Obscura Day Is Here!
Posted by: Loren Coleman on March 20th, 2010
A new entryway decoration will greet visitors: a giant squid kite donated by Jeff Meuse.
On Saturday, March 20th, at 80 different sites around the world, an international celebration of wondrous, curious, and esoteric places will be occurring. It is called “Obscura Day,” and is the brainchild of the people behind Atlas Obscura, a compendium of the world’s wonders and curiosities.
If you attend, please take photos. Tag them “Obscura Day – ICM.”
Atlas Obscura has begun a contest, so send me your photos (to lcoleman @ maine.rr.com ~ remove the spaces in the e-address) and you will be entered to receive strange esoterica from the Atlas Obscura people. Also, your jpgs may be published at Cryptomundo!!
Our location in Maine has been chosen to be one of the special sites, the International Cryptozoology Museum at 661 Congress St., Portland, from 10 am to 7 pm (last tour at 6:30 pm). The event at the museum will occur for their usual small admission fee of $5.00 per person, but with a wide variety of extras too.
Docent Erin Ellis is shown with her new creature series that has been added to the museum gift shop.
Docent Sarah McCann presents her new finger puppets now for sale in the museum store.
“Since the Obscura Day celebrations are fast approaching this coming Saturday, March 20th, we recommend visitors merely show up; no reservations necessary at this point,” said Jeff Meuse, the museum’s chief docent coordinator. “We will have staff available to assist in signing up people for the tours of the museum. We’ll have special unidentified cryptid and monster treats for sale for people who are waiting for the short time until the next tour begins. Also the unique Green Hand Books is at this location for waiting visitors to browse Michelle Souliere’s book selections. The museum gift shop just received new items to, like McCann’s Bigfoot finger puppets and Ellis’ original Mothman and other cryptid soft art.”
ICM’s Bigfoot finger puppet couple meets near the gift store mountain.
One of the finger puppets strikes out on its own, in an attempt to imitate the Patterson-Gimlin Bigfoot, or, at least, that guy named Bob H. acting like he’s in a horsehide, or in this case, felt suit.
Shocked, the Bigfoot finger puppet discovers that a photographer is snapping pictures. Unfortunately, however, the photographer fails to put any kind of scale in the image, although reliable reports indicate the Bigfoot was only as large as the top half of a human finger. (International Cryptozoology Museum exclusive photos.)
Here is Atlas Obscura’s paragraph on the Maine event from their website:
PORTLAND, ME
TOUR OF THE INTERNATIONAL CRYPTOZOOLOGY M– USEUM WITH LOREN COLEMAN
Over the years, Loren Coleman has amassed an unrivaled collection of replicas and artifacts relating to world’s famous and lesser-known cryptids, ranging from the fanciful (P.T. Barnum’s Feejee Mermaid) to the factual (like the coelacanth, long thought to be extinct but discovered alive in 1938). For Obscura Day, Coleman has generously agreed to lead a band of curious souls on a tour of his newly opened International Cryptozoology Museum.
“I think this happening on the same weekend as the 50th anniversary of my getting into the field of cryptozoology, which is the investigation of all kinds of little-known cryptids, in addition to the better known Abominable Snowmen, Bigfoot and Nessies, seems more than a coincidence,” noted Loren Coleman, director of the International Cryptozoology Museum. “It feels like a cosmic acknowledgment of the wonder of all those new species that remain to be discovered and the hard work it took to have this museum come to life. For Maine, my home for the last 30 years, to be picked this way, is terrific.”
Volunteer coordinator Jeff Meuse reminds people, “The museum is in need of your support, and if you can’t attend this weekend’s celebration, send in a wee donation to note Coleman’s 50th year. If everyone could send in either 50 cents, $5, $50, or $500, the worries of the budget of the museum would be solved for a few months. Please note, once again, the donation button below goes directly to the Museum, not the one in the upper right hand corner, which is tied into the ownership of Cryptomundo. Loren Coleman does not own Cryptomundo but blogs here. Thank you.”
Thanks again.
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.
That giant squid looks sweet! Can it really fly?
[How about painting that portion of the ceiling and walls in blue, to give it a more ‘underwater’ feeling? maybe you could later add an accompanying sperm whale chasing the squid :)]