Originally aired: March 22, 2025Weird Darkness devotes a full episode to the Dogman, the upright, wolf-headed cryptid reported across Michigan and Wisconsin for more than a century, moving through firsthand encounters, a claimed government cover-up, a witnessed fight between a Dogman and two Sasquatch, and a side-by-side comparison of Dogman folklore against traditional werewolf mythology.It opens with the creature's documented history, tracing the first alleged sighting to 1887, when a group of lumberjacks in Wexford County, Michigan described a being with the body of a man and the head of a dog during the state's great logging era. Similar reports followed in Allegan County in the 1950s and in Cross Village, Big Rapids, and Manistee County during the 1960s, while Elkhorn, Wisconsin became the center of activity in the early 1990s. The segment also catalogs standalone incidents tied to the legend: four horses found dead with their eyes open in 1917, seven-foot-four claw marks reported on a church door in 1957, a farmer found dead at his plow surrounded by oversized canine tracks in 1997, a 2006 backyard sighting in Shelby Township, Michigan, and an army veteran's account of a wolf-headed creature pacing his truck through Manistee National Forest. Odawa oral tradition describing a two-legged, wolf-like being near Lake Michigan predates all of it, and the episode raises the theory that Dogman sightings cluster in years ending in seven.From there, the episode turns to the case that gave the cryptid one of its best-known names: the Beast of Bray Road. Lori Endrizzi's fall 1989 sighting on Bray Road outside Elkhorn, Wisconsin, first documented by researcher Linda Godfrey in the 2003 book "The Beast of Bray Road," describes a kneeling, brownish-gray figure with long claws that turned to meet her headlights. Two years later, on Halloween night 1991, Doris Gip