The Michigan Dogman's Radio Origin: An April Fools' Song, a Hoax Film and a Skeptical Author

Every monster has an origin story. The Michigan Dogman's comes with a microphone, a joke, and a man who says he doesn't believe it.

On May 23, 2016, WWMT Newschannel 3 told the story of a 1987 radio song about a half-man, half-dog creature stalking northern Michigan. The man who wrote it, Steve Cook of Traverse City's WTCM Radio, says he made the creature up. Here is what each source says. Both main sources rely on Cook's own account, so they are not independent confirmation of it.

The song

According to WWMT, a 1987 song called "Legend of the Dogman" described sightings and close encounters with a dog-human hybrid in northern Michigan. Cook wrote and performed it. In his words: "I came up with the creature of the Dogman, a half man, a half dog, and developed it into a poem. It was kind of an amalgamation of all these creatures I'd heard as a kid and heard stories about."

It first aired on April Fools' Day as a joke. Then, Cook says, the phone rang: "And then we started to get calls from people saying 'That's no joke, that's a real thing. That actually happened. People have seen this thing.'"

The Skeptoid podcast, in a 2015 episode, calls the song "The Legend" and says its lyrics mention lumberjacks and a ten-year cycle. Skeptoid says Cook played it for WTCM listeners as a prank.

The cabin and the footprints

WWMT says "Dogman fever heated up" after authorities investigated an attempted cabin break-in as the creature's work. Cook's account: "The only footprints they could find were of a dog. The sheriff's deputy believes to this day that it was the Dogman." That is Cook's version. WWMT quotes no deputy and no police record.

The 2007 film

In 2007, WWMT says, a film surfaced that was believed to be an old home movie showing a Dogman attack. "It had a lot of people convinced," the station said. "However it turned out to be a hoax, and Cook was pulling the strings once again."

Skeptoid tells that part differently. It calls the footage "the Gable Film" and says the soundless reel was made by a Michigan man, Mike Agrusa, a fan of the song who wanted to keep the legend's ten-year cycle going in 2007. Skeptoid says Agrusa asked Cook to post it on his website, and that Cook "played along." The podcast says the 2010 final episode of MonsterQuest confirmed the hoax. So the sources agree on the hoax. They differ on who made the film.

The 1887 claim

Popular summaries, including Wikipedia's Michigan Dogman entry, date the first sighting to 1887, when two lumberjacks in Wexford County reportedly saw a creature with a man's body and a dog's head. That entry cites a 2007 travel guide, Julie Albrecht Royce's Traveling Michigan's Sunset Coast. No period record from 1887 appears in any of the sources above. Skeptoid says researchers have "cobbled together a thread of stories going back centuries" and calls it evidence only "charitably."

Cook offers a middle road. WWMT says he "later discovered that stories of dogmen date back thousands of years." Per Skeptoid, he told the Detroit Free Press in 2011 that he "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."

What the author believes

"I'm a skeptic because of the way this all began. I watched it evolve over the years," Cook told WWMT. "But I do believe there are things out there that we can't explain."

The pattern

Eyewitness reports, WWMT says, describe human and dog-like features and black or gray fur, from all over Michigan. The station dates and names none of them.

So the record is this: a legend whose author says he invented the creature in 1987, a 2007 hoax film that fooled people, and an 1887 story that rests on a modern book. That doesn't settle every question. Reports that followed the song, and any that claim to predate it, would each need their own evidence.

Bottom line

Per WWMT, Steve Cook of WTCM wrote the Dogman song in 1987 as an April Fools' joke, and a 2007 attack film was a hoax. Per Skeptoid, a different man made that film and Cook posted it. Per Wikipedia, the first sighting was 1887, citing a 2007 guide. Cook says he is a skeptic who believes "there are things out there that we can't explain."

For the wider geography, see our earlier post The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the USA.

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Attribution / source table

• Claim: 1987 song, written and performed by Steve Cook of WTCM; April Fools' Day joke; calls; cabin break-in and footprints (Cook's account); Cook's skepticism; charity; 2007 film hoax with Cook "pulling the strings"; Halloween airplay
  Attribution: WWMT Newschannel 3, "Michigan Monsters" (Aaron Dimick), May 23, 2016
  Link: WWMT
• Claim: Song title "The Legend"; lyrics; Cook's 2011 Detroit Free Press quote; the "Gable Film" made by Mike Agrusa; Cook posted it; MonsterQuest confirmation; "thread of stories" comment
  Attribution: Skeptoid, "Wag the Dogman," Alison Hudson, July 28, 2015
  Link: Skeptoid
• Claim: 1887 Wexford County lumberjacks claim; citation to a 2007 travel guide
  Attribution: Wikipedia, "Michigan Dogman"
  Link: Wikipedia
• Claim: Earlier Monstrum coverage
  Attribution: Monstrum Athenaeum, 2015
  Link: The Michigan Dogman

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Legal / disclaimer footer

Entertainment and cryptid-news commentary only. Nothing here confirms a Dogman or any other creature. Origin claims, the cabin account and the film attribution are given as the cited outlets and Steve Cook reported them, and each claim belongs to its source. The map location is approximate to town level.