The Great Cheboygan Alligator

Cheboygan, Michigan—a town known for its scenic beauty, Great Lakes charm, and, apparently, Alligators. Over the weekend, staff at the Pine River Motel stumbled upon something you don’t typically find under a pile of towels in a recently vacated room: a three-foot-long alligator named Wally.

Yes, Wally. An honest-to-God alligator. In a motel. In Michigan. Not exactly where you’d expect to find a creature better suited for the Florida Everglades or a reality show about swamp people.

Housekeeping was just doing their usual routine, flipping sheets, restocking soap, wondering why guests insist on leaving the TV on full volume. And then—bam. Alligator. The exact moment that discovery was made remains unknown, but one can assume it involved a lot of screaming, a flurry of expletives, and possibly someone making the sign of the cross.

The call to 911 must have been an all-timer. And guess what? The audio exists.

Enter the Mystery Alligator Handler

Turns out, Wally was not some rogue, cold-blooded drifter checking into hotels and ordering room service. He actually belonged to a traveling exotic animal handler who had been in town doing educational assemblies at local elementary schools. You know, teaching kids about wildlife, conservation, and, apparently, how to misplace a reptile in a roadside motel.

Somewhere between loading the van and checking out, the alligator went missing. And at no point did the handler think, “Hey, shouldn’t I be keeping better track of the prehistoric predator I travel with?”

Police were called, animal control was looped in, and after a brief (but wildly entertaining) bit of confusion, the alligator was identified and retrieved by its owner. No harm, no foul—though the motel staff probably needed a strong drink afterward.

Lessons Learned

All in all, Cheboygan handled its reptilian surprise like champs. No panic, no overreaction, just a classic “Welp, guess this is happening now” Michigan attitude. The motel remains open for business, Wally is back with his handler, and the legend of Cheboygan’s alligator will live on for years to come.