January 26, 2007
Maine is a cool state and a great one for writers. It is full of trees, megafauna, and lots of quiet spaces, only filled with the songs of birds and bubbling brooks. Maine has only a little over a million people who generally leave you alone when you want to be alone and are friendly when you want to be around ’em.
Also, it has this clearly clever postal abbreviation in which Maine is given as “ME.” Everyone feels special in Maine. As reality would have it, we all have to start with our own world view, our own “me” and then go beyond ourselves as we explore the rest of the universe.
In the newest issue of TAPS Paramagazine (tap on their ad at right for more information), you will see that I have begun a new journey with the TAPS’ staff of regular columnists and authors. I decided to start with Maine, in my first contribution, as a subtle metaphor of how such treks begin.
In the January 2007 issue, I write of my investigations of the historical and recent sightings of Maine’s “Mystery Moose,” gigantic reported examples of Alces alces, which look like the animals we call “moose” in Maine. (Of course, for my international readers, it should be noted that the known species are termed “elk” in Europe as well as in almost every other location other than North America and New Zealand.) The cryptid moose of Maine have come down through the decades in the shadowy folklore of the “Specter Moose,” which Michelle Souliere of Strange Maine has highlighted in recent years.
The “Mystery Moose” piece has a companion list of my ten favorite hoofed mystery animals of the world, dedicated to cryptozoologist Karl Shuker.
In the February issue, I share my list of what I see as the top ten Lake Monsters of New England. It is paired with an article on New England’s Sea Serpents, such as Cassie of Portland’s Casco Bay. I note and congratulate some of the sterling archival recovery work of Christopher Dunham of All Things Maine, who has dug out old cases of Sea Serpent sightings from along the Downeast coast.
In the coming months, I’ll have articles and lists, for example, about the Dover Demon, Western Bigfoot researchers, the leading Yowie hunters, and the top Japanese toys for any cryptozoo collection. TAPS is based in New England, as I am. It does seem right to commence the quest in New England, and then move around the world via those pages.
I hope you enjoy TAPS’ new platform for and extension of my writings, as well as you have through last year’s re-release of The Unidentified & Creatures of the Other Edge and The Field Guide to Bigfoot and Other Mystery Primates from Anomalist Books. I also look forth to sharing an old classic with you, via the upcoming April 2007 publication of Paraview Pocket’s Mysterious America.
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.
Filed under Bigfoot, Books, Breaking News, Cryptomundo Exclusive, Cryptotourism, CryptoZoo News, Cryptozoologists, Cryptozoology, Dover Demon