News4JAX on Loren Coleman
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 7th, 2011
St. Augustine’s Monster Mystery
News4JAX
Cryptozoologist Sheds Light On Monster Stories
POSTED: Friday, January 7, 2011
Video: St. Augustine Monster?
St. Augustine Monster?The story goes that two boys were playing on the shore of Anastasia Island in 1896 when they noticed a huge carcass on the beach.
That carcass became known as the St. Augustine Monster. On Friday night [January 7, 2011], cryptozoologist, Loren Coleman came into town to share stories of the monster at Ripley’s Believe it or Not Museum.
Coleman has been studying to figure out what really washed up on St. Augustine’s shore all of those years ago.
“It could have been a giant octopus, so the mystery increased,” said Coleman. Coleman said he’s surprised that not many tourists head to St. Augustine in search for answers to the mystery monster.
There are still some jars of tissue from the “monster” on display at the Smithsonian. A few years ago a similar blob washed up in Chile and scientists determined the “monster” there was a decomposing sperm whale.
“It is what happens when they decay,” said Coleman. “When they decay and come ashore, they change their form so much so that they fool people and people think that they’re some kind of monster.”
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.
