[JGatti]

I worked with a guy who swore up and down he seen one up north. He said he was out riding his mini bike on a trail and it walked out behind him and gave chase. I laughed and he got so angry. I had to make something up and convince him I believed him because he was working on my car that had the entire top end pulled off at the time.
I do however personally find this subject interesting. I'm the kind of person who is not a believer but I am not about to say there is NO WAY it is possible. They discover new species all the time. Saying one was never dug up is hardly proof they do not, or did not ever exist. You really have to think about it from a logical view. Take a human like being like creature that has intelligence and the senses of of an animal. Put them in the woods and try to find them. Their keen senses will alert them to you being close and their intelligence and know how will keep them out of site and away from humans. A well trained person can adapt and hide never to be found in mountain area and that has happened more than once in our history.
A couple other examples I can think of. For arguments sake lets say they do exist. Lets say there are 100 in the country. As a person who has hunted for years there are times when I go out and don't see a damn thing, and there are over a millions deer in Michigan? I've been a frequent visitor to northern Michigan my entire life. I've seen 2 porcupines in my life alive, 1 river otter and I have NEVER....EVER seen a bear in the wild. So who am I to say that something like a bigfoot creature does not exist? I know there are bears in northern Michigan. I know people that have seen em. I've seen pictures. But because I have not seen one does not mean they are not there. One last point. How many in this forum have seen the disappearing act of a deer? They walk a couple feet into the growth and just seem to vanish. Oh their still there alright but, and they know exactly where you are. But they vanish none the less. This has been something I've felt was a fascinating thing to witness time ans time again. One second they are there, the next (poof) they are gone. This world is not developed enough to think someone should have dug one up if they were ever here. We're the Wolverine state yet some experts say there has never been any evidence found to support Wolverines ever lived in Michigan. So did they or didn't they?

[michmoldman]

I am a believer because there are just too many people who have seen them up close. I always tell people in my arguments, that there are a lot stranger things on this earth than a hairy man/ape running around our forests.

[Bydand]

As crazy as it may sound, when I was a lot younger I saw something out in the woods that to this day I can't tell you what it was. Now, I am far from being a city boy, born and raised in the country and grew up in the same area I am in now again. I know every single woodland animal, reptile, and snake you care to come across in Michigan. I still don't know what I saw when I was a teenager. Once when I was riding my motorcycle down a trail behind our house, and another time I found a freshly dug area in the deep woods and walked back out to see what was there. Brought a shovel and the ol' dog (she went everywhere I did) and when I got there I started to dig, well all holy heck broke out in the bushes and the tops of the scrub was parting, coming my way fast, well the dog peed and got between me and the commotion and pushed as hard as she could back toward the house all the time crying like I never heard from her (same dog that stood down a huge black bear one day because she thought it was getting too close to me). All the convincing I needed and I took off toward the house, as far as I know that shovel is still stuck in the ground out there 30 years later .

Bigfoot? I can't say. Bear? For sure not. Wolf? Not even close. Cougar? Nope. Escaped Mountain Gorilla from a traveling circus? Maybe, but never heard of one escaping. Do I believe there could be something out there that isn't documented? Yes I do think that is possible. I however, don't think it is likely something has escaped detection for all these years man has inhabited Michigan. I would kind of like to know what I saw all those years ago though. Tempting to go back out there and dig that spot back up, I know exactly where it is still, kind of burned into the old memory banks you know.

[thebreadlady]

perhaps the bigfoots cremate their dead.....
y'know, we have hordes of coyotes around here, yet i have never seen one, only tracks.

[YAZ]

For what it's worth.....

State by State Sightings: Michigan

[wagonman76]

I believe they could exist. Species are being discovered all the time. Sailors were ridiculed ages ago for sightings of the giant squid, now the creature has been proven to exist.

[suydam]

Originally Posted by wagonman76

I believe they could exist. Species are being discovered all the time. Sailors were ridiculed ages ago for sightings of the giant squid, now the creature has been proven to exist.

I'd like to believe.... but your logical argument over-simplifies.

Sailors were ridiculed for describing sea-monsters that swallowed 3-masted 100' sailing ships whole. Giant Squids were the foundation of that myth, but the largest ever seen was 43'. Even if you doubled that, an 86' squid isn't each a three-masted schooner any time soon. C'mon.

Similarly, it's true... new species are discovered all the time. But most of them are bugs which escape detection in areas like the Amazon (which is big... not the UP big, but Texas big). When they discover new species of things like monkeys or birds, it's generally a species related closely to something discovered years ago. It's not like they discovered a 6-legged elephant or something.

Finally, there was a time not long ago when there were almost no forests in Michigan. We cut them all down! Those lumbermen would have killed one, bet on it.

There are no Yetti in Michigan

[MICoastieMom]

Originally Posted by gingeraleman

Yeah well if you had seen the Bigfoot I did in northern lower Michigan, you'd think a little different now than the tune you are humming. I'm neither a Liar or Superstitious. I don't drink, smoke or given over to flight-full dillusions of fantasy. You did make a point about no one has ever been able to come up with any remains so I'll give you that one. The one I saw was mere feet away from my car and looked dead square at me. No joke as God is my witness. I always had wondered from before while growing up of their possible existence or lack thereof, not now. My sighting occured in the summer of 2002, north of Alpena.

My mother, who grew up in Alpena, told me about an incident that happened back in to 20's or early 30s, when she was a child. She had four older sisters, the two oldest being flappers. I grew up hearing stories about them driving to Rogers City, Onaway, or Harrisburg for dances. Because the communities were so isolated a dance would be a big draw in spite of the roads and the automobiles.

Anyway, this couple was returning from a dance in Onaway or perhaps Long Lake. Something came up from the swamp on other side of the road. My mother said from the newspaper accounts it stood at least seven feet. There were several sightings that summer. In another incident, a couple described something about the size if a bear, but walking upright. It treid to get into the car with them and left a large depression in the roof of the car. The sheriff investigated and found footprints in the mud. They appeared to be human-like, but were several inches longer then normal.

Some years ago, she was reading an issue of the Wilderness Chronicle and came across a story from near Fairview that she thought took place that same summer. The article was about a man who disappeared from a family reunion. That same day someone in the area reported seeing a Sasquatch-like creature in the area. The sheriff investigated the missing person report, which apparently included a search of the area. When he returned to the family, he told them they would never find the missing man and to let it go. The family always felt that he had found remains possibly dismembered and partially eaten and was trying to spare them the horror.

The reason that she shared this with me is that in the early 80's, my brother and I were driving from the Hillman area to Alpena using what we called the Long Swamp Road. It was late fall, cold, but no snow yet. It was dark enough that the headlights were on. Something came up out of the swamp ahead of us. It was about the size of a bear, but leaner, more agile, with long, dark, shaggy hair/fur and a lope different than a bear. We stopped the car and it stopped in the road and looked at us. We were a couple hundred feet away and tried to move ahead to get a better look, but it finished moving across the road and had disappeared into the swamp by the the time we reached the spot where it had been.

We had several books on Michigan mammels at home and spent the evening pouring over them, but could find nothing that matched. I might add that we were both in our early to mid-20's at the time. My brother was a level-headed forestry student at MTU at the time, familiar with the flora and fauna of the state, and not easily given to fantasy.

[yachtcare]

Hmmm, and I opened this thread thinking it was about a new athletic shoe store opening up.........

But seriously, being in an economically depressed area, like ya all are...Why not embellish, and breath life into the story. It could help your tourism stats......

Down where I'm at(SW Florida) there is a place along Tamiami Trail south of Naples, that is a museum of sorts, dedicated to the "many sightings" of the "bigfoot" type creature that lives in the Everglades. I cant recall what they call him...something like skunk cabbage monster or something like that.(The general consensus is that he really stinks...bad) I dont think the guy's getting rich, but he seems to pop up in the local news once a year or so with a new photo, or some other "evidence" of the creature's existence. Usually found just outside the museum's front door, imagine that.....

Heck the folks in Roswell, NM have capitalized on aliens crashing in 1947, why shouldnt you guys make a few bucks?

[YAZ]

I'm tellin' ya.....it ain't Bigfoot.

It's Dogman.



Wonderin' if there's a pot field anywhere close to the sightings.....

Ya know, to scare folks away.....LOL