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SISTER LAKES — Brews, brats and Bigfoot were on the menu Saturday at Sister Lakes Brewing Company.

It was there that The Lost Cryptids Conservatory presented its Dewey Lake Monster Conference to believers and non-believers alike.

A few dozen people were on hand for the free event, which featured Bigfoot researchers and enthusiasts sharing their knowledge of the mythical creatures, as well as stories of close encounters.

Merchandise featuring T-shirts, bumper stickers and more was on site, as well as a display of plaster cast replicas of Bigfoot footprints allegedly found in the wild.

Founded in 2011 by Blake Duescher, the LCC is a Michigan-based multi-disciplinary group that dedicates itself to, “the research and discovery of unknown cryptids and mysteries.”

Cryptids are animals, such as the Loch Ness Monster or Bigfoot, that have been claimed but never proven to exist.

“We had a good showing,” Duescher said. “We had a lot of fun talking about what we love to do, and what’s out there. There are a lot of mysterious things out there and we feel like people should be aware of it.”

The Dewey Lake Monster is a legendary Bigfoot-like creature first reported in the mid 1960’s after sightings near Dewey Lake in Dowagiac. The creature is described as, “a hairy animal approximately nine feet tall, with glowing eyes.”

“The level of interaction [The Dewey Lake Monster] had with the community and the level of aggression and harassment is kind of unparalleled,” Duescher said. “We normally don’t see or hear of that level of aggression in the reports we get.”

Duescher and his team spent Friday searching for signs of the creature. He said they found structures that could have been made by the Dewey Lake Monster, but they did not witness the creature themselves.

“We feel that it was probably a Sasquatch or another type of cryptid that, for whatever reason, was really mad at people or possibly the land development and just went on a rampage,” Duescher said.

Attendees were given the chance to speak about any encounters they might have had. Jim Smith, of Columbia Township in Van Buren County, recalled a sighting of a creature this past summer on his way to Perry, Michigan.

While taking a detour, Smith saw something large moving through the brush.
“It was so brief, but it was vivid,” Smith said. “At one point, I drove by it and it was probably only a picnic table’s length away from me. I never got to see its face, just its body from the waist up, but I saw it when its hands went down in the grass. Its arms were so long.”

Frank Grumeretz brought a collage of newspaper clippings to share with conference-goers. A Battle Creek native, Grumeretz and his family bought a house on Cable Lake four years ago and began hearing stories of the Dewey Lake Monster from the community.
“When we first moved here, we were talking to locals and heard this story,” Grumeretz said. “I have a 10- and a 12-year-old, who were kind of enamored by everything, so we started doing some research. We looked up articles and a bunch of stuff and put this collage together to hang in the basement.”

The project was nostalgic for Grumeretz, who remembers searching for Bigfoot with friends and family members when he was a child. The conference itself resonated with Grumeretz because it featured people from prominent backgrounds, including government and law enforcement.

“There was a retired federal officer and a retired police officer,” Grumeretz said. “These are people who aren’t susceptible to rumors and are just compiling data. I’m a logical person, but you hear some of these stories and it makes you wonder if it’s really possible. There were a lot of interesting stories, points of view and data shared today.”