Bigfoot

Date of Discovery

If we listen to the theory of Bigfoot being part of the genus of gigantopithecus, or giant ape, then they are believed to have been in existence when homo erectus first came into being. This means that they have existed for roughly two million years. However, there have been modern reports that date back as far back as 1818, when the Exeter Watchman reported having seen an “animal resembling the Wild Man of the Woods,” near Ellisburgh, New York.

Name

Bigfoot is possibly the most common name given to the gigantopithecus of North America–a genus of giant ape, that is said to have gone extinct around one hundred thousand years ago. Bigfoot also goes by the identifying name of Sasquatch, Skunk Ape, Skookum, Fouke Monster, Momo, Mogollon Monster, Yowie, Ban-Manush, Tornit, Honey Island Swamp Monster, Wild Man, Wauk-wauk, Saskehavis, and Grassman in the United States as well as other parts of the world. The name of this widely distributed creature varies based on the cultural influence of the region it was discovered to inhabit.

Physical Description

Bigfoot’s general appearance is more primitive than that of Neanderthal Man, standing between six to nine feet, and weighing between four hundred and one thousand pounds. They have a ruddy dark complexion, generally are known to have black eyes, with dark fur covering all of its bodies except its hands, the soles of its feet, as well as its upper facial region.

Origin

The villagers of the Caucasus Mountains have legends of this apeman going back for centuries, as do the Tibetans living on the slopes of Mount Everest. These are the first human accounts of Bigfoot being a creature that had been undocumented, but if sticking with the theory that Bigfoot is in fact a gigantopithecus then they have been around since man’s ancient ancestors first stood upright. From the Native American myths and legends, we have gotten a rich body of tales about hairy, manlike beasts that roam the forests; depending on the tribe, they have often been considered cousins of creatures such as the Wendigo, Tornit, Strendu, Chenoo, Oh-Mah, Skookum, the full list is exhaustive. Bigfoot may well be the most widely known and farthest-reaching cryptid across the world.

Mythology and Lore

Possibly the earliest and most notable report of Bigfoot was made by Theodore Roosevelt in his 1893 memoir, The Wilderness Hunter–his account came secondhand by a hunter and trapper by the name of Bauman. Bauman was trapping with a friend in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana when they noticed that there was something raiding their camp every time they went to check their traps. One evening after the two men fell asleep, Bauman awoke to a large, dark shape standing outside of his lean-to, without hesitation Bauman fired his gun at the shape. Over the next few days, the men often felt as if they were being watched from afar, that they were being followed as they went about their business, with something hiding behind the thick brush and trees. Eventually, the two men became so unnerved that they made the decision to leave the mountains entirely. In order to leave as quickly as possible, Bauman went to collect their traps while his friend packed up their camp. Upon returning to their camp, Bauman found that his friend’s body had been horribly mutilated and he fled as quickly as possible.

These creatures are apparently recorded to have had aggressive behavior well into the early twentieth century. Fred Beck reported that he and three other miners had been attacked by “mountain devils” whilst working their claim near Mount Saint Helens. They had continuously heard whoops, hollers, and screams from these unseen creatures for several days until one day Beck saw the unidentifiable creature staring at him from across a small canyon and immediately began firing his weapon.

The creature I judged to have been about seven feet tall with blackish-brownish hair. It disappeared from our view for a short time, but then we saw it, running fast and upright, about two hundred yards down the little canyon. I shot three times before it disappeared from view.

Fred Beck

As a result of Beck’s aggression towards the creatures, the miners reported that their cabin was attacked and at least three large, hairy creatures circled the cabin, pounded on the walls, tossed rocks, and jumped on the roof. Beck even recalled that at one point a hairy arm reached through a notch in the wall and attempted to grab one of the men’s axes–throughout the entire assault on their cabin the men alternated between being frozen in fear and firing their guns at the walls and roof.

Modern Pop-Culture References

Surprisingly, Bigfoot is a fairly popular topic when it comes to media references. When it comes to fiction and supposedly non-fiction material, there is a wealth of information both for entertainment and research purposes.

Patterson – Gimlin Bigfoot Footage

Books & Literature

Movies

Television Series



Is there anything we missed about Bigfoot? Let us know in the comments section below!

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Dogman

Date of Discovery

First witnessed in 1887, but there is no real knowledge of how long the Dogman has been around. It’s said that the hieroglyphs of the Egyptian god of the underworld, Anubis could possibly be an ancient explanation of the Dogman. Whether or not the Dogman existed thousands of years ago in Ancient Egypt, or if it was truly their depiction of the entity of the underworld, it will never be known.

Name

The Dogman, also known as the Wisconsin Werewolf and the Beast of Bray Road.

Physical Description

The basic description of these creatures shows them as being seven feet tall, with blue or amber eyes, a half-man and half-dog humanoid, that is said to be bipedal. Dogman, however, describes a group of more than one type of cryptozoological beings that are large and described as looking like upright canids. There are reportedly two types of Dogman, one which is called a K9-Type and the other which is a Type-3.

Its howl is said to sound like a human scream.

K9-Type

The basic K9-Tupe is described simply as looking like an upright canine. They are characterized specifically by their canine legs, with hocks and stifle joints. Some of them have disproportionately large heads, while others have more hyena-like appearances. The most visual appearance is when they are described as looking like the black Werewolf from the Van Helsing movie, but by far the most comical are when they are described as a large timber wolf that ambulates bipedally. This version of the Dogman accounts for over 90% of the sightings that have occurred and are more prone to aggression than Type-3.

Type-3

The basic Type-3 is described as looking like a sasquatch, or bigfoot, with a muzzle–instead of having the flat face of a bigfoot. Eyewitness accounts report that these particular creatures have claws on the tips of their fingers and toes, instead of fingernails and toenails. Like the K-9 Type Dogman, the Type-3 Dogman does not always look the same. They are characterized by their hominid-style legs, with ankles and knees that are the same as humans or sasquatch.

Origin

Originating from the folklore of Michigan–Wexford County, Michigan to be exact. This creature was unknown to most of the modern world until very late in the twentieth century but was said to have been stalking the area around the Manistee River since the days of the Odawa tribes.

First allegedly encountered in 1887 by two lumberjacks who reported having seen a creature that had the head of a dog and the body of a man.

Authentic sources aside from the song made by Steve Cook have not been documented due to the claim of the whole thing being a hoax.

Mythology and Lore

According to most legends, the Michigan Dogman appears every ten years. Sightings have occurred in several locations throughout Michigan, but primarily within the northwestern quadrant of the Lower Peninsula.

1938 Paris, Michigan, Robert Fortney was attacked by five wild dogs one of which he said walked on two legs and reports of similar creatures also came from Allegan County in the 1950s, then again in 1967 in the Manistee and Cross Village.

One night in 1961, a night watchman was patrolling a manufacturing plant in Big Rapids, Michigan when he saw a peculiar creature–he believed this creature to be a person until it got close enough to see that it had doglike features. He was just about to pull his gun to shoot the creature when he remembered that he had his camera with him. Any photographic evidence remains an unsolved mystery, however, as the photos were never analyzed.

Modern Pop-Culture References

The Cook song

In 1987, disc jockey Steve Cook recorded a song about the creature as well as alleged sightings, which is when the creature gained much of its popularity. He recorded and aired a song called, “The Legend,” on the station he jockeyed for at WTCM-FM in Traverse City, Michigan, which he introduced as an April Fool’s Day joke. He said he based the songs on mythology and legends from all over North America and had never heard of a dogman in Michigan before recording.

I made it up completely from my own imagination as an April Fools’ prank for the radio and stumbled my way to a legend that goes back all the way to Native American times.

Steve Cook, Skeptoid.com, Wag the Dogman

Apparently, Cook maintains his skepticism about whether or not the dogman really exists though.

I’m tremendously skeptical because I’ve sort of seen the way folklore becomes built from the creation of this song to what it’s turned into … but I do believe people who think they saw something really did see something. I also think the Dogman provides them with an avenue to explain what they couldn’t explain for themselves.

Steve Cook, Skeptoid.com, Wag the Dogman

Oddly enough after airing the song as a fun April Fool’s prank, he received numerous calls from listeners who claimed they had encountered a similar creature, and in the weeks following it became the most-requested song on the station. In the years since, Cook has received more than one hundred reports of the creature’s existence and in March of 2010, it was featured in an episode of MonsterQuest.

The Legend of the Michigan Dogman by Steve Cook

Linda S. Godfrey, in her book The Beast of Bray Road, compares the Manistee sightings to a similar creature sighted in Wisconsin known as the Beast of Bray Road.

Books & Literature

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Gumberoo

Date of Discovery

First sighted in the 1900s.

Name

The Gumberoo, with a scientific name of Megalogaster repercussus.

Physical Description

This bear-like creature is described as being incredibly fat–in some cases, compared to the shape of a football–with no hair, and dark leathery skin. Oddly enough, this creature has a large grin with sharp teeth, a beard, and prominent eyebrows. Their dark complexion is said to be as black as coal, but there is speculation that this is due to rubbing up against the inside of the charred cedar tree.

Origin

The Gumberoo originated in the foggy region along the Pacific Coast from Grays Harbor, WA, the entire coast of Oregon, all the way to Humboldt Bay, CA as well as the forests of Wisconsin and Minnesota. Its origin is spun from the folklore of lumberjacks and forest workers–with particular emphasis on the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

According to Giants, Monsters, and Dragons: An Encyclopedia of Folklore, Legend, and Myth by Carol Rose, the Gumberoo belongs to a group of beings within this mythology called the Fearsome Critters. All of the Fearsome Critters are noted to have exaggerated proportions and activities which are believed to be the explanation of the strange sounds and bumps in the night when in isolated and remote locations. They also provided some amusement for the men in the camps, as they told stories to pass their down-time.

The Gumberoo is said to be a scarce creature due to the fact that it is quite combustible, and forest fires are relatively prevalent. They are said to be as flammable as celluloid film; during and after a forest fire within the heavily forested cedar region near Coos Bay, lumberjacks reported that they heard loud sounds that were not identifiable as well as the smell of burning rubber.

Mythology and Lore

When the lumberjacks, responsible for its discovery, attempted to kill it–except the Gumberoo didn’t die, its skin was apparently impenetrable. It is said to hibernate a majority of the time and it lives in old enormous, burned, and hollowed-out cedar trees. When it does come out, it only comes out at night and has an insatiable appetite when it does. The Gumberoo will devour anything that crosses its path, even reportedly a whole horse at one point, which was still not enough to discomfort nor satiate it.

Modern Pop-Culture References

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