Posted: 16 Nov 2009 12:52 PM PST

nbc15 - Some of you may roll your eyes, but there are many people in Wisconsin who claim to have seen something unexplainable.

Is it a werewolf? Bigfoot? An unidentified wild animal?

First, throw out all of your Hollywood preconceptions. It doesn't change from a full moon, and no one's shot it with a silver bullet.

But hundreds of people right here in Wisconsin are saying there's something out there.

If there is something out there, popular culture has done it no favors. Most people scoff at the idea, but some claim there are many rational witnesses who've come face-to-face with the irrational.

Reports in Wisconsin date back to the 1930s. And they keep coming.

"All I know it was something I have never seen before."

November 2006: Holy Hill Road in Washington County: Steve Krueger, a DNR worker, is on his daily routes picking up deer carcasses. He parks his truck and throws a small doe in the bed. When he climbs back into the cab to fill out the paperwork, his trucks starts to shake.

Added Krueger, "At first I didn't think anything of it and it shook a little bit more vigorously a second time. I just glanced up into the rearview mirror of my truck and I saw this big, hairy, black I don't know what it was."

Steve threw it in drive and slammed on the gas.

"It was big, it was stocky," recalled Krueger. "It had big pointed ears on the top of its head, and a bigger snout than what a bear has. I guesstimated it was between six and seven feet tall."

Steve filed a report of an aggressive animal to the sheriff's department. It didn't take long for the media to pick up on it.

"A Washington County man says he has spotted Bigfoot," reported NBC-15 anchor Becky Hillier in mid-November 2006.

"I was pretty scared when I saw it." Dillon Ruder and David Radeztsky lived on Holy Hill Road nearby. A few days before Steve's encounter the young boys were jumping on a trampoline and saw something very similar.

"We saw just a hairy monster on the corner of the woods," added Ruder.

The 'Michigan Dogman' from the Gable film

In both reports the media called it Bigfoot or a werewolf. But author and journalist Linda Godfrey prefers the term man-wolf.

"I have been researching it, following it, investigating it, staking it out for 17 years," said Godfrey.

Godfrey, a Wisconsin native who lives in Elkhorn, says she's received hundreds of reported sightings. Many of them were just miles from her home along the most famous road in Wisconsin man-wolf lore.

The Beast of Bray Road was Godfrey's first book on the mysterious creatures that roam the woods of Wisconsin. And now her work has spawned so much interest that seven more books have followed. So many people are willing to share their stories that she is getting one to three reports a week from all across the country, and all around the world.

"Whatever it is, there is more than one. It seems to be more of a scavenger that wants to frighten people. Maybe it's territorial. It seems to want people to leave it alone."

Godfrey's best guess is that it's a Timberwolf that has evolved or adapted to stand or even run on its hind legs. But, she's not ruling out the supernatural.

"It's very audacious to say we know all there is," stated Godfrey. "We know that our five senses can't hear all that there is to hear or see all light wavelengths. Maybe there are things out there we just don't understand."

According to Katie Zahn, it's definitely of this world.

"I knew it wasn't human," added Zahn. "I just had no idea what it was."

In the summer of 2003, Katie and some friends were walking through these woods in Rock County. At the edge of a creek she saw three wolf-like creatures drinking water.

"They would have been kneeling down on the side of the river here," she remembered. "They picked up the water in their hands and drank it like a human instead of licking it and lapping it like a dog would. They stood up, turned around and we got terrified. We ran back, we're falling up the hill to get back to our car."

Zahn's friends deny seeing anything.

"I think they just think I'm a little crazy for believing this and actually explaining my story to someone and having them believe me."

At least one expert says she's telling the truth. For the show Monsterquest on the History Channel, Zahn took a polygraph, and passed - twice.

"If they don't believe me, that is their choice," said Zahn. "But, I know what I saw. And I believe every word of it."

"Personally I could care less if anyone believes me. My concern in life is not to sit there and make people believe what I saw. I saw what I saw," concluded Krueger.

"I hope that maybe someday it will all become clear and apparent," said Godfrey. "As long as I keep getting reports I will probably file them and keep trying to figure it out. But, I certainly don't claim to have all the answers."
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NOTE: this was a reader submitted email from April 2009. We've all heard of 'The Michigan Dogman', so this is a different twist...Lon

"My girlfriend and I went out to feed deer for the hunting opener on Nov. 22, 2008. We were in the Chequamegon National Forest in northern Wisconsin. It was November 21, 2008 and the time was 12:10 AM, it was totally dark out and light snow was falling with an accumulation of about 1 inch covering the roads. The Temperature was 11*F and the wind was blowing from the northwest with a wind chill of 0*F. We made a U-turn to the left onto an unfinished ATV trail in one of our 4X4 Pickups heading towards last years feed pile.

I got to the bottom of the hill and backed in and parked. I got out my pistol and loaded it, I then put it in my holster, I grabbed my headlight with 3 LED bulbs and secured it on my head, I handed her a shaker LED flashlight and proceeded to the back of my truck where I had a 5 gallon bucket with just under 2 gallons of corn and 3 apples in it strapped down with 2 of my ATV straps. I put the tailgate down, unstrapped the bucket and put the tailgate up. I walked around my side and then in front of the truck to her passenger side as she was putting mittens on. We both started to walk together, her just behind and to my right side when we both noticed a fresh set of tracks in the snow heading down wind of us in the same direction we where walking.

At first it was not the size that caught my attention, it was "WHAT IN GOD'S CREATION MADE THESE TRACKS" immediately my skinned crawled as I looked around with my head to see if what we just had come up on was in sight. I glanced back down in disbelief at the tracks. I was in a slight stage of shock as I looked at her she looked at me and we both looked down at 4 well-formed footprints of some kind of scary tracks that either of us had ever seen before. I sized my shoe beside one of the tracks and realized it was about 3 inches longer than my shoe which measures 12 inches heel to toe, and about 1 inch wider than my shoe which measures 4 inches at it's widest width. Whatever we witnessed the foot prints of has 2 pointed talons on the end of it's foot that are isometrically the same with a rectangle shaped heel. The talons joined on the outside and at the same length in between the talons on each foot. They are 15 inches long and 5 inches wide with 64-inch strides. I have a 36-inch stride at 5'10" tall to give an idea of the possible size of this creature, running or not we do not know.

I believe we just missed seeing what caused these tracks and what ever made the tracks was still in the area and possibly watching us. My girl told me to load my pistol and keep it out, I did not argue. At first she wanted to leave right away but the sheer adrenaline and interest of what caused the tracks I believe is what kept us there. I said "okay let's get out of here" but again, interest kept us there looking at the tracks. My fear slightly subsided enough to think about the upcoming deer opener and decided I have the pistol and we will be okay. I started to walk the same way the tracks went up a hill on the trail when I stopped and looked back at her while she was still staring down at the prints. I said "come on lets get this over with" she caught up to me as we walked together, she said to me, "if this thing gets a hold of me put a bullet in my head" I thought about that as we kept walking. We went deep into the woods down a steep hill where I new the feed pile was from last year. We got to where I wanted the pile to be, I took the lid off the bucket and dumped the corn and apples out and stepped on the apples, I snapped the lid back on the bucket and said "let's go" We started to climb the hill when I realized we where off track and had to walk left to reach the trail to get back to the truck. I started to think that this was the scariest thing I have ever encountered and felt panic over coming me. I new where I was and finally we got back on the trail and walked down to where we could see the tracks of the creature again. We both stared at them for about 5 minutes. When we got back to the truck just 20 yards from the prints, she got in and closed her door. I went behind the truck, opened the tailgate and re strapped the bucket down and closed the tailgate. I got to my side of the truck and took the clip out of my gun and got in. I threw my head light off my head as we drove away thinking and then I said, "I am not coming back here" and she agreed. We where both scared and could not believe what just happened.

It was a month earlier and 1.1 miles walking through the woods from where we witnessed the tracks that a different friend and I where camping. I went to bed early and fell into a deep sleep. I woke up to the sound of my friend walking behind the tent and my first reply was "what are you doing back there?" I woke up a little more and realized my friend was sleeping, breathing kind of loud next to me. I sat up against my gear and grabbed my pistol and flashlight and sat there cold and scared in the dark. I woke my friend up and told him what I could hear and he said, "Ah it was probably a deer or something" The temperature was around 26*F. I looked out the flaps of the tent and could see the fire had died down and it was dark out there. I stood up and told my friend that I was going to the truck to warm up and get some sleep. I asked him if he wanted me to leave the pistol and he said, "no I'll be alright". I left the tent and walked to my truck about 80 yards away and started it up to get warm. I turned my lights on a few different times to see if what had walked by the tent was in sight. I did not see anything; I turned my truck off and fell asleep.

Whatever walked by the tent was bipedal and made 2 steps into my sound range and out again. I did not hear any other noise from what ever walked by. I looked around the next morning for footprints but leaves covered the ground and I did not detect anything. A little more than 2 years earlier. It was summer and I was at this same location riding my ATV alone, I stopped and got off walking down to a near by lake and was looking at the water and how clear it is when I could hear up on the hill above the camp ground we had stayed at a huge tree snap and hit the ground with a big thump as branches snapped off it and other trees as it fell. I got back to my ATV quickly at the time thinking a bear or buck was up there and I was not sticking around to find out. 2 months later that summer I returned to this spot again riding my ATV, I shut off the wheeler and stood around close by thinking about the last time I was there I was scared off by something. I was there about 5 minutes when all of a sudden I could hear branches snapping off of trees as what ever was breaking branches was coming down the hill closer to where I was. I got on my wheeler never to return until my friend and I camped there a little over 2 years later in October. My first 2 experiences with this creature while I was alone made me think it was possibly a bear or a buck deer, trouble with this theory is that I have come up on bear a dozen or so times and every time, the bear is running as fast as it can in another direction and what ever was making the tree sounds was not running any where. A deer also runs away at the first presence of a human. Now that we witnessed these creatures’ footprints I put the puzzle pieces together and realize that this creature is living in this area and it has probably been there for a long, long, long time. I have learned it means us no harm (yet). It only makes a sound when I am alone (tree breaking). It is always down wind of me (us). It is out in the day and or night. It can see in the dark. It uses the wind to it's advantage every chance it gets. It can hear well. It can smell good. It waits until we are vulnerable to approach us when 2 of us are together. I could possibly have smelled it and did not know what I smelled. I (we) have put 4,000 miles in this forest on my Grizzly ATV through deep desolate, thick wooded, swamp, lake areas and have now proved to ourselves that this undocumented at this time creature is in fact out there.

I believe this to be what the Monster quest American Werewolf series TV show on the History Channel has shown to be the half Man-half Wolf "DOGMAN?" that others have actually witnessed. I know where this creature is living and plan on an expedition to prove its existence. I want to document this creature because I feel everyone that enters the forest has a right to know it is there and for other various reasons. I am open to any and all that would like to comment or ask questions in discussing my encounters with this creature(s)."

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