Gathering of Gators: Mid-2012 List

Photos: Courtesy of Van Buren County (Michigan) Sheriff’s Office
(1) September 1, 2012 – 3 ft long – Window well at a home, Mattawan, Michigan – Captured, placed in captivity – Origins unknown. Source.

(2) August 29, 2012 – 3 ft long – Near Lake Texoma, Platter, Oklahoma – Captured, relocated – Origins natural/unknown. Source.

Photos: Scott Engle / Montgomery County Police Reporter.
(3) August 27, 2012 – 4 ft long – Buddy Riley Boulevard, Magnolia*, Texas – Captured (by *Magnolia towing), released into remote area. – Origin probably natural. Source.

Photos: Robert Mills, Sun.
(4) August 25, 2012 – 2 ft long – Merrimack Canal, Lowell, Massachusetts – Captured, placed in captivity – Origins unknown. Source.

Photo: Ellen Butchart.
(5) Before August 24, 2012 – Two, Small – Rock River, Beloit, Wisconsin – Sighting, photographed – Origins unknown. Source.

(6) August 17, 2012 – 5-6 ft long – Sunbury Reservoir, Upper Augusta Township, Pennsylvania – State troopers shot and killed it – Origins unknown. Source, source.

(7) August 8, 2012 – ? ft long – West Street pond, Sharon, Massachusetts – Sighted – Origins unknown. Source.

(8) August 1, 2012 – 2.5 ft long – Shamrock Lake, Clare County, Michigan – Sighted – Origins unknown. Source.

(9) Early August 2012 – 3 ft + long – Monticello Pond, Bowser, Arkansas (*Magnolia media area) – Captured, relocated – Origins natural/unknown. Source.

(10) Early August 2012 – Large – Tillar, Arkansas – Captured, relocated to wilder area – Origins natural. Source.

(11) July 28, 2012 – 3 ft long – creek, Kingwood, New Jersey – Captured – Origins unknown. Source, source.

(12) July 23, 2012 – Turned out to be plastic – Meeting House Pond, Cohasset, Ohio – Found, debunked – Origins unknown. Source.

(13) June 16, 2012 – 2 ft long – Steven’s Pond, Manchester, New Hampshire – Captured – Origins unknown. Source.

(14) June 2012 – Large – Dermott, Arkansas – Captured, relocated to wilder area – Origins natural. Source.

(15) May 2012 – ? ft long – Steven’s Pond, Manchester, New Hampshire – Captured – Origins unknown. Source.

*Interesting that the name “Magnolia” would be involved in two of these cases. Under Charles Fort, Wikipedia has this intriguing passage: “P.T. Anderson‘s popular movie Magnolia (1999) has an underlying theme of unexplained events, taken from the 1920s and ’30s works of Charles Fort. Fortean author Loren Coleman has written a chapter about this motion picture, entitled ‘The Teleporting Animals and Magnolia.’ in one of his recent books [Mysterious America]. The film has many hidden Fortean themes, notably ‘falling frogs.’ In one scene, one of Fort’s books is visible on a table in a library and there is an end credit thanking him by name.”

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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