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The Beast of Bray Road: The Beast of Bray Road: Tailing Wisconsin’s Werewolf
Linda Godfrey
2003, Prairie Oak Press
177 pp.

and

2015, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management
214 pp.

The Michigan Dogman: Werewolves and Other Unknown Canines Across the U.S.A.
Linda Godfrey
2010, Unexplained Research Publishing Company
216 pp

Linda Godfrey began her involvement with recording and researching accounts of canid humanoids at the tail end of 1991. The more she looked into the phenomenon, the more stories came forth about upright-walking werewolf-like beings in Wisconsin, Michigan, and adjacent states. Godfrey, a journalist and artist, took the dogman from an obscure legend to one of most popular cryptids in North America. Its renown is impressive and continues to grow. This is, in no small part, due to Linda’s ability to write in an engaging style and to speak in an honest, good-natured, Midwestern “nice” tone that resulted in her becoming a beloved figure in cryptozoology. Linda passed away in 2022, but she was the author or co-author of 18 books, including several specific to canid humanoids. The two listed here, along with Hunting the American Werewolf: Beast Men in Wisconsin and Beyond, 2006 and Real Wolfmen: True Encounters in Modern America, 2012, established this particular cryptid-creature as the primary bipedal creature reported behind Bigfoot. Concerning the dogman vs Sasquatch, things get… hairy.

Godfrey’s volumes are primarily accounts collected by or told directly to her. She almost always takes the stories at face value but will often dig farther into the history of the place or other stated details. Her research took her down the crooked and complex paths of contemporary and historic local legends, folklore, and pop culture content. She was diligent to note the many and various side trips she took during her exploration. This includes a considerable number of topics including evolution & genetics, native wildlife & their diseases, extinct animals, skinwalkers, shapeshifters, indigenous lore, spirit guardians, portals and window areas, interdimensional travel, out-of-time events, werewolf tropes (full moon, silver bullets, etc), occult and religious beliefs, wild men, medical conditions, phantom black dogs, anomalous big cats, hoaxes, phantom kangaroos, ley lines, ghosts, ancient Egypt, sacred sites, and more. It’s a lot. This subject area, in general, is what you might call “a dog’s breakfast.“

In an attempt to frame the potential answers to the “dogman” mystery, Godfrey tried to turn over every stone. Though it’s clear she followed every lead she could, checking books, newspapers and more, the depth of the exploration into the literature is ultimately shallow. Godfrey uses popular paranormal or questionable Fortean sources, even encyclopedias, to follow up with facts. The foundation of the canid humanoid phenomenon is a convoluted and contentious mess of fact and fiction. The answer will not be found in any book. It’s extremely difficult to sort out what idea originated where, and if the source was a real account, a tall tale, or entirely made up by horror story tellers.

Godfrey is trusting, and she tried very hard to lend a credible framing to the very strange body of dogman anecdotes. However, we can’t ever tell how truly reliable any of the information is – some of the tales are clearly exaggerated, as the level of detail reported is hardly possible under the conditions described. Many of the tales are recounted from decades ago. There is zero evidence that these terrifying creatures exist but it still feels like they could. However, there is some evidence that people have misrepresented wolves, bears, deer, or dogs.

By remaining open to hearing more reports and advertising this openness via media, ever more accounts came to Linda. She entertained supernatural explanations because the stories were so weird and so voluminous; it all was too much for her to consider dismissing them. While she speculated that there may be a population of wolves or dogs that have grown larger than normal and learned how to walk bipedally, she was aware that this was a stretch. The supernatural slide became more appealing when natural explanations didn’t add up. Much was eventually made of the creatures’ association with burial mounds, cemeteries, and crossroads along with their extraordinary behaviors and abilities. Today, the reputation of the dogman cryptids is one of unnatural evil, danger, and violence, far more than that of Bigfoot.

Linda Godfrey’s work is well worth reading and remains the best source of the dogman/canid hominoid cryptid nonfiction. Her work was a springboard to the myriad persons, podcasts, and media content that celebrates, exaggerates, and propagates tales of the modern day werewolves.

https://moderncryptozoology.wordpress.com/2024/08/25/godfreys-dogman-beast-volumes/

#BeastOfBrayRoad #canidHominoids #cryptids #dogman #dogmen #Folklore #folkloreCreatures #LindaGodfrey #werewolf #werewolves