Beast of Bray Road



SOMETHING WICKED IN WISCONSIN: A strange creature was lurking in rural Wisconsin between 1989 and 1991. On three separate occasions, three teenage girls reported encounters with a manlike beast near Bray Road in Elkhorn, Wis. All accounts described an aggressive "werewolf" creature with pointy ears, dark brown fur and large claws. In spite of the disbelief of many citizens, a local news reporter, Linda Godfrey, began investigating the sightings and stumbled upon a much larger story that gained national attention.

MORE SIGHTINGS: Thanks to Godfrey's reporting, state and national news organizations picked up the story of the beast of Bray Road and more people came forward to relay their own sightings. Among them was an employee of the Elkhorn Burger King who witnessed the beast running along the road; she described it as a "very powerful, fast runner." Several others reported strange footprints around the area and Elkhorn's animal control began a file that held numerous accounts of "unidentified walking animals."

One gentleman, Joe Shackleman from nearby Racine, Wis., came forward to tell the story his father shared with him many decades prior. According to Shackleman, his father was a night watchman at a convent and observed a beast standing on a Native American burial ground in 1936. He said the creature had three shriveled fingers and a body covered in dark fur, and that it was more than 6 feet (1.8 meters) tall. The beast was very menacing with a low growl and emitted a strong odor. Could this be the same creature witnessed in the 1990s? No one is positive, but the similarities are striking. Now, more than a decade later, the media frenzy has died down, but the citizens of Elkhorn still keep watch for the return of the beast on Bray Road.Although it's impossible to predict when the Abominable Snowman might be seen again in real life, there is an annual sighting on the holiday TV special "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer."