The Phoenix Says Nice Things

The Portland Phoenix published their write-ups on all 117 of the “Best of Portland” winners for 2010.

Begun more than six years ago in the Portland basement* of Loren Coleman, the International Cryptozoology Museum finally got a regular-hours, brick-and-mortar space at 661 Congress Street in November 2009. Showcasing artifacts, models (including an eight-foot-tall, 400-pound Bigfoot!), toys, and pop ephemera that Coleman has collected in his years as a world-renowned cryptozoologist (one who studies creatures that are considered to be legendary or non-existent), and sharing space with the pulpy Green Hand Bookshop, the museum is a celebration of everything weird, exciting, and mysterious.

International Cryptozoology Museum | 661 Congress St, Portland | cryptozoologymuseum.com

Loren Coleman is the author of 17 books** and hundreds of articles; he is an international authority on mysterious creatures; he is a genuinely nice, thoughtful man. His books, such as Mothman and other Curious Encounters, published in 2002 by Paraview Press, are entertaining reads. He gives a good, intellectually forceful name to what might otherwise be dismissed as crazy-talk — through his writing, he validates our sense of wonder.

[*Actually, the “cabinet-of-curiosities” museum was located in the first floor rooms of my home and visited by documentary filmmakers, reality television production companies, fellow researchers, and invited members of the general public. It was not started in my basement.

**The number of authored and coauthored books is now over 30. The number “17” comes from an old bio entry that lives forever, on the Internet.

Nevertheless, the generous and nice words about me and the museum are spoken by local people at the Phoenix, who have grown to know me or heard about me. I am humbled by and appreciative of the praise. ~ Loren]

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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