YEAR: 2012

SEASON: Spring

MONTH: April

DATE: 5th

STATE: Michigan

COUNTY: Manistee County

LOCATION DETAILS: The nearest town is a tiny place called Dublin I don't know but I think its farther north than Manistee..
West of M 37 about 6.8 miles, north of M 55 about 2 miles.

NEAREST TOWN: Wellston

NEAREST ROAD: Campground is at North Tippy Dam Road and Old House Road.

OBSERVED: We were on our yearly camping trip to Tippy dam pond, I believe its outside of Manistee. Its very remote, you have to travel down many back dirt roads to get to the campground .We have went camping up at Tippy dam for years, always in the spring to do a lot of fishing, day and night fishing. It was after midnight when we got up there in 2012 and we set up tents and the girls all went to sleep. Me and my brother and 12 yr old son took the boat out for some night fishing. We got back into this cove, the Tippy dam pond is huge, they call it the flooded forest. Its beautiful you could swear you were in Canada, very hilly. Huge hills back up to the water but all forest in every direction, very very remote. We were fishing sitting in the dead quiet when all of a sudden we were scared out of our minds!!! A huge rock that must have been the size of a bowling ball was thrown at are boat. At first we blew it off as if it were a fish jumping all though the distinct sound of a round ball hitting water is unmistakeable. So about 3 mts. went by when another one was thrown even closer to the boat. There was no way this was a fish, we shined a flashlight through the woods and could hear something moving fast thru the brush but could not make out what it was ..this area we were fishing is so remote there is no way any human would be out there let alone in the middle of the night ..I've never seen my brother scared, we are Michiganders, we deer hunt yearly spend days in the woods but we were scared that night. Something did not want us in that lil cove fishing and it was hurling huge rocks at us ta get us outta there and it worked lol. We started the boat and flew back to camp and woke the girls....

ALSO NOTICED: We were hearing what we thought were owls or wolves

OTHER WITNESSES: Two

TIME AND CONDITIONS: At night 12 am very dark

ENVIRONMENT: Forest ..sand dunes..lots of water

Follow-up investigation report by BFRO Investigator Kim Fleming:

The witness describes launching their boat from the Tippy Dam Campground boat slip some time after 10:30 pm and maneuvering about 20 minutes away from the docking area to fish for the evening. They traveled east about 1 mile from the dam, then they anchored about 15 feet off shore. Within just a few minutes, they heard rustling in the brush and then they heard a "huge kerplunck!" It caught them all off guard, startling them significantly. The witness described the sound as distinguishing a large rock, small boulder. It was not a fish jumping, it was definitely something heavy thrown into the water very close to the boat. About 5 to 10 minutes passed, and again something hit the water, but this time it passed over the boat. Again, it sounded like a huge rock thrown into the water. This startled the witness' brother so much that he dropped his line and turned the spotlight they had onto the shore. As they scanned the shore, they heard loud rustling in the brush and caught just a glimpse of the backside of something going over the dune. It was much larger than a deer and even larger than a bear. The color they saw was a very dark brown to black. No other identifying characteristics were seen. At this point, the witness' brother hauled up anchor and started the motor. He wanted to get the heck out of there!

The witness shared that he has hunted in that area previously and he and his son had both come across human like tracks. They did not cast the tracks, but just made a mental note. The tracks were "bigger than Shaquille O'Neal size tracks, with five toes!"

The witness described the area as rolling dunes with wooded areas. This particular area was a 50 to 60 yard dune from the shore to the top at about a 60 to 70 degree angle.

There have been similar experiences documented in this area.

About BFRO Investigator Kim Fleming:

Kim is a high school science teacher and uses Bigfoot research techniques to teach about scientific method. She has been interested in researching Bigfoot since 2008 and her husband experienced a sighting in Florida in 1976. Her interests include hiking, being outdoors, birding and working with young adults. Kim attended the 2012 and 2013 Michigan UP expedition and has done research in northern Michigan.

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