Bigfoot for President ‘08

February 5, 2008, is Super Tuesday. What is being called a historical, nearly national, primary for American politics will be a great day for pinback button collectors. But where are the humorous cryptid collectibles?

I have conducted almost 50 years of investigating cryptozoology throughout America and the world, and devoted a sizable amount of time in preserving popular culture cz items along the way. I’ve picked up every tangible object I could obtain on Bigfoot and a universe of varied cryptids, needless to say, and now they are in the museum, or awaiting display in storage.

Little known to most people, I began collecting political pinback buttons when I was eight years old (yes, please send your discharged or extra Presidential primary buttons to Loren Coleman, PO Box 360, Portland, ME 04112, in exchange for a handwritten letter of thanks). Additionally, since 1960, of course, I have concentrated on securing Bigfoot and other unknown hominoid buttons.

Some of these pinbacks are rare. Such is the case for the button I collected on one field trip with Craig Woolheater, which says “Boggy Creek Monster Fouke, AR.” ~ strangely, with no illustrations. A few are merely ones that have used the word “Bigfoot” or “Big Foot” in curious ways, as on the above example.

Others are more detailed, with drawings or photographs obviously taken from the internet or elsewhere.

Unique Bigfoot pinbacks are hard to find, as most are what might be called “manufactured buttons of opportunity,” often mixed in with sales of buttons on “paranormal” phenomena. These are often produced because something is then specifically popular (e.g. the collections shown above are from wegotthestuffyouwant and Ragsduds Pinback Buttons on eBay).

The latest pins, no doubt, are the three immediately above, the “Bigfoot on Mars” buttons (those shown here are from Bigfoot Surplus), which must have been created only days ago. The two others above them are other Bigfoot Surplus schwag.

Others, tied to special Bigfoot events, are rarer and may have more longterm cultural significance.

In Where Bigfoot Walks: Crossing the Dark Divide, skeptical author Robert Michael Pyle called the “Harrison Bigfoot,” which was the official mascot of the Washington State Centennial of 1989, “silly-looking.” Various collectibles were produced of “Harrison Bigfoot.” I have the seven-inch tall coin bank (above) and the large stuffed animal.

Additionally, today, such items as the above “Harrison Bigfoot” 3 1/2 inch diameter celluloid pinback button (once distributed as advertising for the Pacific National Bank in Seattle) is worth $30 or more to collectors.

These kinds of buttons are much different than the mass-produced eBay items flooding the market (mentioned above). The Bigfoot Surplus pinbacks, however, created by someone within the field, seem on their way to broader acceptance.

Oh ya, don’t forget to vote in the primaries and the general election. And do sign those petitions at your polling places!!

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.

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