Museum: One Of Top Weird Stories of 2009
Posted by: Loren Coleman on December 6th, 2009
The International Cryptozoology Museum has been picked as one of the “top weird stories of 2009,” by the Lewiston Sun-Journal.
Photo credit: Bryan Bruchman.
Staff writers Kathryn Skelton and Lindsay Tice, in “Weird, Wicked Weird: What a year” wrote, via the subsection, Bigfoot at home on Congress Street:
A few people have been halfway through the tour when Loren Coleman says they’ve looked up and realized, “Oh, you’re the guy on ‘MonsterQuest.'”
In November, Coleman opened the International Cryptozoology Museum and most days, he’s the one running the show.
The museum is laid out in…500-square-foot [of space] at 661 Congress St. in Portland, reached through The Green Hand Bookshop. With decades’ worth of Bigfoot, Loch Ness and other strange paraphernalia, the cryptozoologist says he plans to rotate part of the exhibit four times a year. It all used to be kept, by appointment only, in his home.
Museum-goers are already bringing in their own finds, like a Yeti’s Best produce box from Whole Foods and Vietnamese wine with a king cobra inside. For the latter, Coleman said he Googled and found that it’s the Asian equivalent of tequila with a worm at the bottom. Into his collection it went.
He has a three-year lease on the property, with an option for three more, and plans to expand….
Museum hours: Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m.-6 p.m., Sunday noon-5 p.m., closed Monday. Admission is $5 per person.
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.
Wish I lived closer,$5 seems nice and cheap.
Heh, same. If I didn’t live on the other side of the country, I’d be there.
Hopefully business will keep booming.
That’s a professional and interesting looking store front, Loren. I love your logo especially–great design. I’ll definitely have to drive up to Portland to check out the IC museum next time I’m visiting my family in Massachusetts. It really does look like a fantastic and fun place to visit! I’m sure it will pique the curiosity of many in the years ahead. Great job putting it all together!