Bigfoot On The Move, Part Deux
Posted by: Loren Coleman on October 15th, 2009
Photo above by David Carkhuff. Photos below, ICM, Jessica Meuse.
Bigfoot hits Arts District feet first
Portland Daily Sun
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
By David Carkhuff
Staff writer
Hauling an 8-foot-tall, 400-pound Bigfoot replica into an Arts District office Tuesday was like moving a big, shaggy sofa with jutting and (needless to say) large feet, as a team lugged the hairy exhibit feet first into a new Congress Street home.
Local cryptozoologist Loren Coleman and his friends handled the monstrous chore of setting up a key exhibit in Coleman’s new International Cryptozoology Museum at 661 Congress St., braving a light drizzle and weaving between a pair of TV news crews.
A day after Halloween, the International Cryptozoology Museum is scheduled to open to the public. For a $5 admission fee, visitors will be able to browse exhibits while dabbling in Coleman’s chosen field of cryptozoology, defined as the study of hidden animals. Coleman’s museum will share space with Green Hand Books, a new book store owned by Michelle Souliere, editor of the Strange Maine blog.
Setting up one of the museum’s most eye-grabbing attractions, Coleman and his helpers unloaded the Bigfoot — something that ended up being a process.
First, the team unloaded the “Crookston Bigfoot” from a moving van and carried it inside. Coleman then confirmed that he had measured the ceiling — an important consideration for this move — and with a little manipulation, the team attached the monster’s bulky feet to a stand. Then, they stood the hairy exhibit upright and positioned it near the window.
“It’s really difficult to pick up the whole thing and maneuver it, it’s so large and hairy,” said Andrew Cash, one of the half dozen friends and volunteers who helped Coleman with the unusual moving job.
“I find it really interesting that there’s actually a place for this sort of thing coming to Maine,” Cash added. “I’ve always been interested in cryptozoology and mysteries and it’s all about trying to figure it out. It’s all about trying to figure it out for yourself, and this place will really help to show people their own way and what they believe and see what they want to believe.”
Saying he has read Coleman’s books and followed his career, Sean Libby said he was glad to help launch the International Cryptozoology Museum.
“I have complete and utter respect for what he’s doing. I love this stuff,” he said.
Jess Meuse, a docent at the museum, documented the move with her digital camera.
“I always have been interested in everything that’s unexplained. I always want to delve into it and learn more. My husband and I actually do paranormal investigating, too,” Meuse said.
Her husband, Jeff Meuse, was one of the helpers doing the heavy lifting.
Jeff is manager at Ricetta’s Brick Oven Pizzeria in Falmouth. Jess said she is unemployed but is trained as a counselor.
“This is our hobby,” she said.
The “Crookston Bigfoot,” the figure moved into the Arts District Tuesday, is a creation of Wisconsin artist Curtis Christensen. It once was housed in Crookston, Minn., which for a time billed itself as the “Bigfoot Capital of the World.” When a Bigfoot museum in Crookston failed to take off, a tool company in Minneapolis acquired the replica and took it to trade shows to promote the company’s tools.
Finally, Coleman landed the Sasquatch mock-up and enshrined the Bigfoot in his home-based museum of artifacts. Now, the Bigfoot will join other pieces of Coleman’s collection in the museum.
After 50 years of researching hidden and as-yet undiscovered animals, Coleman has accumulated well over 250 items and exhibits, which means he will end up rotating out probably one fourth of his display every month to fit it all in.
Jess Meuse said she and her husband found plenty to keep them busy in their role as docents for the new museum. It’s not all intriguing, even when you’re talking about Coleman and his arcane artifacts.
“We’re going through stacks and stacks and stacks of books and paperwork for him, so that’s the type of thing we’ve been doing,” Jess said.
Above photos by ICM, Jessica Meuse.
Bigfoot on display in downtown Portland
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Click to watch video.
NECN: by Amy Sinclair, Portland, Maine
It’s been quite a while since the last good Bigfoot sighting. But a number of credible sources, including NECN’s Amy Sinclair are absolutely certain they saw one today on a downtown street in Portland, Maine.
So, what was Sasquatch doing on Congress Street?
The neighbors are up to their usual Halloween tricks. But they pale in comparison to what’s inside Loren Coleman’s house.
His home in Portland, Maine is filled with bizarre animals—snaggle-tooth monster heads, mermaids under glass, rabbits with antlers.
“These are important crypto-zoological artifacts.”
Cryptozoology?
Loren: “Cryptozoology is the study of hidden or unknown animals as yet unverified by science.”
This morning, Coleman’s whole creepy collection is being herded out the door by a team of movers.
There goes the pterodactyl. Before you dismiss Coleman as a quack, he’s authored 30 books about animal mysteries…he’s the go to guy for TV shows like “Unsolved Mysteries.”
Coleman: “Everybody says I’m the greatest living cryptozoologist and I say well, at least I’m living ha ha gotta have a sense of humor.”
Now, the whole world will be able to see what, until now, has been lurking in his living room.
50 years worth of artifacts will be on display in his new museum on Congress Street.
Assuming of course, the movers can get Bigfoot here through the front door.
As you might imagine the spectacle turned a few heads as four men muscled the horizontal hairy beast into his new habitat.
Coleman freely admits that about 80 percent of his investigations are dead ends. Mistaken identities or hoaxes.
Coleman: “But it’s that 20 percent, that 20 percent of leftover unknowns that really interest me because it leads to the verification of new animals.”
His museum will feature both the phony and the plausible, seeking to educate and entertain.
This Bigfoot for the record, is not real it was made by a taxidermist in Wisconsin who wanted to see what Bigfoot might have looked like. It’s made of musk oxen and buffalo hair.
If the movers are any indication, his new museum will attract a following.
Mover: “I’ve actually always believed in Bigfoot. This is a cool opportunity.”
An opportunity to get up close and personal with mysterious monsters, go ahead he won’t bite.
© 2009, International Cryptozoology Museum 2009, all images taken by Jessica Meuse, unless otherwise noted.
Join Jeff Meuse, Eric Russell, Jeff Whitehouse, Jessica Meuse, Andy Cash, Sean Libby, and all the crew today in positively assisting the move of the International Cryptozoology Museum, as it soon opens in downtown Portland, Maine (on November 1st). Please click on the “donate” button below (not the one up top) to take you to PayPal to send in your museum contribution.
Thank you for celebrating a dream come true, and sharing cryptozoology with the world. It is all about being alive and knowing that we share this Earth with some remarkable living mysteries, isn’t it?
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.
