Michigan is filled with folklore and urban legends of monsters, strange humanoid creatures and frightening encounters with cryptic creatures. Here are the 5 most fascinating.

The study of these mysterious creatures is known as cryptozoology. The most well known cyptids are Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster. And there are several around Michigan.

  • 5

    The Melon Heads of Allegan County

    Saugatuck

    Said the roam the woods around Saugatuck are very large headed humanoid creatures. The Melon heads are connected to the Felt Mansion, a building that dates back to 1928 and has been a seminary, a state police post then became a school on the grounds of the Saugatuck Dunes Correctional Facility. The mellon head people are said to have been treated at an alleged near-by asylum and escaped to make their home near the then-dilapidated mansion. The asylum was home to children born Hydrocephalus, a condition commonly known as 'water on the brain' which can cause mental disability.

  • 4

    Michigan Bigfoot

    Statewide

    Like many states with heavily wooded and mountainous areas, Bigfoot sightings are common throughout Michigan. A sighting occurred in southeastern Kalamazoo County between Climax and Fulton,

    I had just gotten out to bow hunt. I have lived in the area all my life and was hunting a large section of woods/swamp. There is a field towards the middle of this that had corn up. I climbed into a tree stand that some one had put up there that year. I did not know whose stand it was. After a bit the owner of the stand arrived. His son was with him. I apologized for being in his stand and he said not to worry, that he and his son where going to go into the wood a ways where he had a blind. They carried a large bucket of apples with them. Also to note I had never seen these two people in this woods before. Any how, they went back into the woods a ways, I could hear them quite clearly for it was dry and the leaves where down. There really was not any other sound going on except small critters, squirrels and the such. I guess they must have been tossing out there apples for they where loud when I looked up and saw what I assumed was another hunter at the edge of the field.

    OK description of field. It was not very big, may be 3 acres or a little more. I could see across it well. It was flat, and the corn had done good that year and was at a height of about 6 feet. At the south end of the field there was a drainage ditch that is about 8-10 feet deep. It runs East West the length of the field then turn North South and follow the other end. The side I was on, which was the North side, was backed by woods. This HUNTER proceeded to walk on the south side of the field. He was dark in color though the arms seemed to be a little lighter shade. I didn't think much of HIM until I began to ponder the fact that I could see half of ITS body. The arms swung in a long rhythmic way with the walk. It did not move fast and seemed to pay no attention my way nor did it seem to look back. I estimated it to be about 9 feet tall from where I sat. I watched it walk the whole length of the field where it stopped at the end and then dropped down in to one of the ditches. I then proceeded to get out of the tree and quickly walk home which was in the other direction. There was no sound nor did I go and check for tracks, though I wish now that I had. I have hunted this land all my life. The field has no high points on that side. There is no way that a human could stand above that corn...

  • 3

    Pressie, Lake Superior Serpent

    Porcupine Mountains Wilderness State Park, Ontonogon

    Like Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, Lake Superior's mysterious serpant has a name - Pressie. It's been sighted several times dating back to the 1800s. The best known and documented sighting was that of Randy Braun from 1977. That occurred along the shoreline of Lake Superior in the Porcupine Mountains near Ontonogon, one of the largest wilderness areas in the Midwest.

  • 2

    Dewey Lake Monster

    Sister Lakes

    The Dewey Lake Monster is a Bigfoot-like creature that has been sighted for many years around Dewey Lake, one of the Sister Lakes, a series of lakes scattered on the border of Cass and Van Buren Counties between Dowagiac and Benton Harbor in the Southwest corner of the state.

    The creature doesn't just inhabit the land around the lake but also on a long stretch of unpaved road, Dewey Lake Street which runs for many miles due east of Dewey Lake, and passes through a very rural, swampy and wooded area of Cass County.

    The summer of 1964 saw the peak of Dewey Lake Monster sightings, but stories of the creature have dated back to the first settlements in the area and continue until the present day.

    An active Facebook group is currently documenting sightings.

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  • 1

    Michigan Dogman

    Wexford County

    The best known Michigan cryptid is the Michigan Dogman. The half-man, half-canine was first spotted near Cadillac in Wexford County in the northern Lower Peninsula. While the dogman stands tall, it has a canine look and a startling howl.

    The sightings date back to 1887 and were just stories and legend until 2004 when the 'Gable Film' was discovered. An old family 8mm that was purchased at an estate sale. The film dates to the late 1970s and shows the only known filmed image of the Dogman.

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