Michigan Cryptozoology

(and The Great Lakes Area)

Ada Witch

´ Classic “lady in white” haunting –

a woman that is dead, but
doesn’t realize it
´ A woman was killed by her
husband after he discovered she
was having an affair
´ Hunters and people visiting the
area have witnessed her, felt
someone tap their shoulders
Shadow People/Creatures

´ Humanoid being
´ Sometimes seen with
glowing eyes
´ Up to 8.5 feet tall
´ Witnesses say there are two
types:
´ Large & aggressive
´ Small & shy
´ Can disappear as quickly as
a shadow
Dewey Lake Monster

´ Bigfoot like creature

´ 10 feet tall
´ Around 500 pounds
´ Aka “Sister Lakes Sasquatch”
´ Lives around the area of Dewey Lake in
Dowagiac, Michigan
´ Caused a mass monster hunt in the 1960s
because there were so many eyewitness
accounts
Dogman

´ First witnessed in 1887 in Wexford, Michigan

´ Seven foot tall
´ Bi-pedal canine type animal with the torso of a man (like
some depictions of werewolves)
´ A howl that sounds like a scream
´ Seems to only appear on years that end in the number “7”
´ Gained popularity when a song was written about it in 1987
´ The guy that wrote the song wrote it as an April Fool’s joke
´ Then witness accounts started pouring in
´ A movie was made in 2011 that debuted at the Traverse City
Film Festival, titled Dogman
Maymaygwashi
´ Native American creature stories
´ Literal translations = “little
people”
´ Small water spirits/creatures that
live by riverbanks
´ Usually benign, but can play
tricks when not shown respect
´ Child size
´ Covered in hair
´ High pitched voices that sound
like dragon flies flying
Melon Heads of
Allegan County
´ Small humanoids with very large heads
´ Witnessed in a few other states, but the
Michigan dwelling melon heads seem to
be around Felt Mansion and the forests
of Ottawa County
´ 1. they were originally children
with hydrocephalus who lived at the
Junction Insane Asylum near Felt
Mansion. The story explains that, after
enduring physical and emotional abuse,
they became feral and were released
into the forests surrounding the asylum.
´ 2. The children once lived in the mansion
itself but later retreated to a system of
caverns.
Mishipeshu

´ Ojibway
´ “The Great Lynx” or underwater panther
´ Water monster
´ Head and tail of a giant cat
´ Horns like a deer or bison
´ Covered in scales
´ Dagger like spikes running down its back and tail
´ Copper color
´ Michipocoten Island in Lake Superior is supposedly it’s
home and can be found in the deepest parts of the
Great Lakes – the closest to us
Nain Rouge or
Pukwudgies
´ French for “Red Dwarf”
´ Aka demon of the straits
´ Type of hobgoblin that is bad
luck
´ Lives in the forests of Michigan,
mostly around the Detroit area
´ Detroit hosts a festival every
year called Marche du Nain
Rouge
Omer Witchy Wolves

´Half dog / half wolf

´Protects the graves of native
American warriors – will attack
anyone that disturbs the graves
Paulding Light

´ Light orb that appears in

the sky above Paulding,
MI
´ Always appears in the
same exact location
´ In 2010 Michigan Tech
students investigated the
lights and found that it
was an optical illusion of
reflected headlights,
which they recreated
using scientific equipment
on highway 45
 Pressie
´ Lives in Lake Superior
´ Like Nessie – either a giant
sea serpent or like a
dinosaur
´ Name comes from the first
sighting near the Presque
Isle River
´ Witnessed in the 1990s at
Point Iroquois, dragging a
buck into the water
´ Lake Superior is so large that
not all of it can be scanned
or searched to prove or
disprove lake monsters
´ All of the great lakes have
stories of the same type
Wendigo
´ Stories originate in Algonquin tribes
´ Sometimes a creature in their own right, sometimes a human that
was corrupted.
´ “The Wendigo was gaunt to the point of emaciation, its
desiccated skin pulled tightly over its bones. With its bones pushing
out against its skin, its complexion the ash-gray of death, and its
eyes pushed back deep into their sockets, the Wendigo looked like
a gaunt skeleton recently disinterred from the grave. What lips it
had were tattered and bloody ... Unclean and suffering from
suppuration of the flesh, the Wendigo gave off a strange and eerie
odor of decay and decomposition, of death and corruption.”
´ Cannibals
´ Eat and eat and eat, but always starving
´ Contagious – if bitten by one and survive, then you will turn into
one
´ The most popular in modern pop culture – Supernatural, Grimm,
Pet Semetary, Charmed, Teen Wolf, Etc.