Marissa Does Cryptozoology
Posted by: Loren Coleman on January 21st, 2011
You see all kinds of stuff on Facebook and in blogs, of course. Some of the images are like the one above, from one of the 1600+ friends who have “friended” me on FB. Of course, I have a feeling this person may be the friend of a lot of people she really doesn’t know, and it is a mystery to me why one of my fans would want to hide her face. But enough of that. Marissa, whom you will meet in a minute, however, is another matter, altogether.
Others are of the images tagged by someone else, after they take a candid shot of me at the museum (see below).
You decide which ones people like to look at more. Ha ha.
Kodachrome stuff from 2010 by Eric Pomorski.
Some visitors to the museum, needless to say, write good overviews of the setting. One appeared this week from Marissa over at Channel 6 News.
In “Marissa Does Portland – And Meets Big Foot,” Ms. Marissa Simoes, at Portland’s WCSH-TV, wrote (in part):
I traveled through time and space to where some of the world’s rarest and most bizarre creatures live. I stood face to face with Sasquatch and examined what could be his scat; I locked eye with the Minnesota Ice Man, as he only has one…and it’s fallen out of its socket; I determined that the Casco Bay Sea Monster is either as it’s name suggests or a just moose wading in the water; I uncovered elusive “Harry and the Henderson’s” memorabilia which shockingly still exists today. And it all happened right here in Portland — at the Cryptozoology Museum on Congress Street. Tucked away into the far, back corner of a delightfully unsuspecting [Green Hand] bookstore, Loren Coleman and his wealth of precious relics sit waiting for anyone with a bit of curiosity to stumble his way. And stumble I did…
Ms. Simoes was not shy in her praise, going on and on, and even making this observation about the museum’s director, “He was a pretty charismatic guy and his passion for cryptozoology oozed out of his pores. He practically jumped on anyone who waltzed into the museum (including Bill and I), offering detailed explanations and historic relevance to all of his 2,000+ items.”
Continuing later to note, she penned the following: “Whether or not you believe that there is a big foot and whether or not you put faith into creatures such as the hairy trout or the feejee mermaid, the Cryptozoology museum is a great place to go to become a part of the ongoing tales surrounding them. I don’t know if anything in there is real. And frankly, I don’t care. Because for the hour I spent inside Loren’s little world, the real and the made up sort of blended together. All of the creatures that swim around inside that man’s head overflow into the museum and you can’t help but to get sucked under. And if nothing else, you leave with some pretty funny things to think about…”
I guess the Internet large and small, does communicate good feelings, after all.
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.
“I don’t know if anything in there is real. And frankly, I don’t care. Because for the hour I spent inside Loren’s little world, the real and the made up sort of blended together.”
After just finishing a MSN Report speculating that states are going to be allowed to go bankrupt and simply walk away from “crushing debt” because of monies owed to state pensioners and investors in state bonds, Marissa’s beautiful summation of her experience of her time at the Cryptozoology Museum seems even more poignant and insightful.
How dare anyone scoff at the search for unknown or forgotten creatures when all that we have built our lives upon, all that has surrounded us, is proving to be little more than an illusion.
Hmmmmm. Good to see such a nice healthy young lady interested in cryptozoology!