Manistee, Michigan 1967

"I don't know what I saw...I don't want to go into it." - Claybank Lake fisherman

In 1967, two friends were fishing from a rowboat near the south shore of Claybank Lake in Manistee County, Michigan. Their luck had been poor, and they were considering giving up and rowing back in. That's when one of them spotted an animal swimming toward the boat.

"At first I thought it was a deer," said one of the fishermen, who both requested anonymity. "And I thought 'how odd - why would a deer be swimming toward our boat?' Then as it got closer, it looked more like a man's face."

The fishermen's interest turned to horror as the animal closed on the boat. The animal did have the features of a man, but with an extended canid snout. Beneath the water, they could see four legs paddling like a dog.

They jumped back as the creature bumped the side of the rowboat, then two paws grasped at the rail. The animal was trying to climb into the boat! One of the men gathered his wits and grabbed one of the oars. He frantically pounded on the animal's paws, which eventually released their grip. The fishermen quickly set the oars and rowed at full speed toward shore. They never saw the animal again.

"I don't know what I saw," one of the fishermen told a reporter from the Traverse City Record Eagle in 1987. "I don't want to go into it."

Status: Confirmed

Sources: Manistee County Historical Soceity, Traverse City Record Eagle, Witness Interviews