In review: International Cryptozoology Conference 2024

Portland, ME -- April 26^th and 27^th, 2024

Much anticipated since the previous one, held here in 2019, the 5^th International Cryptozoology Conference finally happened!

 

Events kicked off on Friday night with an informal VIP pizza dinner.  Christopher Packard was presented with the award of Cryptozoologist of the Year!  Following this we were treated to a talk by author J.W. Ocker, the keynote speaker.  

 

Ocker’s most recent book, The United States of Cryptids, chronicles his epic quest across America to find a cryptid for each state of the Union, in a travelquest that will sound appealing to any of us who have pondered embarking on a journey in search of weird roadside destinations.  Ocker makes no bones about the fact that he is not a field investigator – he is more accurately someone who has adventures based on the search for local cryptid-related beers and museums.  My horror readers will also recognize his name from such chillers as Twelve Nights in Rotter House.

 

In his travels, he found 40 cryptid statues, 18 cryptid museums, and 24 cryptid festivals.  We were treated to an abbreviated tour of his favorites, the good and the bad, and tantalizing photos of some of the places he went. 

 

His first conclusion:  “Bigfoot is BIG!”  The prevalence of the Big Guy across the United States first perplexed and eventually annoyed Ocker, who probably had been hoping for more of a variety of idiosyncratic local oddities, but instead found a scattered handful of them, among a preponderance of the Bigfoot variations that dominate the landscape.  Why is this, beyond the obvious presence in pretty much every state, and popular appeal in general?  As Loren Coleman posited to him, maybe – just maybe – it’s because we are a narcissistic species, fascinated by our own reflection in this wildman of the woods.

J.W. Ocker - United States of Cryptids author

Some of the cryptids he found were truly strange (like the flying clam of Battle Mountain, NV, which I now need to know much, much more about), and anomalous local creatures such as the giant, kitchen-table-sized turtle of Churubusco, Indiana, whose legend lives on today in the town’s Turtle Days festival.  Both of these sound like great fodder for local authors to write a book about!

 

While many of these cases were based on events and legends local to the area, others were more arbitrary, such as the Norfolk VA alliance with mermaids, which was based on their popular appeal and not much else.  In other regions, like Wisconsin (the Hodag, the Rhinelapus, Mt. Horeb trolls, and the Beast of Bray Road!), he found a plethora of unique attractions that put other states to shame.  Wisconsin’s critter lineup also presented a mix of origins – some were unabashedly human-generated, while others originated in genuine cryptid sightings.

 

At any rate, Ocker’s talk reminded me of the delights of roadside attractions, and the joy of going on roadtrips just for the sake of seeing something weird and different.  It’s a lot easier to do that now, with books like Ocker’s doing some of the legwork for you, and taking their place alongside the original “Weird” series by Mark Moran and crew (Weird US, Weird New England, et al), and websites like Atlas Obscura and the OG, Roadside America.  With these resources ready to hand, you could take fun roadtrips for the rest of your life and never run out of places to visit!

 

Ocker’s talk was followed by a screening of the film Big Fur, ably introduced by director Dan Wayne.  I don’t think any of us were prepared for what that led to, and I’m glad he mentioned that it was okay to laugh, because almost right off the bat we realized that this was a uniquely quirky film about a weirdly fascinating pocket of North American (indeed international) craftsmanship and the niche society that has grown up around that pursuit – taxidermy.

 

"Big Fur" Director, Dan Wayne

Not only did the film introduce us to the amazing artistry of award-winning taxidermist Ken Walker, but also it demonstrated the wide range of work within that field, both technical and creative.  Those of you who, like myself, are sensitive to the treatment of animals will not have any trouble here.  Dan Wayne took pains to make this film as accessible as possible, and I think even the most squeamish of viewers will find that barriers have been removed to your enjoyment of this fascinating glimpse of artists treating their subjects with care and respect.

 

Above all, it is a film that emphasizes the humanness of Ken Walker’s chosen life, and the overriding determination to appreciate and revere the wilderness, and how important it is to fight alongside the conservationists against the tide of greedy corporate desolation that is flattening our continent’s native assets and destroying our large forests forever.  I think that’s something we can all get behind.

 

On Saturday, I was very happy to start the day off with my talk “Back into the Woods,” updating folks on my Bigfoot in Maine research, with a focus on a cluster of sightings in Western Maine, which will be part of volume 2.  It’s going to be another couple of years before it’s all wrapped up and on its way to you all, but it will be worth the wait!

 

Biologist and cryptid hunter Pat Spain (yay!) was up next, and once again he entertained us with some fun adventures from his work during his talk, “Cryptozoology Adventures.”  I first met Pat when we shared an Uber on our way to the very 1^st International Cryptozoology Conference, held down in St. Augustine, Florida – way back in 2016!  He is a descendant of Charles Fort, which only serves to give him additional Fortean creds.

 

Spain, in addition to his dayjob in the biology field, is best known for his TV shows Beast Hunter and Legend Hunter, and more recently his travelogue books based on those experiences (all of which I carry at the Green Hand Bookshop!), which are just as entertaining and informative as his shows were.

 

He spoke about his experiences in the lab and in the field, and how important and even necessary legends are to us.  Legends, beyond leaving clues about little-seen animals, help cultures explain the unexplainable, and also create some interesting leeway and workarounds within cultures.  Ask your local anthropologist about the Boto, and its role in local villages, or how local society treats men who are afraid of crocodiles vs. those who respect the hunting grounds of Mokele-mbembe.

Spain talked about the presence of barracudas in Maine (which I now have to look up, seriously), and participating in the first ever CAT scan of an oarfish, and discussed his opinions on the cadborosaurus, which he posits to have a likelihood to simply be an undiscovered species.  Similarly, he speculates that the legendary Mapinguari is most likely a giant ground sloth.

 

He related to us all sorts of intriguing facts, including that according to residents of Sumatra, the tigers there are very polite, and that when he spoke with Mike Morwood, who spearheaded efforts that led to the discovery of Homo floresiensis in 2003, Morwood told him that he thought Homo floresiensis survived into as late as the 1920s.  Spain also lauded camera trap operators for their role in documenting elusive species in the wild.

 

But he hasn’t just hunted legendary creatures – in his show Legend Hunter he also sought out human strangeness, which led him down odd and unexpected paths.  I mean, who knew that he would wind up having a psionic vampire drinking his energy, only to be told he tasted like charcoal and lavender?

Past & current Cryptozoologists of the Year: Packard, Ocker, presenter Coleman, and Spain.

Next up was Jean Tewksbury, former International Cryptozoology Museum docent, and admin of the Facebook group “Eastern Ghost Cat Research,” where she continues her search to establish the presence of cougars here in Maine.  Jean was an avid Bigfoot field researcher when I first met her years ago, but after she had a roadside encounter with cougar cubs here in Maine, she switched her focus to these beautiful big cats.

Jean Tewksbury on mystery cats

Her talk, “Mystery Cats,” was very informative, and included interesting nuggets such as a demonstration of how the most common misidentification for supposed cougars are often actually deer, foreshortened in game camera shots as they feed bent down.  She reminded us that there have been no illegal cat seizures by Maine authorities, despite claims that sightings are those of vanity pet owners’ exotic animals getting loose. 

She also advised that if you have a cougar sighting yourself, you should contact your regional Maine biologist rather than the game wardens, as wardens deal only in hunting laws (there is no hunting season for cougar in Maine, therefore any hunting of them is illegal) – the biologists are the ones who would record and investigate sightings.

 

If any of you have cougar reports for Jean, I’m happy to put you in touch with her via email.

Dan Wayne escorts the mammoth figure of Patty to her new home in the ICM!

 

Next up was Chris Packard, continuing in a felid vein with a talk on Mountain Lions: “Big Cats Are Scary: A case study of cryptozoology and folklore.”  While Jean had focused on the real-world ramifications of cougars in Maine, Chris delved into the history that forms the shadowy foundations of those rumors and sightings.  Chris is also the new Vice President of the International Cryptozoology Museum.

Chris Packard on Mythical Creatures

Maine is host to more than one big cat, even counting out the cougar, but the lynx and the bobcat are both nocturnal, making them even more unlikely to be seen than their big cousin, the Eastern Cougar, which is crepuscular (feeding in the half-light of dawn and dusk).

Chris talked about the protean nature of oral history, in which stories change over time to adapt to the changes in the world around us, and gave examples of some of his favorite big cats from folklore, such as the Ding-Ball, the Dungavenhooter (or Dungarvon Whooper in New Brunswick), and the Monkey-Bear-Pig (aka porcupines!).

 

Many of these are covered in Chris’s excellent book, Mythical Creatures of Maine.

Wen Eldridge - Cryptozoology Facts

Next we heard from Wen Eldridge, founder of the Facebook group “Cryptozoology Facts,” who did a bang up job reminding us of the diversity of cryptozoology with her presentation about “My Favorite 25 Cryptozoology Facts.”  The talk covered everything from the Boston Lemur to I-don’t-know-what, and it is easy to see why Wen has such a following.  She is very straight-forward in her approach, and is enthusiastic and fun to boot!

David Goudsward, a longtime researcher of historic lore, regaled us with “Cryptozoology, Cthulhu, and Lovecraft,” taking us down unspeakable roads.  His past research has focused on New England oddities, and sea monsters (he spoke at the 2016 conference on this topic, if I recall correctly).

First he addressed the challenges of working between multiple frameworks.  Context is everything!  Is it Fortean? Cryptozoological? Lovecraftian?  That out of the way, he dove right into the deep end.  Did H.P. Lovecraft appreciate Charles Fort’s work?  Short answer: he saw him as the source of some good story prompts, but didn’t have much regard for his writing ability. 

This source for material seems to have been taken up by many of Lovecraft’s crowd as well, and between these authors many a report on zoological curiosities and bizarre newspaper clippings about anomalous occurrences were exchanged. 

 

Goudsward’s take on the Lovecraftian Mythos is that it is cryptid-adjacent, feeding on early exposure to such “monsters” as Komodo dragons in the Bronx Zoo, talk of Gloucester’s sea monster, Nessie, the Cherbourg carcass, Byrd’s polar explorations, lost races in the work of pulp predecessors like Edgar Rice Burroughs, and lots and lots of local folklore heard about in newspapers or from local gossip.   

 

Lovecraft acted as a conduit for this material, also encouraging his peers to take the time to listen to local stories, and freely divulging the sources for his inspiration, such as his letter to Fritz Leiber discussing the Mi-Go (the name of an alien race from Lovecraft’s “The Whisperer in Darkness,” but originally drawn from early newspaper accounts of Yeti tracks found in the Himalayas).

 

The weekend was concluded with by Loren Coleman’s presentation on “Digging into Skinwalker Ranch’s Cryptozoology” and closing remarks.  At least as early as 1974, the strange phenomena at Skinwalker Ranch has included reports of weird animals, starting with Bigfoot-like creature sightings alongside UFOs and other phenomena, and blurring into and out of the taboo skinwalker culture in the region.   

 

Overall, the area seems to continue to “collect strangeness.”  The current ownership, and the subsequent popularization of the ongoing experiments there via reality TV, have continued to produce interest in this inexplicable place.

Loren continued to stir the pot by reminding us that: the Mormon influence in the region is pervasive, many people have theories that portals on the ranch create opportunities for anomalous creatures to travel into and out of the property, and cause phenomena such as cattle mutilations.  Among the wild and wooly cast of characters are reptilians, a dinobeaver, weird owls, Bigfoot-type creatures, innocent livestock being used as bio-indicators, and dire wolves and other lupine manifestations.  Many strange things have been seen, but no good photographs of creatures have been captured yet.

 

And on that strange note, the conference wrapped up.  Loren proposes that Bangor, Maine, will be the site of the next conference, as renovations on the new ICM building there proceed apace.

 

See you all there!!!

Photographic evidence of rare elusive cryptid seen in lecture hall!

 

REPORT: International Cryptozoology Conference 2018, Day 2

Hi everyone! This post will run down the second day of the weekend's worth of speakers, and my photos will give you a glimpse of the folks involved, if you weren't able to be there. Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version of it.

If you missed the post about the first day's speakers, you can find that here:
http://strangemaine.blogspot.com/2018/09/report-international-cryptozoology.html

The 3rd Annual International Cryptozoology Conference was held on Sept. 1 & 2, 2018, here in Portland, Maine. Like the others before it, it was a great experience -- a chance to hear from experts on a variety of topics, and an opportunity to meet other people as interested in and as excited by the field of cryptozoology as I am.

Loren Coleman, founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum, and his crew put together a terrific lineup of speakers. I wanted to hear every presentation, which works out great since the conference runs as a single-track schedule, allowing attendees to go to all of the talks without missing any of them.

Day 2 started with a very welcome announcement from Loren Coleman that there would be another conference in 2019.
[NOTE: There is a GoFundMe in progress to raise funds to assist with that now, with access to VIP tickets etc, at https://www.gofundme.com/cryptozoology-conference-2019]

This exciting news was followed by Colin Schneider, giving his talk "Bloodsucking Beasties & Shadowy Stalkers: A Study in Cryptid Predators."

Colin is one of the youngest cryptozoologist working in the field today. He is the representative for the Centre for Fortean Zoology in his home state of Ohio. You can find his blog here: http://paranorm101.blogspot.com/

Colin walked us through a smorgasbord of intriguing historic accounts of cryptozoological predators. Culprits included the inevitable Chupacabra, and lesser known ones such as the Vampire Beast of Bladenboro NC, the Abominable Chicken Man of El Reno OK, The Monument City Monster of Indiana, the Phantom Gobbler of Canton Township MI, and a number of other cases as well.

Various theories for each were explored, and Colin alerted the audience of hoaxy oddballs such as photos of bloody handprints and appropriated photos from unrelated incidents, just a few of the problems facing researchers using online sources to find information about these bygone cases and others. Always fact-check your sources, in other words!

Most often, these cryptid predators exhibit patterns related to either feline or canine predators. During the audience Q&A session following, fellow speaker Dawn Prince-Hughes asked if it was known whether habitat loss would trigger surplus killing (a common side-effect of these mystery creatures). A good question to puzzle over.

Next on the docket was Andy McGrath, traveling far to give us his take on the Beasts of Britain!

Although the UK is a closed system, so to speak, as it is predominantly a large island, that does not seem to restrict its variety of cryptozoological cases. For most of the talk, Andy focused on the water monster sightings, including multiple recent (August 2018) Loch Ness photos that have had UK cryptozoology fans very excited, earning 2018 the nickname "Year of the Dragon."

One thing was clear -- for those who think all the UK lake monster photos are from the 60s and 70s (or earlier), they are missing out on all the current ones! For examples you can look up Bownessie, the Dragon of the North, the River Aeron Monster, and the Plymouth Crocodile, among others.

From lake monsters Andy moved on to hairy ape men, again exhibiting a wide array of timeframes for historic traces and new evidence, from designs in heraldry and the Wodewose roof boss in Selby Abbey, N. Yorkshire, all the way up to the Box Hill Ape (2012) and Sussex Ape Man (2015). It should come as no surprise that UK Bigfoot cases are very controversial, and Andy pointed out that what some Bigfoot hunters may take as treesigns in the countryside could well be signals left by the existing gypsy communities traveling through out-of-the-way areas.

Another point of discussion was the spate of Dogmen sightings, which Andy postulated may just be a way of re-branding the werewolf tradition to make it seem less embarrassing, more modern and believable. All in all, a lot was packed in to his talk! You can find him online at http://beastsofbritain.blogspot.com/ or on Facebook.

Next up was Aleksandar Petakov, who gave a terrific account of his latest work, filming the documentary Champ, about the legendary monster of Lake Champlain, as presented by Small Town Monsters. Katy Elizabeth, founder of Champ Search, stepped in and added her own viewpoint about investigating this particular lake monster.

He spoke about the principles that motivate his filmwork, and how important it is to go to the site of the events being documented, and the vitalness of allowing eyewitnesses to speak for themselves. He is a firm believer that you should not try to influence their telling of their account; it should not be scripted. You will find his website at petakovmedia.com, and Small Town Monsters at https://www.smalltownmonsters.com/

Next was my talk about Bigfoot in Maine. I almost skipped myself here, because I didn't have any notes about the talk, being in the process of giving it at the time. Ha!

This talk was the first time I had attempted to summarize everything I've learned from talking to eyewitnesses about their encounters with inexplicable hairy hominids in the state of Maine, from York County all the way up to Aroostook County. I talked about the environment and biology of large mammals in Maine -- what makes anyone think they might be here, and how they could survive. In short, the potential is clear for anyone who has studied Maine's known large mammal species, such as the black bear.

I followed this with examples of incidents from my files, to give the audience a feel for what these Mainers have encountered in the wild and in their back yards. Lastly, I summed up what we know from these accounts -- appearance, eating habits, where encounters have occurred, behavior, etc. All of this will be in my book, which I'm finishing up in 2018. I hope to have it in the publisher's hands by the beginning of 2019. Stay tuned! If you want to stay up to date with my Strange Maine work, you can also follow my site on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/strangemainebook

Last but certainly not least, the final speaker of the conference was Dr. Jeff Meldrum, a name well-known to anyone with a serious interest in the field of primate cryptozoology. Dr. Meldrum spoke about the Patterson-Gimlin footage, and why he believes it remains the most compelling photographic evidence to date, attesting to the physicality of a biological entity, and providing a baseline from which to establish a scientific context.

He spoke about the shifts that have occurred in views of evolution and anthropology, and how the old paradigm of the field caused preconceptions, which in turn conditioned the collection of evidence for decades. Newer paradigms are slowly coming into place, causing the reexamination of available information. The taxonomy in the field is rapidly changing and readjusting to discoveries initiated by these reevaluations.

Dr. Meldrum also demonstrated his theories of possible hominid foot anatomy, as footprint casts and footprint fossils are among the few forms of evidence being brought forward for examination. Another anatomical aspect he discussed was the deep jaws and flat face (also visible in the Patterson-Gimlin footage), which he postulated to hold massive molars, smaller incisors and cuspids. As he explained, their teeth are their primary tools/utensils. Such a large jaw, with its accompanying massive musculature and the cheekbones housing it, would necessarily obscure the visibility of neck vertebrae, creating the famous "no neck" look ascribed to mystery hominids.

All in all it was a fascinating talk, which gave the audience much to think upon.

The weekend was terrific! I met a lot of interesting folks, both fellow speakers and conference attendees, and also caught up with many friends I hadn't seen in ages.

After all was said and done, I still had time to go over and check out the latest additions of the International Cryptozoology Museum, just across from the conference location. I also got to catch up with my old friend and neighbor, the Crookston Bigfoot.

I hope this has given those of you unable to attend the conference a glimpse at what went on. Maybe we'll see you there next year!

REPORT: International Cryptozoology Conference 2018, Day 1

Hi everyone! The 3rd Annual International Cryptozoology Conference was held on Sept. 1 & 2, 2018, here in Portland, Maine. Like the others before it, it was a great experience -- a chance to hear from experts on a variety of topics, and an opportunity to meet other people as interested in and as excited by the field of cryptozoology as I am.

Loren Coleman, founder of the International Cryptozoology Museum, and his crew put together a terrific lineup of speakers. I wanted to hear every presentation, which works out great since the conference runs as a single-track schedule, allowing attendees to go to all of the talks without missing any of them.

This post will run down the first day of the weekend's worth of speakers, and my photos will give you a glimpse of the folks involved, if you weren't able to be there.  Click on any of the photos below to see a larger version of it.

Loren kicked off the conference by announcing this year's Cryptozoologist of the Year, reminding everyone that cryptozoology is an active field pursuit for scientists around the globe.

Cryptozoologist of the Year, Dr. Anna Nekaris - BBC photo

This year's honored cryptozoologist is Dr. Anna Nekaris. A professor in Anthropology and Primate Conservation studying the unique group of evolutionarily distinct primates known as the Asian lorises, her work encompasses all eleven loris species, including six she named or elevated from subspecies. Anna is the Course Tutor for the highly acclaimed MSc Primate Conservation at the Oxford Brookes University, Director of the Little Fireface Project and Convenor of the Nocturnal Primate Research Group. The Little Fireface Project (http://www.nocturama.org/en/welcome-little-fireface-project/) performs outreach and education to raise public awareness of the plight of lorises.

A short film about her work, "The Jungle Gremlins of Java," aired on the BBC recently:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01bcp7z

Maybe in some future year, the CzCon can get permission to screen this film at the conference!

First on the speakers schedule was the team-up of Vermonsters Joe Citro and Stephen Bissette, author and artist respectively of The Vermont Monster Guide and many other works.

Author Joseph Citro

Joe Citro started us off, discussing among other things his own sighting of a big cat in Vermont in the 1990s. He described the process eyewitnesses go through when they encounter a strange animal: how each of us has a mental index of animals known to us, and in the moments following the encounter, how we "flip through" all the index cards in search of a correlating species, sometimes coming up empty-handed.

He also discussed his decades of work researching local legends and rumors, and how some of them do turn out to be wild goose chases, while others turn out to be even stranger than expected. In short order we were brought up to date on all sorts of anomalous sightings, including human-faced bats, man-swallowing stones, giant buried bullfrogs, Old Slipperyskin, and the giant birds of Butternut Hill.

Anyone interested in a good read should check out Citro's books, especially my favorite, Passing Strange: True Tales of New England Hauntings and Horrors.

Artist Stephen Bissette - Art on the right is his, for Champ DVD

Steve Bissette tag-teamed, following Citro with his own take on Vermont's monsters of legend. He emphasized the relevance of input from people who are great observers as amateur naturalists, and discussed his own process as an artist illustrating cryptids. He reminded the audience of the important concept that no cryptid exists in a void -- they fit into an ecosystem; they have neighbors; they move through and take part in the local environment.

Fans of Bissette will be pleased to note that he is working on the second volume of his Cryptid Cinema book series, which will focus on The Legend of Boggy Creek (if I heard correctly)!

Next on the roster was a preview of clips from the upcoming film The Cryptozoologist (2019), and a screening of Swan Song of the Skunk Ape (2015).

Following this was Hayley Eldridge's presentation "La Bête du Gévaudan."

image from Bibliothèque nationale de France, via Wikimedia Commons

This case remains sensational even centuries after its record (1764-1767), and still excites speculation and research. Hayley gave a detailed and engaging survey of what we know about the historic record and what might be guessed about the beast from these traces, including her favorite theory, that the creature was a hybrid wolf and Dogue de Bordeaux, a theory that allows for multiple beasts from any given litter, a possible source of the many attacks in different locations.

The talk that followed next featured a person I had never heard of, but she made a profound impact on me, even in such a small amount of time. Dawn Prince-Hughes is a primatologist, and author of Songs of the Gorilla Nation, among other books. Her discussion of gorilla ways was eye-opening and encouraging. Following in the footsteps of Jane Goodall and Dian Fossey, she focuses more on the natural behavior of gorillas and less on how we want them to behave. When she works with them, she prefers to match her gestures and communication to their own innate methods as a means of creating rapport.

While her breakthrough work focuses on gorilla ethnography, she has also explored other sideroads in her own research, including observations on some very interesting relationships between habitual snow monkey movement patterns and the roots of Muay Thai martial art techniques, and more.

Please consider picking up a copy of her book, Songs of the Gorilla Nation, if you would like to learn more about her work! I'm reading it right now, and it is fascinating.

Todd Disotell was the star speaker brought in to wrap up a great first day of the conference. His presentation was titled "DNA and Cryptozoology, or How I Survived 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty." While he is best known for his work processing DNA on that show, which aired on Spike-TV in 2014, in the real world, Dr. Disotell has been busy training the new generation of DNA specialists while teaching at NYU (http://as.nyu.edu/faculty/todd-disotell.html).

His graduates are active in the field, and have identified new subspecies of gorillas and chimpanzees, and at least 3 new species of monkeys, including the elusive Lesula (Cercopithecus lomamiensis) in the Democratic Republic of Congo. (more info: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0044271)

His talk focused on the potential for researchers to utilize the recent advances in DNA technology to accomplish species surveys. Using environmental DNA drawn from topsoil, local bodies of water, etc, labs can now determine what species are in a given area, and how long ago they were there in the case of past or transient populations. This is huge news!

We leave traces of our DNA everywhere we go, and so does every other species on earth. This new methodology, environmental DNA metabarcoding, is transforming how we survey animal and plant communities. With this and other tools, Disotell urges us: "Those of us in the cryptozoology field need to do way better than we have done up to now." Up until now, he states, he has seen zero data to convince him of the existence of legendary cryptids, but he is hopeful that access to new DNA technology will advance efforts, especially as the cost has plummeted now.

In other words -- work hard, learn well, and use new tools -- and always keep in mind that DNA is the keystone of species identification.

Also, it's always fun to be wearing the best pair of sneakers at the conference. 😉

UP NEXT: Day Two of CzCon 2018! Stay tuned...!

EVENT: International Cryptozoology Conference 2018!

A note for those of you interested in cryptozoology in general, and Maine Bigfoot -- I will be joining the star-studded line-up of speakers at the International Cryptozoology Museum Conference for its 3rd annual event here in Portland, Maine, at the beginning of September! Last year tickets sold out in advance, so if you really do want to attend, please be aware that it is better to buy your tickets sooner rather than later to avoid disappointment.  😉

I'm really excited to talk about my research on Maine Bigfoot, and to hear the other speakers, including Jeff Meldrum, Todd Disotell, Paul LeBlond, and of course Loren Coleman himself! It's also a great opportunity to visit the International Cryptozoology Museum (practically right next door to the conference), never mind being able to stock up on the latest cryptozoology books and films, plus pick up some fantastic artwork, all available right from the source in the vendors room!

I'm including a few pics below from last year's conference, featuring artist Stephen Bissette speaking on Vermont's Pigman and other creatures, Bruce Champagne's discussions of sea serpent types, Robert Schneck's revealing illumination of the dark corners of the historic Ape Canyon episode, Linda Godfrey's research on dogmen/wolfmen (including the Palmyra, ME, encounters), and one of many amazing creations from Kim Parkhurst at Toadbriar.com found in the vendor room.

FMI: http://www.cryptozoonews.com/icc2018-x/

Event: Cryptotrip film New England premier

NOTE: EVENT HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED DUE TO FOUL DRIVING WEATHER 2/24/13!!!
Date below has been updated to reflect change.
 
WHAT: Cryptotrip's New England premier
WHEN: Sunday, March 10th. Doors open at 3:30 for museum admission, followed by the screening. The event ends at 6:30pm.
WHERE: International Cryptozoology Museum (ICM), 11 Avon Street, Portland, Maine
FMI: http://www.cryptotrip.com/ or http://cryptozoologymuseum.com/

Join Loren Coleman and the the director Christopher Maloney for the first New England showing of Cryptotrip, a documentary film about the state of cryptozoology in the U.S. at a grass-roots level.

As director Christopher Maloney notes:
“Thousands of unexplained creature sightings are reported in the United States each year. What are people seeing? How does it impact them? What does this say about us as a nation? These questions are explored in a cross-country trek through America’s highways and byways, a journey that explores the phenomena and popularity of cryptozoology in the United States.”

The ICM will hold the screening on Sunday February 24th March 10th, 2013 with museum entry permitted at 3:30.

Admission for the film is $10.00 per person, regardless of age, and includes:

(1) Museum admission;

(2) Showing of Cryptotrip in a casual but unique cryptozoology setting;

(3) Q&A session with Christopher Maloney, writer and director for Cryptotrip;

(4) Your contribution to the educational and scientific mission of the ICM;

(5) Film refreshments for a small donation will be available;

(6) A chance to be one of the first to see this amazing cryptozoological journey!

The Facebook event page can be found here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/470855479628739/

View trailer here:
http://youtu.be/EpR0jcxjoNQ

EVENT: Cryptozoology Museum spooktacle!

WHAT: Free Halloween open house at the International Cryptozoology Museum!
WHEN: 12:00 noon to 5:00 PM, Sunday, October 31, 2010
WHERE: 661 Congress Street, Portland, Maine (enter through the Green Hand Bookshop)
FMI: (207)518-9496 or http://www.cryptomundo.com/cryptozoo-news/icm-oct31/

On the occasion of his 1st Year Anniversary, Loren Coleman has announced that the International Cryptozoology Museum will be opening free to the public for one day only.

Since it is Halloween, there will be treats for trick or treaters of all ages!  Come in costume if you can!

Monsters in our midst

There's a great post about Maine's own International Cryptozoology Museum over at OTIS (Odd Things I've Seen), which is a tasty teaser for J. W. Ocker's newly published book, The New England Grimpendium:
http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2010/09/new-england-grimpendium-international.html

Tons of cool photos, some fun descriptions of some of the museum's featured items, and a great jumping off point for Ocker's blog, which covers enough intriguing New England things to make you want to jump in your car and go see them yourself!