Celebrating Seven Years of Cryptomundo
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 27th, 2012
September 29, 2012, will be the SEVENTH anniversary of the first posting on Cryptomundo, placed here by Craig Woolheater.
What was the subject of that first posting? The Ivory-Billed Woodpecker.
Craig wrote this:
This past April [2005], the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology published in the journal Science that the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, long thought to have been extinct, was found in the bottomland swamp forests of Arkansas. The correlation to Bigfoot research is this: It took a very well-funded and equipped team of 18 full-time searchers, 15 member Bioaocustics Research Crew, 2 member production crew and 35 member part-time crew 1 year, 7,000 hours in the field to record a dozen or so brief sightings and 4 seconds of video.
If we only had a fraction of that funding in the search for a bipedal primate that may be roaming the same forested bottomlands that the Ivory-billed Woodpecker is, maybe we would have similar results.
I first joined Cryptomundo on October 13, 2005, with the following words, after my friend, the editor/coauthor/publisher Patrick Huyghe suggested I look into doing this thing called “blogging.” Here is my first “blog” at Cryptomundo:
Technology and Cryptozoology. Blogs and Bigfoot. Yetis and Yahoo searching. Sea Serpents and surfing the net. Windigo, wood bison, and webpages. Emails and Giant Eels. Before you know it, we’ll have Igopogo and iPods to deal with, in the not-too-distance future. It is a changed world since I began assembling everything I could on Abominable Snowmen in that crisp Midwestern March of 1960. But I do have technology to thank for launching me into being a cryptozoologist. It all began via a television broadcast of a Japanese movie, Half Human. Technology now brings me to you via a blog. Incredible. It seems only fitting I find myself here, after a very warm fall, on the appropriately first day with a bit of a chill around the edges, here in Maine. Today I jump into the grand and important mainstream of blogging my thoughts, the news, my insights, and others’ reflections in cryptozoology, happily on Cryptomundo.com. I shall use this as my primary window on the world, to communicate and reflect with you all, what I see, hear, and understand to be happening in this exciting field. For me, it’s a grand and adventurous part of a journey I began long ago, but which, really, feels like to me, starting only yesterday. Cryptozoology is all about passion and patience. Come join me on the trek…
Congratulations to you, the readers, for making it what it is today.
We’ve been through a lot together. Recall?
Do any of you remember those early days? How long have you been reading Cryptomundo?
What do you miss from those prehistory days at Cryptomundo?
Clearly, we’ve had some fun along the way, while informing, as well.
One thing I know I use to like here, part of the first design by Duncan Hopkins, and which doesn’t exist here any longer: The individual headers for each of the writers.
Remember how you could instantly tell whom you were reading at a glance? I began writing here under the banner of Cryptomundo, yes, but then there was a clearly defined logo identifying my columns as “Cryptozoo News by Loren Coleman.”
I liked those days of easy recognition between the writers, especially now that it has become so crowded here with various voices.
Just saying.
How about you all?
All Art by Ted Bastien
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.
Happy Birthday, Cryptomundo!
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Loren! The Early Show photo made me nearly choke laughing!!!
CONGRATULATIONS!
99.99999999999999999999999999999% of cryptid evidence skates below the radar of the news media. Every “Bigfoot story” is given to some lightweight with no relevant experience or training, who is all but told to treat it as Light News or News of the Weird.
Meanwhile, severely qualified scientists publish books and even refereed papers that go utterly ignored by colleagues who have pretty much been ordered not to take it seriously (if they haven’t been brought up since childhood with “this isn’t real” pounded into their heads until they can’t think anything else).
How many of the actual zoological discoveries that happen all the time would be possible if mainstream zoology were treated that way?
This site is critical to zoology. Because this IS ZOOLOGY.
Happy anniversary. I haven’t posted here for long (or very often) but I have been lurking for years and really enjoy this place.
Here’s to another 7 years and 7 after that.
Happy anniversary!! As yet another who posts little, but reads much, I hope to be reading this for many MANY more years!
@DWA: I think you missed a “9.”
What a pleasure it is to have a site like this for quality discussions and the sharing of ideas. The thing that makes me most proud to be a “member” of cryptomundo.com is its contributor’s overall feeling of conservation.
somebodyssquatchingme: I was rounding up.
Way to go crypto. Urs is an amazing weblog n i wish n hope this endeavor continues till d last of d cryptids is found.
Hail yeti 😉
Happy anniversary Cryptomundo! 7 years of cryptid fun!
Cryptomundo is a terrific site that I’ve been checking almost every day since Fall 2005. Happy Anniversary to all involved in this most important website.
That’s awesome! And I raise my glass to toast another 7 years of success.
Yes, I miss a couple of the old things at Cryptomundo. I am in agreement with Loren. I liked the bold headers identifying the writers of various posts. It stuck in my head, as to who wrote the article while reading it. Now that I am older, not getting any younger, I think it might be a good idea to bring that back. I was recently reading through several posts and I could not remember who the author was. I realized it was probably mystery_man who had written it but had to go back and check, just to make sure. So that is not a bad idea.
Another thing I miss is the long conversations between members of Cryptomundo. Yes, I do realize that a post must be extremely interesting and have opposing camps for that to happen. But it seemed to happen more often in the old days. I remember many contributing posters running the posts on for several feet of my computer screen. This rarely happens any more. I miss that! There were great discussions and almost everyone was cordial to one another regardless of the point they were trying to make or which camp they came from.
I think many of the posts here now are general information posts about cryptozoology. That is good! I want the information. But what might be better are discussion oriented posts. I remember a couple that are good examples of what I miss. The BigFoot Massacre post was an awesome thread. The BF Digger Indian post was another. The post about the timeline of the Bluff Creek incident was another good discussion. There were several more.
The posts that illicit that type of discussion today on Cryptomundo are video postings for analysis and photos posted for scrutiny. The posts I referred to earlier did not need photos or videos to bring about a lively discussion. We need more posts like that, especially after reading here in this very thread that there are several lurkers or those that do not post often. Discussion type posts get people involved. Lurkers become posters and thus you have more active participation by Cryptomundo members.
See my point? And that is why I miss those days.
Oh, and one other post, which brought about lively discussion was the mystery fish on the old postcard! I know Loren runs that every so often. Hint, hint!
Congrats, Cryptomundo! And does anyone know the name of that lovely young lady being oogled by the mini-quatch? ;P
Woohoo! Cryptomundo celebrates their birthday the same day I celebrate my patron saint —St Michael— Let’s party on!
I’ve been visiting this site on a regular basis since 2007. I hope I get to see many more Cryptomundo anniversaries 🙂
Happy Anniversary!
I’ve been a member since mid-2006. The Maine Mutt-ant reeled me in :-).
Congratulations on a successful seven years.
It has been quite a while since I read anything on the Ivory Billed Woodpecker, although I do remember visiting a town in Arkansas where it is considered quite a big deal.
I’m sure it’s a pretty big deal to the other Ivory-Billed Woodpeckers in the area!
Has it been that long already?
I’ve been around here for a long time. I remember when I was a reader here, just lurking. That must have been, oh, just about the time this site started. It wasn’t that I was not interested in commenting, it was just that I was also new to this whole “blogging” thing at the time, and wasn’t sure if my voice would be heard. I was content to read the wonderful articles and follow the discussions as merely an observer.
Then one day there was an article on something on Japan (where I live and work), and I just had to comment. I simply could not resist. Loren liked what I wrote and I was surprised and thrilled to actually get an e-mail from him. Considering my long time interest in cryptozoology, he was of course a figure I looked up to highly and getting a mail from him praising my comment just blew me away. I was astounded that I had managed to not only have my voice heard, but get a personal response from one of my heroes. It was a special moment for me.
From there, I started doing guest blogs here from time to time on cryptids of Japan and they were mostly positively received. I was very pleased to introduce these creatures, some of which are hardly ever mentioned, if at all, in English cryptozoology literature. It was rewarding to feel that I was able to put my background and Japanese language skills to use to enrich and drive cryptozoology forward somewhat, no matter how little.
These guest blogs took off and now here I am as a regular writer for Cryptomundo. I believe, and Loren you tell me if I am wrong, that with my work on Japanese cryptids I have written perhaps the longest running series of articles on a single topic here at Cryptomundo. There is more to come, and I tell you, I could not be happier to share these things and contribute to this amazing site.
Cryptomundo is not to me just a cryptozoology site. It is THE cryptozoology site. Nowhere else have I seen such a measured, level headed approach to this subject, and nowhere else have I seen such thought provoking discussions amongst the commenters. We are truly blessed with a group of mostly intelligent, scientifically minded, respectful commenters here. Looking at some of the free for all forums I have seen elsewhere, this is a treasure. Thank you for all being here.
Whenever I come here, I feel like I am among friends. Indeed, we have been through a lot together on this bumpy road we call cryptozoology, and we have had both serious debates and laughs. Some long time commenters I feel like I almost know personally (DWA, red_pill_junkie, Photo Expert, and others, you all know who you are). Others seem to have gone, and I miss them as if they were old friends I’ve lost contact with. (Where are you springheeledjack and cliffhanger?You still around?)
Coming here and contributing here is one of my joys in life, and I thank Loren, Craig, and all of the commenters here for that.
There are some things I miss besides the commenters who have come and gone on their separate ways. I am fully with Photo Expert on the point that I miss the long discussions we used to have in the old days. I can’t say it much better than him, but indeed there was a time when we had long, in depth debates and discussions that went on and on to sometimes the 3rd page of Cryptomundo or beyond. Whatever happened to these? I hardly ever see this anymore. Now often there are just a few comments on a topic that at one time would have sparked a major discussion. I miss those days.
This comment is longer than I intended. 🙂 Mine usually are. Let me just part by saying that this is an amazing and enriching site full of great people. I am proud to be a part of it. Although unfortunately my work often makes me busy and I have long hiatuses from this site from time to time, I am always drawn back and it is like coming home.
Thank you all, and congratulations.
Kittenz, you are still here. Oh good! You’re one of the ones I thought had gone!
Oh, one more thing. I think with all of the new commenters, we should maybe have another one of those “400 Soon?” things, where everyone kind of introduces themselves and posts some background. I think this is a great way to get to know everyone.
HulkSmashNow,
Sorry for the delayed response.
Here is the link to the background story on that photo:
Sasquatch Statue Stolen
$400 Reward For $100 Bigfoot
Further Adventures of the Garden Yeti
Stolen Sasquatch Statue Update
Niki’s Quick Six Thanks Cryptomundo