One of my favorite TV shows growing up was In Search Of... narrated by the great Leonard Nimoy, which was a documentary series that tried to explain everything from ghosts to Big Foot, to U.F.O's and the Loch Ness Monster.
In the spirit of that show, I went looking for the unexplained in Wisconsin. Well, not physically searching. But a few minutes on Google yielded some pretty good findings. Here's what I came up with.
(For this entry we're just going to concentrate on the monsters)
Big Foot
In 2002, Loretta I. Potter, and her son Peter R. Cupp, had a close encounter with a Bigfoot at their Maple Plain home near Cumberland, Wisconsin. She described it as tall, perhaps 7-8 feet in height, with hairy legs and long hair on it's head.
Bigfoot hunter Dennis Murphy said he first encountered two Bigfoots about 30 years ago while searching for a fishing spot north of Danbury. Then, On June 1, 2002 he had another sighting and snapped the below photo which purportedly shows a Bigfoot disappearing into the forest.
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Lake Monsters
Here's a few from a very long list!
Lake Pewaukee - "A huge green thing traveling like a grey streak, sometimes seen spouting water." - 1890's
Rock Lake - "Sea-serpent type. Neck at least 3' long." 1882
Lake Monona - "20-30 foot long serpent with boat-like back." 1897
Apparently there were a lot of serpent sightings in Wisconsin back in the late 19th century!
Source
Werewolves
One of the first Wisconsin werewolf sightings occurred in 1936. A man named Mark Schackelman reportedly encountering a talking wolfman just east of Jefferson, Wisconsin on Highway 18. As he was driving along the road one evening, he spotted a figure digging in an old Indian mound. He looked closer and saw that the figure was a strange, hair-covered creature that stood erect and stood more than six feet tall. The face of the creature boasted a muzzle and features of both an ape and a dog. Its hands were oddly formed with a twisted thumb and three fully formed fingers. The beast gave off a putrid smell that was like “decaying meat”.
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In 1972, a werewolf returned to Wisconsin. One night, a woman in rural Jefferson County called the police to report an attempted break in at her home. According to an investigation conducted by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, she said that the intruder was a “large, unknown animal” that had come to the house and had tried to get in the door. The creature departed but returned again a few weeks later and injured one of her farm animals. The account stated that the creature had long, dark hair, stood about eight feet tall and walked upright like a man. Its arms were long and it had claws on each hand.
And last but not least is The Beast of Bray Road, which is known as Wisconsin's Werewolf. Read all about it here.
There was actually a movie made based on the legend. Check out the trailer below.
So, there they are, the unexplained "monsters" of Wisconsin and I only just scratched the surface. Keep checking back for more.
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