April 28th Is Atlas Obscura Day

This year’s global celebration of odd places to visit, Atlas Obscura Day, is occurring on Saturday, April 28, 2012. The International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, has been invited to be one of the spots.

The museum will be open for regular hours with regular fees, from 11 am to 4 pm on that day. Then during the early evening, a special event will occur.

A figurine of the Dover Demon (created by Steve Goodwin) is displayed at the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland. The strange creature was spotted in Dover, Massachusetts, in 1977 and Loren Coleman coined the name after investigating the sightings. Photo Credit: Amber Waterman/Sun Journal.

Come to the International Cryptozoology Museum for a special expanded Obscura Day orientation with extra docents on duty to help with tours and questions. Loren Coleman, Cryptozoologist and founder of the Museum, will be there too, so all Obscura Day guests can chat with him, ask him questions, and get autographs, if they wish.

Beginning at 4pm: “The Dover Demon: 35 Years Later” – Night at the Museum

April 28th marks the 35th anniversary of Loren Coleman’s investigation and naming of the “Dover Demon”, a mysterious creature first sighted around Dover, Massachusetts in 1977. Everyone will get to tour the museum and the new special Dover Demon exhibition, and then at 5:30pm, Coleman will give a special presentation the “Dover Demon: 35 Years Later” full of unique slides and diagrams about the 1977 Massachusetts events.

John Baxter shows his drawing of the Dover Demon (above) and Loren Coleman is photographed by Walt Webb at the exact site where Baxter last saw the Dover Demon (below).

The lecture will include rare photographs taken by Walter N. Webb, who at the time was the Charles Hayden Planetarium in Boston’s assistant director and senior lecturer. This group photograph by Walt was taken in front of the main house of the Walker School in Needham, just across the Charles River from Dover, Massachusetts. I was working there and meet the assembled team I invited into the investigation early in May 1977. I’m shown to the left; in the middle is (the late) Ed Fogg; and to the right Joe Nyman. They, along with the photographer Walt Webb, were highly qualified ufological investigators from various national organizations.

Perhaps for this anniversary event we should encourage all museum docents and visitors to wear clothes (head to toe) from the 1970s, like what I have on below? Of course, I’m not sure where I can find shoes like those!!

If the shirt didn’t get ’em, the disco era’s shoes were enough to scare away the Dover Demon!

Loren Coleman 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.

Email • Facebook • Twitter •