FIELD FILE · DEWEY-LAKE-MONSTERHOMINIDLOCAL LEGEND

Dewey Lake Monster

Also known as Sister Lakes Monster, Sister Lakes Sasquatch

Dewey Lake and Sister Lakes, near Dowagiac, Cass County, MichiganFIRST REPORTED: 1964WILDMEN & HOMINIDS

A 9-foot hairy creature with glowing eyes whose 1964 sightings near Dowagiac, Michigan, drew thousands of hunters to “Monster Town, U.S.A.”

The Dewey Lake Monster is the hairy giant at the center of one of the Midwest’s most memorable monster panics. In June 1964 the resort and farming community of Sister Lakes, just west of Dowagiac in southwest Michigan’s Cass County, found itself in newspapers from Detroit to Chicago after several families said they had seen an enormous, upright, ape-like creature in the woods and fields around Dewey Lake.

The flashpoint came on June 9, 1964, when Gordon Brown, 25, along with Mary and Randall Brown and a neighbor girl, reported a huge, dark creature on a local farm whose owner, Evelyn Utrup, had already told deputies she had heard something prowling at night. Two days later, a 12-year-old girl named Joyce Smith reportedly fainted after she and two friends saw a seven-foot, black-faced figure walking on its hind legs across a road. Others then admitted that they had seen something similar in earlier summers but kept quiet for fear of ridicule.

What followed was part manhunt, part carnival. Armed hunters, some from out of state, poured into Sister Lakes; deputies had to direct traffic, disarm overeager searchers and call in help from neighboring Van Buren County, and one hunter fired at a black Shetland pony in the dark. The Detroit News ran a front-page story about the traffic jams, Chicago papers dubbed the area “Monster Town, U.S.A.,” and local businesses sold Monster Burgers, monster-themed beer and $7.95 monster-hunting kits. A beer distributor offered a $1,000 reward for a live capture before Sheriff Robert Dool asked him to withdraw it.

Within a week the excitement faded. Searches found nothing but a few tracks of debatable origin, and officials publicly dismissed the monster. Yet the story never died: the creature has given its name to a local beer, been the theme of the annual Dewey Lake boat parade, and remains a much-loved piece of Michigan folklore.

Type: Hominid
Status: Local legend
First reported: 1964
Best-known location: Dewey Lake and Sister Lakes, near Dowagiac, Cass County, Michigan
Also called: Sister Lakes Monster, Sister Lakes Sasquatch
Reported in: Michigan

What witnesses describe

A huge, upright, hair-covered figure, estimated at seven to ten feet tall and around 500 pounds, with a dark, leathery face and eyes said to glow in the dark. It walked on two legs and left large tracks.

Where and when it’s seen

Woods, swamps, farm fields and lakeshore roads around Dewey Lake and the Sister Lakes between Dowagiac and Decatur, Michigan; reported mainly in early summer, often at night.

Notable sightings

June 9, 1964The Brown family encounter Near Dewey Lake, Cass County, Michigan
Gordon Brown and members of his family reported a giant hairy creature on a farm near the lake. Deputies made a plaster cast of a track, and by the next night armed hunters were swarming the area.
June 11, 1964A girl faints on the roadside Sister Lakes, Michigan
Joyce Smith and two friends said they saw a tall, black-faced creature cross a road on two legs; Smith reportedly fainted. The same day the Detroit News reported traffic snarled by the monster hunt.
June 12, 1964“Monster is nonexistent” Cass County, Michigan
The South Bend Tribune reported officials dismissing the creature, and within days the paper noted that nobody seemed frightened anymore. University of Michigan zoologist William Burt suggested witnesses had seen a bear standing upright.

What could explain it?

A black bear standing on its hind legs – the explanation offered by University of Michigan zoologist William H. Burt in 1964 – fits many descriptions, with heights exaggerated by fear and darkness.
Another academic suggested an escaped circus gorilla, though no such escape was ever documented.
Mass excitement, newspaper sensationalism and enthusiastic promoters fueled further “sightings” and planted fake tracks and photos.
A 1983 South Bend Tribune retrospective suggested some reports may have come from tired or tipsy seasonal workers.

Legend, culture and tourism

The 1964 scare is fondly remembered in Sister Lakes and Dowagiac: Sister Lakes Brewing named a beer after the creature, the 2016 Dewey Lake boat parade took the monster as its theme, and the story is a regular on Michigan radio and newspaper lists of state legends.

Where it’s reported

Michigan