Olaf the Giant Display
Posted by: Loren Coleman on April 7th, 2007
This is the card that was over Olaf the Giant display. The same card was used at the Jones Museum / Seattle Center, when the Museum was on Highway 99 – north of Lynnwood, Washington, before it moved to Seattle Food Circus.
Thanks to Rich for sharing this from his growing collection of Seattle area historical attractions.
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
Olaf was not a viking. Born in 1335 according to the card. The Viking era was history already in 1335. Olaf was born in the dark ages. Up here in the Nordic countries it’s a common fact that the Viking era was over in the early 11th century. Is it not the same in the USA (and other places)?
It takes a bit more to convince me that Olaf is genuine. And if he was real we would have heard about him here in Scandinavia but we haven’t.
Isn’t it funny how a lot of hoaxers can live from lack of common sense.
I’m not certain I know one person who claims Olaf was genuine. It is, instead, a well-known gaff. However, its present whereabouts and most of its recent history has been lost. The “Olaf” postings here are merely an attempt to track it down, so as to separate it from other “giants” floating around, out there, in the sideshow and carnival trade.
Could this be an insprirational source for Tom Robbins’ “Another Roadside Attraction”? Could a gaff, especially one for which the provenience is un-verifiable though presumed to be well documented (sorta like the Hollywood special effects guys and PGF), be in fact, not a gaff, but equally un-believable?
You may be able to find an OLAF in the coming NFL draft.