Bigfoot in Michigan
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on April 7th, 2007
Is bigfoot trouncing through Tobico? Probably not, but it is one theory behind mysterious tree breaks
A bunch of trees snapped in two along a trail at Bay County’s Tobico Marsh has some wondering if it’s the handiwork of a bigfoot.
Lynn Conley, a Bay City artist, can’t think of what else but a hairy, man-like creature, or sasquatch, could have done the damage.
Last month, about a quarter mile from a parking lot for marsh visitors, Conley and friend Charles Robinson of Sanford say they found a group of 15-20 live poplar and oak trees that had recently been snapped off at a height of 2-10 feet.
“I looked at it really carefully,” said Conley, 52. “I thought at first it might have been a bear. But there were no claw marks, just snaps.”
“My first inclination was bigfoot. Honestly, it was so weird. The air was eerie. It was something I can’t even hardly describe.”
Conley and Robinson left the trees and were getting back into their car when they heard another tree snap.
“There was no wind, no reason for it to snap,” she said.
Mike Evanoff, supervisor for the Bay City State Recreation Area in Bangor Township, which includes the marsh, said he doesn’t know what could have caused the tree breaks.
“There’s probably a logical explanation,” Evanoff said.
He said the park gets reports every couple of years about black bears passing through the marsh.
But if the tree breaks are the work of bigfoot, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, either, Evanoff said.
“I think if we did have a bigfoot sighting that would be very beneficial,” he said, “then we could put some tours together and have a promotional opportunity for the park and the community.”
Robinson, 59, owns Bird’s Custom Framing on Midland Street in Bay City and said he regularly takes his dog, Loco, for walks on the marsh trails.
He said it’s common to see dead trees that have fallen down in the area.
But these trees were still alive, and similar-sized pieces were broken off. Some segments were missing. He tried to push one tree down and it wouldn’t give.
“I’m a naturalist,” Robinson said. “I grew up in the woods, so I know when something doesn’t look right.”
He said the broken pieces were not laying in any particular direction, which he thinks rules out a storm. They didn’t seem to have enough branches to be broken by snow and ice buildup, either. The trees weren’t saplings. They were too thick to wrap a hand around.
“My theory is that we had an exceptionally wet December, with a lot of rain,” Robinson said.
“That quickly froze. These trees were wet and saturated and with the quick freeze, just like a frozen pipe, they snapped off.”
Stories of mysterious tree breaks blamed on bigfoot are abundant on the Internet, and have been reported in numerous states.
Bigfoot is purported to inhabit remote forests in the Pacific Northwest and Canada, but sightings have been reported in Michigan and even Bay City, according to a Web site for the Michigan Bigfoot Information Center.The Bay City Times
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
hey craig this is a very interesting article about bigfoot in michigan. i know a few michigan sasquatch researchers. thanks bill green
Did anyone look for hair left on the trees?
It’s good to see Bigfoot in Michigan getting some attention. I live there, far away from Bay City, but still in an area where I’m surprised there isn’t more attention paid to the possibility of something being in the woods around here. There is so much wooded, uninhabited land in the upper peninsula, and certain areas of the Lower Peninsula. Something is living in this state, and it’s just a matter of time before someone finds it. Thanks for finding this Craig.
It’s no surprise to those of us who live in Michigan that Bigfoot may roam the wilderness here. I’ve investigated a number of sightings here in the UP and elsewhere. I’ve talked to many other people who pass along secondhand reports of someone they know who saw a possible Bigfoot or found possible footprints. Living in the remote woods of the UP, I can testify to the fact that we have ample territory in which Bigfoots could live.
Lisa A. Shiel
Michigan Upper Peninsula Bigfoot Organization
Bigfoot Quest blog
I am not doubting that Bigfoot could exist in Michigan, but I think it is a bit premature to attribute these broken trees to Bigfoot without any other evidence to support that theory. There could very well be other phenomena at work here. I find it funny that some people thought the only possible culprit could be a large, hairy, bipedal hominid. That sort of quick assumption is exactly one of the reasons why mainstream science cringes when it comes to stuff like this.
I think a first step in an investigation like this should be a late night trip to the local hang-out to see if there’s any scuttlebutt involving adolescent (acting) men and prohibited substances, but not before checking out Google Earth which shows this little marsh in a particularly significant location despite its proximity to what passes for “densely settled” in those parts of Michigan. The marsh is a coastal logoon at the head of a bay. While the current drainage travels through “downtown”, the little marsh’s formation is no doubt the result of the ancestral stream bed which can still be seen and would be a prime candidate for a wild critter seeking to follow its instinctive drive towards a spring-time migration of the local anadromous fish population. Anyone know if the steelhead are runnin’? Smelt? Coho? I notice too that while the area is widely covered with small plots of land, it looks like a lot of ’em are doing what small previously farmed plots of land have been doing for the last quarter century; returning towards the original condition of the land…and rarely visited.
Why can’t anyone find some BigFoot Dung? Don’t they go to the John to put it politely?
I agree with mystery_man: no reason to speculate on bigfoot here. I have seen trees snap from the cold as was mentioned in the article. Without any other evidence we might just as well speculate that it was caused by a low flying saucer!
Michigan needs to be more carefully looked at by the Bigfoot community, not because of snapped tree branches, but because of the amount of wilderness that is capable of housing an ape. The potential is here, and it needs to be utilized by those who research the mystery.
As a Michigander….I would love BF in Mich. Sigh….
But please, people, keep the “skepticals” on.
Helps to filter out the junk reports.
Reality of BF in Upper Peninsula – possible. Amazing place.
But elsewhere in the state…..I don’t know. Like I said, I’d be the first to shout yipee if it was confirmed. But snapped trees does not automatically equal BF. The Press certainly loves it though.
The only thing about the cold theory that strikes me as weird is the specific height that they are breaking at. Of course if we were in parts of California or some place that gets hot in the summer, I could see them using heat as an excuse too. I’ve seen that one–stranger than big foot. This large oak just exploded and threw shrapnel at least 500 ft. Say, did anyone report any foot prints?