Emerson
Appearances
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I tell my parents. I tell my younger siblings. And everyone is just kind of looking at me sideways. They can tell that I'm serious, and I don't lie about this kind of thing. I'm not prone to this type of thing. I don't know what to call it, but this sort of thing does not happen to me frequently anymore. Like, I don't even really have an interest in this, right? I didn't at this time.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So they don't really know what to do because, like, how would you react if someone says they saw a bipedal wolf? Like, what are you supposed to say? So, you know, I know how it sounds, and it's not like... It's not like most people are going to be like, oh, cool. You know, like, yeah, definitely. But I guess that my younger brother, Elijah, did believe me.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I didn't tell anyone about this story for a few years after this first day. Like, I just tried not to think about it. And then when I eventually had the confidence to be honest about it, yeah. My younger brother, Elijah, was like, oh yeah, I remember this. And I was like, okay, tell me what you remember.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And then I just zipped my lip because I wanted to make sure I hadn't confabulated anything or warped any details. And he, to my relief, he conveyed everything back to me as I remembered it. So I'm like, okay, I'm not changing any details here. So that was like seven or eight years later. But apparently, my younger brother Elijah believes me.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
But, you know, people react kind of like, I don't know, it's just what you're telling them is so abnormal, even if they trust you. And even if you're not prone to saying things like this or whatever, you're not like... You don't have any kind of reputation that would make people not believe you or something. They just didn't know how to react.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I mean, I wouldn't know how to react if someone said all this to me. She went home, like my girlfriend went back home. And, you know, we all just kind of went about our day and I did not go out into the woods for a long time.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I was always like kind of urging people to go out in the woods, like if they must go out in the woods and like, you know, bring other people with you and like bring a gun or something. Because at first, I mean, once I realized people were not, like it just made people feel uncomfortable when I told them what I saw. I at least just said, you know, I saw a wolf back there.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
My name is Emerson. I'm the oldest of four siblings. I'm about to be a dad. My wife is due any day now with her first. Actually, by the time this comes out, I might be a dad. So I'm excited about that. And I grew up in Michigan, spent most of my life in Michigan, just recently moved to Northern California. But yeah, this took place in Michigan.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And you should just be careful. I didn't set out looking for a cryptid, and I hadn't heard any of these stories. I didn't have any interest in cryptids or anything. I didn't know anyone had even claimed to see anything resembling what I'd seen. But I was in a public library in Ann Arbor, Michigan, And I was looking at a certain section that started with P as a philosophy major.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So I was looking at the philosophy section, and it was a very sad, small section. And right next to it was the paranormal section. So there were these two books that looked interesting. One was called Midwestern Strange by B.J. Hollers. And the other one was called I Know What I Saw by Linda Godfrey. So I didn't know what they were, but it looked kind of interesting.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So I opened them up and literally chapter one of the Hollers book is about the Beast of Bray Road or the Michigan Dogman. I don't know. I can't even convey how, like, my jaw was like literally on the floor. Like, I'm just blown away. Because like I said, I didn't know that anyone else had ever claimed to have seen anything like what I'd seen. And this is like years later.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So I just opened up this book. And then, you know, chapter one is about upright wolves. Like... People have seen in Michigan and in Wisconsin, like apparently sightings are concentrated in Michigan and Wisconsin, which is where I lived at the time.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So that was like incredibly vindicating, not just that other people had claimed to have seen something like what I'd seen, but like in the same area, like in the same part of the country. And that made me feel a lot more confident. Like, okay, there's like a rhyme and reason to the sightings. Like other people have seen the same thing that lends credibility that like, okay, this was not, you know,
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
some weird dream or something like, no, this actually happened. So Linda Godfrey, who's a wonderful lady, but she just recently passed away, but she was a reporter in Wisconsin. She sort of stumbled on this where there were lots of people in her area in Wisconsin who had seen upright wolves.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
She ended up compiling a bunch of these stories, and she became convinced pretty quickly that these people were sincere. It was just such a weird array of people who had all claimed to see something very similar, and it was even on the same stretch of road for a little while. That's why it's called the Beast of Bray Road in Wisconsin.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
But the lore is a little complicated because what people have definitely seen, like I said, is some kind of upright wolf-like thing. People have seen it chasing down deer and attacking them. They've seen it eating roadkill. They've seen it just running through a field. That's basically the core of it.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
But then there's all this other stuff that gets added that I don't really take that seriously, where it does sound a little more explicitly supernatural. Like there's this one detail that really annoys me. I don't even know where it comes from, but it's like, oh, the dog man only appears on years that end in seven. And that just sounds like, I don't know, very goofy to me.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
Okay. How old were you? I was 17. Seven, yeah. But they also say it smells a certain way and it has glowing eyes or something. So I don't know. I'm not really doubting what people are reporting, but it just seems like the more details you add like that... The more it seems like you're crossing some kind of line that goes beyond what everyone is saying they saw.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I grew up in a Christian environment and sort of reacted against that. My family's in ministry. A lot of it's in ministry. My uncle's a pastor. My grandpa's a pastor. My parents have both been in and out of part or full-time Christian ministry. And when I was in my later teens, I started reacting against that a little bit.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
Like I said, the essential core of it is just some kind of upright wolf-like thing that runs around. Sometimes you see it attacking things like deer. Sightings do date back in Michigan quite a ways, like back to the 1800s. But there is this one detail... with regard to the connection to Michigan that I find really annoying because a lot of people misunderstand where this comes from.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So there was a guy who wrote a song, like kind of a parody song that included something about the Dog Man. Like it was like a Halloween song. He was like a radio DJ or something. It was like 50 years ago. So he wrote like a funny song that said something about the Dog Man. And it was like, like I said, some kind of like Halloween themed song.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And a lot of people think that that's where it all comes from for some reason. Like, oh, well, there was this song and then people started saying, you know, oh, I, you know, like... I saw the dog man. So like all the lore just comes back to this song. This guy made a funny song and like now all these idiots think it's real.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And like what actually happened is that first of all, there are sightings that go back before that song. And second of all, when that song came out, there were people calling in and this guy was kind of flabbergasted because he was just like, he didn't think he was doing anything serious.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
But then there were all these people who called in like, you know, I actually did see that thing that you're talking about. And that's a phenomenon you see sometimes with these shows like Art Bell's show. I've just heard this randomly that he did like an episode about shadow people or something.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And then all of a sudden he was just like overwhelmed with calls with people who had like seen the thing that he was talking about. And like he's partly responsible for popularizing the phenomenon or at least raising awareness about it. But it's just kind of annoying because some people get the arrow of causation backwards there where they think,
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
oh you know a lot of people found out about the dog man through this song i guess that's where all the lore comes from and it's like no absolutely not like the song came out and then a lot more people had heard of it and a lot of people who had seen it said oh that's what i saw which is exactly what happened to me but sightings go back before that that song came out all right we'll be right back after this quick break
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
If you remember the New Atheist Movement, I was pretty into that sort of thing and pretty skeptical. And I guess it's kind of ironic because what happened to me that we're talking about today, that happened like right at the beginning of me becoming like a pretty hardcore skeptic for like, I don't know, five or six years or something like that. And this did not square well with the rest of it.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I honestly like tried not to think about it. told a couple people, did not exactly get, like, a warm reception, and then just kind of kept it to myself. But, yeah, I was pretty active in, like, the online skeptic community for a few years after this happened.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I'm surprised you haven't bumped into them a couple times, but it's just, like, a group of dorks on the internet who try to, like... Well, I mean, like, their purported goals, it's like, oh, we want to promote science and rationality, and we want to...
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
We want people to have beliefs that are based on the evidence, stuff that sounds really unobjectionable, but I just don't think they live up to their professed values. But anyway, they have a list of things that they don't like, that they think is, oh, no one should believe in cryptids or ghosts or anything religious or aliens.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
They just have this list of things they don't like, and then they attack constantly. And it's going to be hard for me not to go into ranting about them just because I was like a part of that group for several years and then just came to see how superficial their understanding of some of these things are. Like they don't seem to understand what people really believe or like why they believe it.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
But I ended up getting kind of pulled into their orbit for a few years and then, yeah, only recently kind of left that. So when this happened, I was 17. I was living in Michigan and still in high school. So my girlfriend and I, we'd been dating for about a year and a half. We were hanging out. We were trying to get away from people a little bit. So we were at my house.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
This is like a house that's set back in the woods a little bit, has a really long driveway. It's just surrounded by farmland and forest in pretty much every direction. And there's literally only like a few hundred people who live in this town. It's like super rural. So we're kind of on the outskirts of Bloomingdale. And yeah, we're just in the middle of nowhere. This was in the middle of the day.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So this is like broad daylight, like just right in the middle of the day, early afternoon. Yeah. And we just decided to go on a walk to get away from people. Like I said, I'm the oldest of four siblings. So I have these, you know, two younger brothers and younger sister that are around the house probably. And both my parents are there. So we probably just wanted to get away and get some privacy.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So we were going on a walk through the woods. So we left the house and then just started heading off into the woods in the, you know, right after, like in the early afternoon. So we took like a trail, you know, into the woods. It's like summertime. So, you know, like the leaves are green and everything. It's not like fall or winter.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
We started on the trail and then we kind of went off the trail like halfway through. So we're kind of in the middle of the woods, like just surrounded by trees. You know, there's not like a clear straight path anywhere. You know, we're still heading deeper into the woods. And then out of nowhere, there's just this wolf standing there, maybe like 30 or 40 feet away. Like it's pretty close.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And that's not like a common occurrence in Michigan. Like there are wolves in the upper peninsula of Michigan, but not so much in the lower peninsula. We're in like Southwest Michigan. So this is not like a normal thing that you run into in Michigan all the time. It's never happened to me before since. So all of a sudden there's just a wolf there, you know, like a kind of grayish looking wolf.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
It's obviously not a dog. It's like much bigger. And we were like far enough in the woods that that's like, it's pretty alarming to be like that far away. You can't just like dart back into the house or something like we were, you know. at least a few hundred yards into the woods, like thick, dense woods.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So it's like, it was just immediately pretty frightening because, I mean, apparently wolves don't really attack humans that often, but I didn't know that because it's just not a common occurrence. So all of a sudden this thing is just right in front of us, you know, maybe 40 feet away. And we were alarmed. So we turned around and started walking back, like trying to stay calm, but
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
you know, moving kind of briskly. Like we were trying to get back as soon as we could because we were, you know, pretty far out. Like we were both kind of panicking and we just said, okay, let's go back to the house. we're kind of like walking briskly back towards the house in the general direction. And the wolf kind of like kept pace with us.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
Like it obviously saw us and it was walking parallel to us. I was, this is so stupid, but I was thinking like, okay, don't act afraid. Like don't start running because then he'll respond to us and like charge at us or something.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
um so she was like walking in front of me and i was kind of to her right in between her and the wolf but like slightly behind her because there was no clear path that we were on at this point so we're kind of having to like weave between trees and stuff so she's kind of leading the way and um i'm kind of in between her and the wolf And she kept trying to go faster than I wanted her to go.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I'm like, no, no, no, stay calm. Like, just walk slowly. Like, don't make any sudden movements. But she was just too afraid. So she keeps, like, picking up the pace little by little. And I'm, like, trying to tell her to slow down. So she's freaking out, you know. Obviously, we're both very afraid because it just feels like we're cornered in a way.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
Like, it's a scary feeling, you know, to be out there kind of exposed. Like, there's no cover. There's nowhere you can dart off to, and this thing could just easily kill you if it wants to. It's faster than you, it's stronger than you, and you're just completely at its mercy. So the adrenaline was really pumping.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I'm trying to stay calm, at least, but she just keeps moving faster and faster, you know? I'm keeping an eye on the wolf and he's like off to my right. So I'm kind of like, you know, looking over at her and like kind of following her, like dodging and weaving through the trees. And I'm looking back over at him. And, you know, we keep moving progressively faster and faster.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And finally, the fear just got the better of us. And we're just like running at this point. So she's like a couple yards ahead of me, and I'm looking every other second, like alternating between, kind of weaving between trees and making sure that he's not coming towards us. Then something unusual happened. The wolf just stood up on its hind legs and kept running.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I was already afraid at that point. You know, we were thinking in the back of our minds like we might get mauled by a wolf or something. But that just like morphed into something greater at that point. And I just like couldn't look away. I was just transfixed on this, what looked like an upright wolf. It looks like it could easily be six feet tall or seven feet tall.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
It's standing really comfortably. I mean, it wasn't standing still. It was moving the whole time. It was moving along really quickly. It wasn't like unsure. You know, it moved really fast.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
ably on two legs i mean like it was trotting on four legs and then at some point it just kind of backed up it like reared up on its hind legs and it just didn't slow down at all it just kept propelling forward on two legs it just kept running in my memory it was holding its arms out in front of it like like an animal would or like a canine would it wasn't like pumping its arms like a like a man would
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
You know, it always looked like a wolf, but that detail about the arms has me questioning because I didn't... I didn't notice anything in particular about the way the arms were moving. But I do remember that when it was running, it was running very naturally. And any other video I've seen of like a dog kind of moving around shakily on two legs, you notice what its front legs are doing.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I don't remember what the wolf's front legs were doing, which kind of makes me question like... what exactly I saw at that point, because I just don't remember that detail. You know, it was like too far away for me to notice its eyes or its smell or anything like that. But it always looked like a wolf. At the time, it was just like such an adrenaline rush.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
It was the most terrifying thing I'd seen at that point in my life. So, I mean, I saw it. I was like transfixed looking at it for probably four or five seconds. I couldn't stop looking at it. I'm in danger of running into a tree, but I can't stop looking at it. Finally, I have to turn my head to make sure I'm not going to crash into a tree because we're still off the trail.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
We're just taking the shortest path back to the house. So we're just kind of cutting through the thick of the woods. So we're getting closer and closer to the house, and we're both just full-on sprinting at this point. I keep looking over my shoulder. It's still on two legs. I look in front of me, you know, make sure I'm not going to crash into anything. My girlfriend's still right in front of me.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I look back over and eventually as we got closer to the yard, like to the backyard, I kind of lost sight of it, but it didn't come closer to us. It looked like it kind of slowed down. And then when I looked back, it was gone. But it didn't seem like it was coming closer to us. It felt like it maybe peeled off in the other direction or it just kind of stopped running with us.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
By the time we burst into the yard, it seemed like it wasn't with us anymore. I feel like I need to acknowledge that it can sound kind of stupid. It's hard not to laugh sometimes when I'm like, yeah, I saw a wolf running around on two legs. But it's just in that context when you're already so afraid, you're already feeling kind of trapped and fearful for your life.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And then something starts moving in a very unnatural way. It just starts moving in a way it's just not supposed to move that way. I don't know. That was just absolutely terrifying. There was a whole higher threshold of fear that things got kicked into when it stood up. I was already afraid.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
um already like terrified and then it stands up and starts moving like that and i'm just like what the fuck like that it just seemed like like in the moment it feels like supernatural or something it just doesn't it seems like you're uh just entering some deeper circle of hell or something because at first i was just afraid of a you know of getting mauled by a wild animal or something and then it starts doing something it just should not be doing
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
So I was kind of in shock. I don't know how to convey it, but just the feeling in your arms and your legs, they're kind of shaky. But yeah, I was just very, very afraid and still kind of coming down from that. But as soon as we came into the yard, I was like, did you see that? And she was like, yeah, what do you mean? What were we just running for? I mean, if I remember right, she was shaking too.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
I mean, we were both... We were both pretty terrified for obvious reasons. But, you know, I could tell she didn't know what I meant. Like I said, did you see that? And she was, you know, kind of confused. Like, yeah, I saw that. We were just running from it. And I was like, no, no. Did you see it stand up? And she just looked at me kind of confused and then kind of smiled like maybe I'm kidding.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And I was like, that thing? And she's like, yeah. I'm like, the wolf, you saw that? And she's like, yes. And I was like, it stood up and kept running. And then she laughed at me. And then it was like, it was just crushing because I realized she'd been just ahead of me the entire time leading the way. Like she was the one kind of like dodging and weaving through the brush.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And then I was following her. I was the one kind of keeping an eye on the wolf. She only saw it for the first like, you know, 30 seconds that we were around it when it was just kind of standing there. So I just, I mean, I didn't know what to say. Like there was this kind of self-consciousness that
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
settled on me that i don't know like it felt i felt like inhibited um just as soon as i told her and i got that reaction from someone who'd been there with me you know but just hadn't been looking for the you know i mean i guess this whole thing it must have taken like as i'm watching it run that must have been like 20 seconds total you know like it actually was a really short window
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
And she just wasn't looking back when that happened. She was looking ahead. And just getting that reaction, just seeing the look on her face, it just really kind of closed me up. I just had that feeling for a long time afterwards. And especially if you're 17, any kind of social pressure, that can make you shut your mouth pretty easily.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
Like I said, at first she thought maybe I was messing with her or something. Um, but I was clearly like afraid and I was dead serious and she just didn't know what to make of it. Like, yeah, she just didn't know. I mean, cause she didn't have a category for this either.
Otherworld
Episode 113: The Michigan Dogman Pt. 1
It wasn't like this was an established cryptid or like, I mean, she didn't know any more than I did that like other people had claimed to see something like this. Um, so it just came totally out of left field as far as she was concerned. Um, and yeah, I don't know. She just didn't, she just didn't know how to react. So we burst into the house, and I'm immediately telling my family who's there.