The document provides an overview of mysterious phenomena reported in the state of Michigan, including water creatures in the Great Lakes like Pressie the Lake Superior water serpent and Native American legends of mermen. It also discusses strange lights seen in Paulding, Michigan and the cryptid known as the Michigan Dogman, described as a large, wolf-like creature that can stand on two legs.

1. July 20, 2020
Mysterious Michigan – Water Creatures, Lights and
the Dogman
theweeklyrambler.com/mysterious-michigan-water-creatures-lights-and-the-dogman/
Featured Photo: Source.
Michigan is a US state found in the Midwestern and Great Lakes Regions of the United
States. The state is split into two peninsulas with them separated by the Straits of
Mackinac (between Lake Huron and Michigan) but connected by the Mackinac Bridge.
The smaller peninsula (Upper Peninsula) is bordered with the US state of Wisconsin
and is separated from the US state of Minnesota by Lake Superior and from Canada by
a number of lakes including Lake Superior. The larger peninsula (Lower Peninsula) is
bordered with the US states of Indiana and Ohio and separated from the US states of
Minnesota and Illinois by Lake Michigan and from Canada by Lake Huron, St. Clair
River and Lake and the Detroit River and finally from this larger peninsula Lake Erie
gives access to the US states of Pennsylvania and New York and through the Niagara
River to Lake Ontario giving more access to New York and Canada. Michigan also has a
number of small islands in the Great Lakes. The state capital is Lansing and the largest
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2. city is Detroit.
The Upper Peninsula is heavily forested with a number of streams that flow into the
Great Lakes and has a lesser population than the Lower Peninsula and the West of the
Upper Peninsula is also quite rugged and mountainous. The Lower Peninsula
is flatter with some hills found here and about but not as concentrated as in the West of
the Upper Peninsula, the North of the Lower Peninsula is more sparsely populated and
more densely forested than the South which is largely urbanized and farmland.
Michigan has a very diverse economy but many still know it for its automotive industry,
with it being home to three large automobile companies. The Upper Peninsula is
important for its ability to attract tourism to its natural landscape while the Lower
Peninsula’s economy is driven by manufacturing, forestry, agriculture, services and the
high-tech industry.
Lake Superior is said to have a number of water serpents and there are legends of mythical
creatures associated with it, Pressie is one of them. (Photo in Public Domain).
Now let’s us get on to the strange and the unexplained of Michigan. With all these large
great lakes about the place I wonder if it has any sea serpents? I guess we shall have to
wait and see as we get into the list…
Well in matter of fact you won’t be surprised to know that there are a number of water-
based legends and cryptids in the state of Michigan, some of them coming from Native
American legend and others just spawning from general accounts of what some person
happened to witness on one particular time or other.
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3. Nevertheless, I am going to look into two of these water-based legends, one is called
Pressie which appears to be Michigan’s most well-known water serpent and the legend
of merman in the state as well coming from Native American legend.
First up we’ll start with Pressie, a water serpent said to be found in Lake Superior. The
water serpent is said to have a tail that looks like a whale fin and the head of a horse,
described or estimated at 75ft in length, visible teeth and a long neck and possibly
pectoral fins. The description sounds like that of a typical sea serpent, especially the fins
and the long neck and the horse head descriptions also isn’t uncommon. Sightings go
back as far as the late 1800s, including a man who fell overboard from a boat and
claimed to have been attacked by it, claiming it attempted to constrict around the man,
a move reminiscent of a snake, which some skeptics have claimed it could be.
There was also a photo in 1977 supposedly of the Lake Monster near to the mouth of the
Presque Isle River, which is a river found in the Upper Peninsula that drains into Lake
Superior, running through the Ottawa National Forest and the Porcupine Mountains
Wilderness State Park. Like many supposed photos of cryptids it isn’t clear, you can see
something dark sticking out of the water with the light appearing to reflect off it, with
the skin or object looking smooth and slick like a large fish or water mammal. Apart
from that you can’t really tell much and it could easily be some kind of rock or litter,
among other explainable things such as simply a large fish.
Others continue to claim sightings of the cryptid on an infrequent basis.
Image by loulou Nash from Pixabay
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4. In Mississippi they had legends of mermaids but over in Michigan it is legends of the
opposite sex, the mermen, said by the Ojibwe Native American’s to be found living in
the cracks of banks and waterways along the shores of Lake Superior. The Ojibwe call
them Maymaygwashi and since it is a legend from them it goes far back even before the
1800s and some settlers who even accompanied the Ojibwa had claimed to witness
them as well.
They were described as looking youthful like children with their faces also sometimes
being covered with hair. One of the earliest accounts comes from a French-Canadian
fisherman and traveler called Venant St. Germaine in May 1782 when he was camping
on Pie Island along with three Ojibwe Indian companions. It was dusk when something
most strange took place, when a creature bobbed up above the water of Lake Superior in
the distance as they sat on the shore.
Germaine’s later description of the creature is that it had the upper body formed exactly
like a human, the size of a child about 7 or 8-years of age, with brilliant eyes and a dark
complexion but the lower part like a fish. For whatever reason Germaine decided to
attempt to shoot the creature dead but was tackled by one of his Ojibwe companions
and during the struggle the creature disappeared under water.
The Ojibwe believed the creatures to be gods and goddesses and to kill or harm one
would bring terrible misfortune in the turning of the weather, bringing terrible storms.
The legend goes on that for three days afterwards a massive storm with gale-force winds
which caused huge waves led to them being stranded on the island for a time.
Although this legend took place within Canada’s territory, it was still within Lake
Superior which is shared by both sides and as such I am giving it an exception.
I will also give an honourable mention to another Native American legendary
creature/evil spirit called the Mishipeshu, which is described as a water creature with
the head and paws of a wild cat, the antlers of a deer, a body of reptilian scales and
spikes protruding out along its spine as well as having a like snake-like tail.
It is said the creature is angered when copper deposits along Lake Superior
are disturbed and there are legends of boats being sunk by the creature and
boatmen/sailors killed in relation to this. It would appear that Lake Superior is a very
active lake indeed.
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5. The Paulding Light. Photo by Magnus Manske from Wikimedia. CC BY 3.0.Source.
Now let’s move away from the water and on to the land. We shall begin here with a
strange light that has been witnessed by many people but has remained not fully
explained. It is a totally real phenomenon that can be observed by anyone and so there
is clearly something causing it but what it is remains up for debate and that means
paranormal enthusiasts believe it to be a ghostly light, while others less commonly
claim that it’s aliens observing Earth, although why they would constantly be in the
same area seems absurd, unless there is something of great interest there, but I am
doubting it. Photos and video footage of the light can be easily found on the internet
and Youtube.
The light is found in a valley near to the small community of Paulding in Michigan’s
Upper Peninsula close to the border with Wisconsin. The light, which is quite bright, is
best seen during the night and an old local legend claims that it is the ghost of a railroad
brakeman killed on train tracks while holding his lantern. The legend claims there was
once railroad tracks, although there has been no historic proof of their ever being train
tracks in the area.
Other legends to explain the light include that it is the ghost of a Native American
dancing on the powerlines, the ghost of a mail courier killed in the area or the ghost of a
grandparent looking for a lost grandchild.
The first known sighting of the light was by a group of teenagers in 1966 who reported it
to the Sheriff, bringing the mystery to wider attention when whatever it was could not
be figured out. The light comes and goes but is said to appear almost every night. In
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6. 2010 a group of Michigan Tech students investigated the phenomena and concluded
that it was merely car headlights and taillights off in the distance coming from US
Highway 45.
Although investigators from the Fact & Faked: Paranormal Files attempted themselves
to prove that the phenomena were just car lights, but were unable to themselves. This
could either be due to the Michigan Tech students having more scientific experience or
that they were plain wrong.
Other suggested natural theories including something to do with geological activity
(there are the well-known, disputed and not fully understood Earthquake lights, which
could possibly be related) or that it is swamp gas.
Will o’ the Wisp folklore is another comparison or perhaps even what it is?! Probably
not though, but it is another thing that is interesting to read into. Swamp gas can
sometimes cause chemical reactions that may cause light, which some have put to
explaining the Will o’ the Wisp folklore, as well as an explanation for some UFOs.
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7. Image by Parker_West from Pixabay
To round this off we shall look at the Michigan Dogman, perhaps one of the most known
cryptids or paranormal beasts said to roam the state. It has been seen in numerous
different places across the state with no particular specific location, apart from it almost
always being seen out in the wilderness and sightings being more common in the north
of the Lower Peninsula, perhaps due to it being more forested than the south.
It is described as a large black canine with wolf-like features and is able to stand on two
legs, often reaching 6-7ft in height when doing this. The dogman is often described in a
way that shows it having an above average and perhaps sometimes even human-like
intelligence for a canine-type creature and can be harder to scare off. Sightings of the
creature go back as far as the late 1800s.
The first known documented sighting took place in 1887 within Wexford County where
two lumberjacks described seeing a creature with the body of a man and the head of a
dog. There is an alleged sighting in 1937 (appears to be conflicting years in some
publications, although since the legend is associated with the number 7, I am going with
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8. 1937) that sounds quite terrifying, taking place near Paris in Michigan, a man called
Robert Fortney claimed to be attacked by five wild dogs and upon shooting his weapon
four of the five ran off, except for a larger one which stood up on its hind legs, seemingly
unafraid of his gun, it took several more warning shots before the beast decided to
casually turn away and leave him alone.
The Michigan Dogman itself didn’t become popular until Steve Cook, a disc jockey for
WTCM-FM released a song about the Dogman in 1987, which sung about the various
sightings and was meant to be an April Fool’s dig, but the song became very popular
and also had numerous people coming forward about their own sightings, leading to the
Michigan Dogman entering into the states popular culture.
Part of the legend also includes that sightings only happen on years ending with 7
before the Dogman vanishes to return 10-years later on the next year ending with 7,
although there have been a number of sightings that have not followed this rule of the
legend.
The dogman itself isn’t entirely localized in Michigan, with reports of creatures
dubbed dogman having been seen across the United States, making it into its own
specific type of phenomenon, similar to how Bigfoot is, although clearly not as
popular.
Skeptics have often dubbed dogman sightings as merely misidentified animals such as
Black Bears (of which can sometimes stand up on to their hind legs for a short time,
although cannot walk in that state, like the Dogman apparently can) or wild cats such as
a Cougar, Lynx or Bobcat which live in the state.
So, there you have it, the strange and paranormal of the State of Michigan but nowhere
near all of it, the state certainly has a lot more but we shall come to that another time as
otherwise this post would become too long.
Next up we shall be doing the strange and the unexplained of the US state of Ohio.
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