35 Years Later: the Durham Gorilla

Back in July, the 35th anniversary of one of Maine's most prominent Bigfoot sightings passed quietly. Loren Coleman spoke to the Lewiston Sun Journal's Kathryn Skelton about the incident.

Durham's 'gorilla'
Weird, Wicked Weird By Kathryn Skelton , Staff Writer
Saturday, August 2, 2008

Was it really a bear? A hippie? A costumed hooligan? 35 years ago, something funky had this town talking.
Young bike-riding friends were the first to see it: something big, hairy, scary. After one mom saw it, too - she described an ape peeking out from behind bushes - 30 police cars circled Durham with orders to shoot.

Over several days, more townspeople would describe the animal as a black bear, a large dog, a chimpanzee, an orangutan, a gorilla.

"George Huntington went to Brunswick and bought a bunch of bananas because he was just so sure he'd seen it," said Elaine Sears, a longtime resident of the area where the sightings centered.
...
On July 25, 1973, while Watergate investigators needled President Richard Nixon to hand over his secret tapes, kids out biking on Shiloh Road had a close, strange encounter. The next day, their mother, Meota Huntington, told police she was driving down that same road when she saw something like an ape peek out from a bush, according to the Sun Journal archives.

That set off the police manhunt and a slew of new sightings. Faced with the variety of conflicting descriptions - bear, chimp, gorilla - Auburn Dog Officer Louis Pinette joked with a reporter that it could be "a hippie out looking for a free meal."

Adding to the intrigue, days after that first encounter the owner of Drapeau's Costume Shop in Lewiston told police a gorilla suit rented there in early July hadn't been returned. The man with the suit gave a fictitious name and address. Police warned that if it was someone in a costume, quit messing around.
...
Cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, featured on the History Channel's "MonsterQuest" and shows such as "Weird Travels," was in Illinois in 1973, but heard about the strange sightings a dozen states away. He collected newspaper clippings. "I found it an intriguing case because you don't have any gorillas in Maine."

Coleman looked into it and, with no reports of things such as zoo breaks, ruled out the idea of an escaped gorilla or ape. He's also ruled out Bigfoot and is skeptical of the costume theory.

"In rural areas, a lot of people have guns in Maine. It would be absolutely stupid to walk around during trigger-happy (times)," Coleman said.
...
Casts were made of footprints found behind Jones Cemetery. An Androscoggin County Sheriff deputy at the time said they might be chimpanzee.

The elusive critter - if there was a critter - earned the nickname Osgood the Ape in town.
...
Read the full article here: [Source]

Maine's cult history: The Kingdom

Frank Turek, collector of curiosities, recently pointed out to me a site about what is perhaps one of Maine's most historic religious sects, known familiarly as "The Kingdom." According to the website, The Kingdom was "founded in 1897 by Frank Weston Sandford of Bowdoinham, Maine," and grew steadily towards "the turn of the 20th century in the town of Durham in the State of Maine." The sect continues in a more modern form today, as readers will find, but still maintains itself as a strong religious presence in the state. The site is very comprehensive, and produced from within the viewpoint of those involved in the sect. If you're curious, take a look for yourself at http://www.fwselijah.com/. As the editor notes:

For many years the complete history of the Kingdom was available only to the members of the church on a "need to know" basis, and that history presented in such a manner that a certain palatable image was deliberately cultivated. Few individuals born since 1925 are aware of the movement's real roots, and it has been the lifelong ministry of some within church leadership to keep it that way. It is our intent to present the past as objectively as we can, by posting as many original uncensored articles as space or time permits and are available to us.

Those in the know may recognize this group as the basis of Shirley Nelson's book, Fair, Clear and Terrible, which I have a copy of on my shelf but unfortunately have yet to get a chance to read.

I recently read an account of the experiences of some of the folks who went on a missionary crusade to the desert from Maine that may be of interest to students of examples of Mainers' religious fervor, which I will see if I can dig up again.

Photo of Frank Sandford from Wikipedia.

An ape's age ago in Maine...

It was 35 years ago this year that the Durham, Maine, area was flooded with sighting reports of a gorilla-like creature. Loren Coleman has the scoop on Cryptomundo!

This is the same sighting we discussed back in a January 2007 post about the sighting, which includes my favorite Bigfoot quote ever: "I fell right down in front of him and all he did was look at me. I would have known if it were a hippie or something. But it had a regular monkey face. You have seen a monkey before, haven't you?"

Good Maine Spirits and Bad

Maine has its share of tales about spirit mediums and their positive work with the spirit world. Alongside this is the complementing current of legends and rumors of a more negative nature -- tales of evil influences, destructive hauntings, and curses. Today we've got a couple of stories for you, one from each side of the spirit river.

Story No. 1: Evil Spirits in Gray
While I've known that town government in Gray is full of infighting, I never thought I'd hear this said about it (emphasis is mine):

Gray has always been contentious. Some say all towns to some degree are. Others, who are sensitive to the spirit world, say Gray is haunted by human evil doers and their spirit evil counterparts and the veil between human and otherworld is thin. Either way, the degree of misbehavior has been unparallelled lately.

Last year we had more than one Council meeting recessed due to the inappropriately angry behavior of several audience members. We had people throwing up their middle fingers, and slamming out the door, rattling timbers in their wake. This year we have the usual angry bloggers again with hate speech and insults, and council-appointed committee members grasping the public podium and immaturely contributing to the civic dialogue by stating the the Vice-Chair is an idiot.

Monument News reporter Gordon Lane reported:
"The contentious March 20 meeting has also found itself on a YouTube post (MY NOTE: view video here, it's worth watching) in addition to the standard anonymous Gray blogs. The video, posted by Paul Proudian on Nathan Tsukroff’s blog, "Black and White in Gray" (bwgray.wordpress.com), shows a heated exchange between town residents and Foster, and is then followed by a political attack ad. Foster is currently considering whether to run for another council term."
[Source]

Story No. 2: Good Spirits in Durham
Lewiston Sun Journal continues with its excellent "weird Maine" series this week with another piece by Kathryn Skelton, this time about a psychic medium in Durham, Maine:

Transmitting spirits, Eddita Felt has offered apologies from an expired mother-in-law and revealed past lives that may have ended in death by alligator. The Durham woman behind the Northeast Professional Psychics, Mediums & Healers Guild, Eddita Felt insists she's shy.

It's spirit guides that motivated her. One named Fergus in particular. They wanted her to get out more, to be out more.

So much so that they goaded her into forming the Northeast Professional Psychics, Mediums & Healers Guild.

[please click here for full article: Source]

Brunswick Bigfoot (Smallfooted Variety)

The BFRO (Bigfoot Research Organization) site has a particularly enjoyable post on a mystery simian seen in Maine during the seventies. I remember the first time I read this, I had to giggle, especially when one of the young witnesses says, "I fell right down in front of him and all he did was look at me. I would have known if it were a hippie or something. But it had a regular monkey face. You have seen a monkey before, haven't you?"

Darn hippies.

At any rate, the sighting report is actually a list of consecutive sightings of the creature, all near the Brunswick/Durham area in Maine, during the summer of 1973. Most of the sightings centered around the Jones Cemetery. Witnesses include a variety of people, ranging from age 10 up well into the adult register.

The repetitive nature of the sightings provoked a full scale days-long manhunt, including helicopter scans, and resulted in a cast of a 5-inch or so footprint, which Androscoggin Deputy Sheriff Footman commented on thusly: "Whatever made it weighs 300 or 350 pounds and I can't tell you much more. It's definitely not a bear track. I don't know what's going on here and I'd rather not express an opinion."

Thanks to Nicole Duennebier for reminding me about this fantastic report, and to Loren Coleman for originally posting it on the site back in 1998.

Illustration by yours truly.