September 27, 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.
Filed under Cryptomundo Exclusive, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Men in Cryptozoology, Women in Cryptozoology, Year In Review