Cryptids of Kansas: Hellhounds, Dogman, Wolfman and Werewolves...Oh My! 2
Posted by Flint Hills Paranormal on May 8, 2020
Cryptids of Kansas: Hellhounds, Dogman, Wolfman, and Werewolves…Oh My!
Part 2 – Kansas Sightings
Osage County:
Overall, this is one creature, with its bad disposition, size and fear factor, I would not want to come upon in the woods, but there are sightings in Kansas, some too close for comfort. One sighting occurred at dusk in 2016 in neighboring Osage County. This gentleman was driving home on a dirt road on a hot summer evening from shopping at a nearby town. He was driving slowly due to the curviness of the road. One side of the road was very steep and looked down into a field. As he was driving, a group of deer thundered out of the woods and across the road in front of him and down the hill. He decided to stop in case more deer came bounding out of the surrounding woods and he could watch them in the field below. As he was stopped, “That’s when this thing jumped out of the woods, running after the deer. He landed in the middle of the road and cleared the rest of the road in one stride.” In Dogman Encounters.com, the witness describes his incident as follows:
“It’s so hard to comprehend what I saw but, it sounds like the descriptions that have claimed on here. It was a Grey figure with a short sleek coat. I did not see a tail on this creature. It was on all 4’s and was the same height as the deer. His head was very odd. It looked like a dog head with cropped pointed ears but had a very short muzzle. He briefly turned his head towards me when he crossed and his eyes…I wouldn’t say they glowed but they weren’t normal animal eyes. They were like dull yellow. And they definitely stood out. His body was what really confused me because the way it moved was like a human would move when trying to run on all 4’s. Its gait looked lazy. Like he was just kind of loping across the road. It was very muscular on the front end but had a very thin almost sickly looking abdominal area and hind legs. Once he was across the road I lost sight of him over the embankment. I was so confused as to what I saw that I didn’t tell anyone right away for fear that they would think I was crazy.”
Jackson County:
The witness above had no idea of what he saw, but it certainly stood out to him as not a normal animal. It is also very normal for a witness to not want to say anything about their experiences, due to ridicule. There are two similar reports from Jackson County on Dogman Encounters.com. The first was on June 8, 2015, when the witness, a young man who had a small flock of chickens was going out to feed them and had brought extra corn to feed the deer behind his house. He said that there had been some poaching of these deer because they were so plentiful, but he loved to feed them. He thought he saw a doe sleeping in the tall grass outside of his home and went over to try to get a photo of it to show his mother later. As he got closer to the doe he was totally shocked by what he found….
“I was creeping across the yard towards the deer, and when I had cleared the burn pit and was about ten yards from it I realized that the deer wasn’t asleep, but it was dead. It was the most disgusting sight I had ever seen; its intestines were completely gone, the flesh on the body of the doe shredded to pieces and blood absolutely everywhere. It looked as if it had been sitting there for a while, and it smelled like it, too; most of the blood was dried and the air reeked with the stench of rotting flesh, urine, and what seemed like a hint of wet dog.
This was not the end of his tale. He was going to head back to the house when things got worse.
I had barely taken a few steps when I heard a low, snarling growl that sounded like a wolf, although it seemed distorted as if it were being played on an old radio (sorry, that’s the only way I think of describing it). Against my better judgement, I turned my head around, and I saw what looked like the biggest freaking wolf I’d ever seen. It was on all fours, its fur was black and matted in places; its face was what you’d expect a wolf to look like, although it was broad and the muzzle seemed a little short, although the way it was curling its lips made it look as if its snout was plenty long, and its eyes were yellow; not a bright yellow, if that makes sense. Its ears looked like that of a Doberman pincer, with the cropped effect. Its front legs were long, and it looked as if it were a body builder. Its ’paws,’ if you can even call them paws, looked like huge hands with long claws at the end of them. It stood up, and I heard the most sickening popping sound you could ever imagine. It sounded like the sound of popping joints, but it seemed amplified as if it were being played through a microphone and the sound was coming out of loud speakers. Its body looked like a body builders pumped up on steroids, it was so big. It had no tail, that I could tell, and it seemed to tower over me, although I was a god 10 meters from it. I was about five foot four inches at the time, and I came nowhere close to its height; it was so tall that the tip of its ears could almost touch the top of a young cedar. It let out a loud howl, which sounded more like a roar and it charged at me. Doing the only thing I knew to do while hyped up on fear and adrenaline, I began to run away from it. I remember clearing my yard in what seemed like hours but was most likely only a few seconds, and running inside, slamming and locking all of the doors and windows. As I calmed down a small bit, I had realized that if it had really wanted to kill me that it would have; that what I had experienced was not an attack charge, but a bluff. I was lucky to get away with my life.”
He found that the doe carcass had disappeared later that day. He talked to his grandmother about this incident to see if she had ever heard of anything like this before, “ She informed me that there was something called the wolf-head man that stalked the Kansa tribe, preying on small children that strayed too far from their tepees. Later I was informed by my History teacher that my house had been built on tribal burial ground, and I have since been wondering if it had anything to do with it.
It is interesting to note that if his house was built on a sacred burial ground, that these creatures are often seen around cemeteries; and also, there are many legends to keep children from wandering off, so there have been many Boogeymen that will get you, devised to keep the little ones in line. This incident had happened 2 years prior to his report on this website. Since then he said that he had suffered many bad dreams about this incident, and then he began to have other experiences in the woods. One time he heard a bipedal animal paralleling him through the brush while he was walking in the woods. Another time he heard noises on the front porch and looked out of the door just in time to see a large shape going around the corner of his house. I believe that I might think about moving…
Jackson County:
The other report from Jackson County was reported on September 13, 2013. In this case, the man, who had been studying wolf behavior for his own enjoyment, had been on his computer and felt like something was watching him. He went to the window and saw that his motion detecting floodlights were on. When he looked out, he thought he saw something duck down, but didn’t think anything of it. He went back to his computer, but when the floodlights came on again, he turned around and…..
“It was a huge, huge wolf, that was looking at me with dirty ambery-yellow eyes. Its ears looked like they were torn or Cropped or something, and the face looked sort of human-like. Not really a full human face, but more like the jawline looked very masculine and human compared to the rest of its face. Its lips were curled back and it seemed as it if were snarling, though I couldn’t hear it if it was, and its breath caught on the cold glass. It was so tall that the top of its head was halfway up the window, and if I had to guess how wide it was I’d probably say maybe the width of my shoulders. I knew that whatever it was, it most likely had wolfish instincts, so I did the only thing I knew to do, which was to avoid eye contact and make yourself look small as you could whilst having your throat and underside showing. This is a very common submissive position, and although I was scared out of my mind, I knew that holding eye contact would make me seem like a challenger and running would make me seem like prey. When I did the submissive position it must’ve worked for it to leave me alone because it just hit the window, which made the entire trailer shake, and it went away. I hadn’t heard or seen anything else like it since, although I do hear the odd howl coming from the backroads. God help the poor idiot that decides to try and hunt this thing down. I can tell you that whatever it was NOT friendly because if it were, it wouldn’t have slammed my window as hard as it had, and it would not have been growling like I’d taken its food.”
Jefferson County:
Kathren C. reported to me on May 2021, that she had a very scary encounter in the dark at the Perry Lake spillway, down the creek from there. This was about 10 years ago, so 2010-2011, in the summertime. This is her story:
"Now my then husband at the time and myself were out at Perry Lake night fishing which he loved to do and I didn't mind. We heard across the spillway from us a splash splash splash all the way down to the south away from us. We figured nothing but a beaver but wasn't quite sure that's what it sounded like. We went on about our fishing not thinking anything much more about this. I'd say about maybe 30 mins or so later we heard a large branch stick crack in behind us?? We never seen anything never smelled anything but after that crack here came another splash in the water channel that branched off in behind us! At this point we decided it was time to go and we got outta there in a quick hurry! We were thinking no beaver no deer we didn't know but we sure took it to other thoughts? But I don't know what it was!"
In further communication Kathren indicated that "...but something was going on because beavers and deers don't throw rocks." The Lake Perry area has had reports of Bigfoot tracks being found, and Bigfoot reports often have rocks being thrown, so this may have been a misidentification.......or maybe not. At any rate this big scary stopped the fishing for the night and she said that she wouldn't go back to the area.
Hamilton County:
This site, Dogman Encaounters.com also had an interesting report from Hamilton County in the early 2000’s. This report is from a man who recalled this incident from his childhood outside of his grandparents house.
“Nearby was a large patch of overgrown weeds, almost as tall as six feet in some places. I hated playing at the play set, because sometimes, around sunset, I’d see red eyes from within the weed patch. I told my grandparents, but they dismissed it as coyotes. However; one day, I wanted answers and I approached the weeds. Upon closer inspection, I saw a creature that looked similar to a dog, with shaggy white fur. I remember that I thought its front ‘paws’ looked like that of a gorilla’s. The creature moved away from me and I never saw it in that weed patch again. A year later, I saw the same figure lurking in the dark, outside of the house. I was so paranoid, my mother could not get me to leave the house for a long time, except for going to school.” Believe the children!
Linn County:
Paul P. is an outdoorsman and hunter extraordinaire! He reported several incidents of possible Bigfoot and Dogman interactions that he had with these secretive creatures to me on April of 2021. He had several encounters in several counties in north east Kansas. His Dogman report is in this area, but his other encounters with a Bigfoot creature will be located under the Bigfoot section. This is his Dogman experience in Linn County.
"....yes I had an audio experience of a howl that was back in late December of last year (2020) and it was abou 9:30 PM in th eevening. I happened to step outside for a moment heard the coyotes are howling and in the midst of them howling was a demonic very eerie sounding Howl and I have been an outdoorsman all of my life I have never heard anything like this I know what wolves sound like this was nothing like that..."
Paul added that the howl lasted 10-12 seconds or more. We talked for quite some time and he also reported that there are reports of Giants or something giant around the Mound City area. He also reported that many deer in the area died from Blue Tongue which is a very sad disease that has killed many deer.
Marshall County:
I received an email on September 22, 2021, from a distraught mother because her son had seen a frightening sight coming home from work. They were looking for information whether others have seen the same creature in the area. Here is her story:
"Found you on Google. Yes, I had to go to Google to even see if others have seen what I'm about to tell you.
Tonight in rural Marshall County Kansas my 18 year old son was driving home around 10 pm after a long day (of work) and says he saw the most unusual and scary thing he's ever seen. Standing in the middle of highway 9 outside of Frankfort Kansas he says a huge creature of pure black taller than his vehicle was paused in the middle of the road. He flashed his brights and it darted off into the nearby field quick as sin he says. He was so terrified he came and woke me up to tell me about it."
There was some delay between our emails, but she later relayed what her son had seen in further detail.
"Estimated between 7 and 8 foot tall. Extremely dark colored. He couldn't tell if the fur was long or short. The head was oblong in shape. It stood on two legs in the road but then escaped by four. Extremely fast. Its eyes reflecting off car lights but did not shine brighter outside. It appeared to be looking at something in the distance when he first came on it. He didn't get a better of it as he was driving 65 and it was evening. Though the moon was out it wasn't as bright as a full moon. He said it didn't move until he flashed it with his brights to get a better look then it was gone into the tree line before he knew it. No sounds could be heard as he had his stereo on at the time."
"We are life long Kansas residents and he says he's never seen anything like it. The hairs on his arms stood up."
This must have been a very frightening sighting for this young man, but it sounds like so many other Dogman sightings. Many are found eating road kill in the road or crossing roads. One other commonality with this report and others is that the creature walks on two legs, but then runs off on four legs. There are other counties in the general area that have reports of these frightening looking creatures. It seems that in northeast Kansas, we may certainly have a Dogman running around scaring folks at night!
Douglas County:
I will leave you all with one more Kansan who reported a terrifying run in with a two-legged creature outside of Lawrence in 2014. This report was published in “Exploring American Monsters: Kansas” by Jason Offutt, July 7, 2015.
“Michael was driving near Lawrence, Kansas, in August 2014 when a deer ran across the road. He slowed the car to a stop to make sure no other deer followed when he noticed something that froze his blood. “I saw red eyes looking at my truck,” he reported to the local news. “Like eyes shine when a deer looks in a light, but just a dark red.”
Michael picked up a flashlight from the cab of his vehicle, and shown it toward the glowing red eyes. What he saw, he couldn’t readily explain. “It was something like a dog,” he said. “The back legs were shorter than the front.” And it stood on its hind legs.
The animal was about the size of a Great Dane. The creature broke eye contact, and walked across the road on two legs. It took the beast three steps to cross the pavement. After it crossed, the creature dropped to four legs, ran into a field, and disappeared.”
Cloud County:
A young man reported to me on March 17, 2021, that his brother had seen a Dogman near Wells, Kansas. His brother wasn't willing to discuss his sighting, but his brother said that his sighting was "a area from Clay Center to Minneapolis Kansas there is a spiritualistic camp in Wells that's where I think he saw it." I am sorry that I wasn't able to discuss this further with the brother, but I imagine that he was pretty terrified by his sighting and would probably rather forget it all together!
Sedgwick County:
In PhantomsandMonsters.com, there is a personal account from two ladies who had a very scary encounter with a huge, hairy beast. Their story follows:
"My daughter, who was still living at home in her first year of cosmetology school, and a friend had gone to Wichita, Kansas to a show. This was in the summer of 2008. On their way home, driving on a country road in Sedgwick County to cut over from a highway to our house, came around a bend in the road. Their headlights swept across the road in front of them and standing by the side of the road, near the guardrail of the concrete bridge, was a huge canine creature. The girls were so frightened when telling me that it took a bit to calm them down enough to get some sense out of them.
The road is a north south road, and the sighting was a quarter mile from town. The bridge is just a small one that goes over a runoff creek, and my guess is the dogman was too big to go under it but had to go over the road, and was coming up the draw from the creek bottom.
They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. My daughter's car was small, a little Chevy Cavalier, and she said the lights didn't reach this things face, so they didn't get an eyeshine, but it was huge. It was black, and the height and width of a cow, on all fours. All they could focus on was the muzzle and all the huge razor teeth when it peeled its lips back and snarled at them. She said it could have reached out and touched their car but it didn't. She screamed and she stomped on the gas, they were both looking behind once they got into town because they worried it was chasing them. She wiped her eyes and said "I think we saw a freakin' werewolf, Mom."
I seriously remember the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
After asking her if she was sure she hadn't seen a Sasquatch, and her saying, "Mom, you don't understand, it was the biggest wolf. Huge! And it showed its teeth at us! It wasn't a Bigfoot! It was, it was a werewolf!" I just had no idea what they saw, but they were very scared and I told her never drive that road at night. I felt kind of helpless.
Flash forward 10 years, and I hear a YouTube story about a "dogman," and the light bulb came on! OMG, this is what those two girls saw! Here in Kansas, of all places! I sent her the YouTube and she was pretty shook up, but relieved to know it was a real thing. When I showed her different pictures of the types, she said it was the 'Van Helsing' movie werewolf looking one, which scared ME!
If it helps to know, this area is about 2, maybe 3, miles from a river, which is east of the road they saw it on. They didn't get a good look at its feet as the backside of it was coming up an incline from the little creek, they saw the front, shoulders, chest, head and apparently teeth. Those were the details they gave me." GG
Unknown Location:
A young man wrote to me January 30, 2020 about a creature that they had sighted in their pasture. He didn't indicate where this occurred. This is his story:
"My brother, cousin, and I were out in a field near our homes and we seen something out of the ordinary. What we saw I still don't know. I've tried to find out what it was what we had seen. What it looked like was it was a dog like creature the size of a deer and it was red. It's rib cage was very distinct like it was malnourished or something. Cows chases it off we went to see if it had left anything behind and well it did it was eating a cow that was giving birth."
I am not sure if this is a Dogman sighting, but it is a very large dog and very unusual.
So is Dogman, Wolfman, whatever you want to call it real? We have good Kansans, as well as enough other people who have seen them to devote books, websites and organizations to searching out the truth to these reports. Are they flesh and blood or do they come from another dimension to scare us half to death? I am attaching a photo of a print that I cast on my property several years ago. I sent it to Ms. Godfrey since it is the right size (6” X 6 ½”) for a Dogman track, but after having some conversation about it, we were stumped. I guess I will never know if one really passed through, but I hope not. Researchers will continue to search to try to find out what these elusive, terrifying creatures may be, and innocent individuals will continue to get the bajeebers scared out of them when they see one, but until we know what they are….. be careful out there in those woods!
If you see something strange or have any questions, please feel free to contact me at flinthillsparanormal@gmail.com or message me on our Facebook page.
Stay strange!
Dr. Linda Clarke
Mysterious Universe.org, “Bizarre Hellhound Encounters in the US”, Brent Swancer, August 28, 2018.
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2018/08/bizarre-hellhound-encounters-in-the-usa/
The Mercury, “Off the Beat: The Colorful Cryptids of Kansas”, Savannah Rattanavong, Oct. 6, 2019.
Cryptid Wiki: Fandom, “Hellhounds”.
The First Page, “Hellhounds”, Published by Nox, August 11, 2018.
https://thefirstage.org/wiki/hellhound-d1/
Kansas City Star, “Three Seldom Seen ‘Devil Dogs’ Black Coyotes Among 149 Coyotes Killed in NC Hunt”, Mark Price, February 11, 2019.
https://www.kansascity.com/news/nation-world/national/article226080045.html
Phantoms and Monsters, "Huge Canine Cryptid Encountered in Rural Sedgwick County, Kansas.", November 22, 2020.
Phantoms and Monsters - Real Eyewitness Cryptid Encounter Reports