Save Your Cryptozoology History!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 18th, 2012
The Daily Mail’s Yeti Everest Expedition of 1954, tracked several trails of giant footprints on their trek.
Members of the greater Cryptomundo and cryptozoology communities are encouraged to consider highlighting your part of the history of cryptozoology by donating one or two expedition artifacts and/or other items to the International Cryptozoology Museum (11 Avon Street, Portland, ME 04101 USA) to preserve your legacy. Save the yesterdays today for the tomorrows of others.
Think about it. Your work is too important to see others merely throw away your research into a trash bin or send it along to an online auction, as we have heard has occurred.
Roland Smith writes:
You raise an interesting point, Loren.
I haven’t drawn up a will (mainly because I think I am too young!) but when we shuffle this mortal coil, it is more than likely our dearly beloveds may not regard any cryptozoological items with the same regard as we did. In other words, in the bin it goes or off to the car boot sale or it may lie in the attic decaying.
To this day I would like to know where the legacy notes, books, photos, etc of well-known Nessie researchers such as Whyte, Holiday, Dinsdale, Gould, etc ended up. Some I can guess where but that leads to the second problem of access. So, yes, think about these things if you have anything of value.
I laid out my complaints here.
The items at our nonprofit museum, besides being publicly exhibited for scientific and educational purposes, come under a formal policy for access. In brief, various donated books, papers and documents are readily available and accessible to credible students and researchers, on site, under supervision, for serious study. Expedition and personal items linked to search treks for cryptids are labeled and placed on public display.
Documents and papers are important, needless to say.
Team members of the 1954 Daily Mail Yeti expedition shown, include zoologist Charles Stonor, journalist Tom Stobart, zoologist Dr. Biswamoy Biswas, and naturalist Gerald Russell, who had assisted in the capture of the first live Panda and headed the 1958 Slick-Johnson Snowman Expedition.
What happens with the larger items from the quests? It is truly frightening to realize that so many sculptures, casts, cameras, artifacts, and such objects have completely disappeared because heirs do not understand the historical value of cryptozoology items. What happened to the Loch Ness Investigation Bureau’s van and cameras? How about the tons of equipment used on the 1950s-1960s Yeti expeditions?
Don’t get bogged down in thinking that you don’t have anything to contribute to the museum. Not true! Think small but symbolic. Have you been on an expedition in pursuit of Yetis, Thylacines, Bunyips, Sasquatch, Yowies, Yeren, Mongolian Death Worms, Ogopogo, Nessie, and/or one of hundreds of other cryptids? Did you come back with a pair of muddy boots you haven’t cleaned up? A smashed canteen? A field-used tent? A broken flashlight (torch in the UK)? Carabiners used in the Himalayas searching for Yeti or the Pamirs looking for Almas? The museum is building its collection regarding the cryptozoologists, as well as the cryptids. Consider donating something from your quest to help us capture the complete history of cryptozoology, and your part in it.
Preserve the legacy of today’s quests, even if only in a tiny way.
Thank you.
Loren Coleman, Director
International Cryptozoology Museum
11 Avon Street
Portland, Maine 04101
or
International Cryptozoology Museum
Post Office Box 4311
Portland, ME 04101
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Start 2012 on a positive note. Give to a good cryptozoology cause.
Much appreciation.
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.
I think its an excellent idea, and I will be happy to donate!
I also think such a collection is a great idea. I have been to the Bigfoot museum in Weaverville, I liked it. But, one is aware of the possible lack of funding and the apparent tenacious hold on the future. My personal frustration, not realizing in advance (!), has been the lack of any meaningful venue for evidence (if one chooses not to attempt a book, documentary, or significant article – and the Youtubes? nah..). I have not found a satisfactory venue, or reason to share in a self published fashion (not to mention why..the effort so big and why?). And it seems the day may be well in the future when many will accept work like mine. I am pretty old!
I will be happy to donate evidence you deemed relevant in the future. But I wonder what would that be? I only poured perhaps a dozen casts over the many trips because the soils contain almost no clay that might retain dermal ridges. Additionally, I felt the time of Bigfoot plaster casts is over to some degree. Most of my evidence is in digital format, either video or sound files. Or, anecdotal.
I did retain many items I employed in attempts at communication (I used RWMorgan’s techniques) and sculpted some statues as well as drew illustrations and left those renditions at exchange sites – most done during the day at the campsite. I took about 25 trips, about 65 nights, mostly alone into a particular SW wilderness area that happened to have relatively good vehicle access and limited people pressure, the campgrounds only hosting 5 unimproved sites. And I had the luxury of weekday trips leaving me the entire forest often. I recently spoke with Craig Woolheater and if he is out this way will be happy to have him review it all..