LaRotonda On Cryptozoology

Craig LaRotonda’s illustration “Welcome to The Cryptozoology Museum” appears in the latest issue of Yankee Magazine, for July/August 2011.

The accompanying article by Justin Shatwell, associate editor of Yankee Magazine, is a positive review of the International Cryptozoology Museum of Portland, Maine, via an article entitled, “A Place for Open Minds: A visit with Loren Coleman may change the way you view the world.”

“Coleman is of a scientific mind – far more Agent Scully than Mulder – and [51] years of investigating sightings have taught him to be skeptical,” writes the Yankee author.

Shatwell’s concluding paragraph is worthy of passing along: “Though small and unorthodox, the [International] Cryptozoology Museum will do more to test your preconceived notions than almost any other museum in New England. After 45 minutes talking to Coleman, you may leave just as convinced that ‘monsters’ couldn’t exist – but for the first time in your life, you’ll be challenged to back up that opinion.”

Meanwhile, it should be mentioned that Channel 5 Boston placed the International Cryptozoology Museum on their recent “Top Ten” list at #4:

4.) International Museum of Cryptozoology.
Never heard of cryptozoology? Neither had I. But as Loren Coleman explains it, it’s the study of hidden or unknown animals that haven’t been verified by science. The museum opened last fall and is the only one of its kind in the world. Okay, it’s only two cramped rooms in the back of a Portland bookstore, and is entirely the personal collection of Loren Coleman. But somehow it works. Mostly because Loren Coleman has spent most of his life being fascinated by weird stuff like Bigfoot, Yeti and the Loch Ness Monster. And he gives personal tours to visitors. And he has a ten-foot tall really cool model of Bigfoot by the door that he will stand next to and let you take a funny picture of him posing with it. (Well, he let me take a picture, anyway.) Which shows that not only does he have some really good stuff, he’s also a really good sport. Try doing something like that at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. Or even finding a single thing on Bigfoot there.

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Slight corrections: The ICM opened in August 2003, and moved to its present public location in October 2009. The Bigfoot is 8 feet tall (plus another 1/2 ft for the base), not 10 feet tall. Yes, I will let you take my photo next to the Bigfoot, if we aren’t too busy. I am a good sport. 🙂

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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