Zoom EVENT: Thurs April 21: Bigfoot in Maine & New Hampshire!

 Hello folks! If anyone is interested in a free Zoom talk about Bigfoot in New England (focusing on the New Hampshire/Maine region), I'll be regaling viewers for the North Hampton Public Library next week, on Thurs April 21 at 7:00pm. Please pre-register here so you are able to attend: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUrcu2vrT8vHtCMX7GEXEjlui_EfFEfEw2y

 

Bigfoot in Maine update, upcoming events!

Hi everyone! Well, the air is getting crisper, and with October my work schedule at the shop will settle down, and with any luck I'll be able to take some fieldtrips out into the Maine woods again. I haven't been out to hike and explore since last February (see my posts Maine Wildlife in the Snow Part 1 and Part 2). It's going to be great to get out there again after too many months of too many hours of retail work (ahhhh, the joys of Maine's seasonal economy). 

But somehow along with all the rest of that nonsense, I've managed to squeeze in some awesome, fun interviews to talk about my book, and set aside time in October for some Zoom library talks. I've also continued to interview eyewitnesses for volume 2. 

Here are some links to some of the stuff I've been doing and other events I will be doing soon. Enjoy! 

Fresh out of the gate is the latest episode (#35) of Cryptid Creatures with Brian Brock and Todd Stevens, where they quiz me about what the heck is up with Bigfoot in Maine: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1MquFOgCHXepI2aglnDzhL 

 

 

A little earlier in the summer I had a great chat with Ryan Knights on Episode #14 (darn it, missed Lucky 13) of The Chaos Effect. Hopefully this is one of many! https://youtu.be/qDhTb7AoLDo

 

 

I also had the pleasure of talking with Paul Bestall on episode 140 of his very intriguing UK podcast, Mysteries and Monsters.  You can listen to it here -- definitely add the show to your list if you're looking for a lot of great conversations to binge!

https://audioboom.com/posts/7936192-mysteries-and-monsters-episode-140-bigfoot-in-maine-with-michelle-souliere 

 

 

And waaaaaayyyy back in May I got to visit with Aleks Petakov (and Nate Brislin!) before Aleks and his team went deep into the Maine woods to explore for Beyond the Trail: Sasquatch in the Pine Tree State.  You can find the episode here!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvZnrDdgiAQ&t=1004s

 

UPCOMING EVENTS:

On Oct 13, 2021 at 7:00pm, I will be very excited for my Zoom conversation with Kathleen Neumann, the Curator of Education & Public Programs at the Maine Historical Society, about what makes this corner of New England such a perfect place for this cryptid to live.  Guests will learn about the ecology and geography that support the legend, and the people forever changed by close encounters with these creatures.  You can register at the link below. https://mainehistory.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ilAlA11PTMyhem5BlGnvhA

 

Later in October, at 6:30pm on Wednesday, October 20, 2021, we're going to give things a little tweak and peek over the border into neighboring New Hampshire.  I'll be doing a Zoom talk for the Fortier Library at the White Mountains Community College.  This program is a free Zoom event, and all are welcome.  Preregistration is required at https://www.wmcc.edu/fortier-library/ (click the “Register for WMCC Library events here” button).

I'm sure there will be more, but I hope you all enjoy at least a few of these when you have the chance!

What a year! Bigfoot in Maine update etc

 Hi everyone--

This update note is long overdue, as are so many other things in this completely bonkers year.  The good news is, although I'm still fighting to keep my shop (The Green Hand Bookshop) afloat in the midst of all this, my upcoming book, Bigfoot in Maine, has meanwhile been quietly moving ahead.  It is making its way through the maze of editors and formatting designers at the publisher, and if all goes well we'll be looking at a release date in the first half of 2021.

All the illustrations are done, photos are tweaked, chapters written, and everything indexed.  Phew!!!  There was a lot of back and forth about how long it could be, and in the end I had to cut almost half of what I had written, but I fought to keep in the bulk of the most important part, in my view -- the oral history of eyewitness accounts. 

Some of the parts I had to pull out will show up here or in print as articles, so that they still see the light of day.

I am still talking with folks about their encounters, and with those out in the field investigating current activity, even though Covid has restricted my own travels for the foreseeable future (again, trying to keep the shop going has been intense, and we're not out of the woods yet).

Just for fun, I also recorded a short adaptation of the Maine story "Hobgoblins of the Wild North Woods" by Winthrop Packard, published in the Boston Evening Transcript, back on Dec 31, 1902. While it is ostensibly fictitious, it contains many elements of Bigfoot sightings reported even today.

You can listen to it here for free -- enjoy!

https://soundcloud.com/mys-648503636/a-hair-raising-bigfoot-yarn

I hope you have all stayed safe and well in these trying times, and I wish everyone better days ahead.

Bigfoot in Maine update, summer musings!

Hi everyone! The warm weather is finally here (mostly), and even the sporadic rainy days are good days to get out into a part of Maine you haven't seen yet.

I'm plugging away on the book, and excited to report that I'm working on the last major chapter (Durham Gorilla!), then all I have to do is add a few bits and pieces in to catch up with some last minute interviews and site visits elsewhere... and then the illustrations!

It's pretty exciting to finally be closing in on what is at this point a decade-long project. It's also exciting that it has been well worth it. I've met a lot of amazing people, and gotten to poke around in corners of Maine I might never have seen otherwise.

It has also become obvious that finally packing the manuscript off to the publisher when I've finished and done a final edit is NOT going to be the end of the work. This project has started what looks to be a lifetime's worth of recording Maine's Bigfoot-related oral history and scattered accounts. I have a feeling that I'll continue exploring this Strange Maine topic for many years to come, even after the book is done.

Skowhegan region driveabout on a rainy day!

Most recently I've been up in the Skowhegan region, where a series of late-1970s sightings occurred. It was a rainy day, but we covered a lot of ground, albeit in a truck because it was pouring rain and there were many meandering miles to traverse, many of them on dirt roads. Many thanks to those of you out there (you know who you are) that helped make this happen.

One of the most important things I've learned throughout this whole process is to be patient, and to be careful. If what I'm hearing from people is as real as it seems to be, we have neighbors that need our respect and possibly someday our protection. It's an intriguing thought to chew on.

I've also learned how important it is to be able to talk openly about the unexplained, because many people encounter it in their lives, always unexpectedly, and if we can't listen to others respectfully about their experiences, we can be sure that if we ever find ourselves in the same situation, ridicule will await us as well.

So please stop and think before you disparage or slap someone down just because they're trying to sincerely share something with you that they can't explain, but need to talk about. Small steps towards making this a better world for all of us. It doesn't take much, guys!

Bigfoot in Maine update!

Over the last couple of months I have continued talking to all sorts of folks about sightings and odd experiences that relate to the possible presence of Bigfoot in Maine.

Bit by bit I'm getting closer to my goal, which is to fill in the recent blanks in Maine's historic record when it comes to sightings within this state of large mystery mammals, specifically hominids. Eyewitnesses have come forward with accounts dating back into the late 1960s, with other encounters moving right up into the 2000s.

Perhaps optimistically, I continue to theorize that there are many unexplained encounters in Maine that are not on record.

If you or someone you know has had such a sighting or experience, please feel free to call me on my cellphone at (207)450-6695 -- please leave a message, so I can call you back, as I am working and unable to answer calls a fair amount of the time -- or simply email me at michelle.souliere@gmail.com -- or if you prefer pen and ink, you can write me at P.O. Box 5302, Portland, Maine 04101.

For those of you who are interested in what has been gleaned so far, I can tell you that I have a growing number of very interesting reports from up in Aroostook County (and honestly I hope for more from this quarter of the state, along with the Allagash and Golden Road). I can also tell you that I continue to be surprised by multiple reports from the midcoast area. Very little has emerged from the far southern part of the state, with one exception, and from the western part of the state (again, with one exception).

I'm planning on taking a few fieldtrips this year to look at spots of interest in person, which should be fun. Meanwhile, as snow and ice abound, this being Maine, I continue my indoor tasks -- mostly the tedious but necessary work of transcribing interviews, both from my own work and others in the field (especially SnowWalkerPrime), and trying to track down folks who have left fleeting comments here and there online, but who have yet to go on record with their accounts. I'm also following up with folks I have talked to in the past, trying to ask questions I forgot during interviews, afterthoughts, etc etc, so if we've previously conversed, you're likely to hear from me again as I tie up loose ends.

I am still very interested in speaking to more people who have had inexplicable experiences with large mammals in the Maine woods. The more interviews I can complete, the clearer the patterns and trends will become, I hope.

I am working to pull all these stories together, no matter how far apart in time and distance, in a single volume, along with Maine's historic sightings. Because if one thing is completely clear from the conversations I've been having, it is that Mainers sometimes encounter things in the woods that are not run-of-the-mill. And even if we can't figure out what exactly those things are, we are definitely interested in hearing more about them from people who have run into them.

Tell me your MAINE Bigfoot experience!

Dear readers,

Many of you know that for some years I have been working on writing a book about Maine Bigfoot-related stories, titled Bigfoot in Maine. It has been over 10 years since I began digging around in Maine’s history in search of stories about Bigfoot and other mystery hominid encounters in the state. Even though my research has uncovered dozens of interesting stories scattered through our state’s history, it's not enough.

It is clearly time for me to take the next step. My goal is to start tying in all the current stories that are floating around, and talk to folks about what they’ve seen out there in the Maine woods. While archive sources are a great way to learn about Maine’s history, the state’s living history is just as important as its past.

I know there are folks out there working the logging roads and up in the Aroostook regions who have seen things they can't explain. I know there are also stories from mid-coast and Western Maine that have not been recorded yet.

In the wake of Finding Bigfoot’s Maine episode, which aired Monday, January 11th, 2016, I am hoping the new awareness of sightings within Maine’s borders will encourage eyewitnesses to step forward and have their stories added to the state’s historic record.

I am now actively searching for Mainers who believe they may have encountered Bigfoot or similar unexplained large mammals within the state and are willing to be interviewed, whether via phone or via email. Those interested should contact me using the information given below.
-------------------------------------
Contact:
Michelle Souliere
email: michelle.souliere@gmail.com ← best contact method
cell: (207)450-6695 (evenings and by chance)
mail: P.O. Box 5302 -- Portland, ME 04101

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?"

Spotted in Portland: SASQUATCH!

I happened to be in a car driving down Spring Street just before 3:00pm today, which wound up stopped at the light at the corner of Temple Street and Spring Street. What did I see, but a furry bipedal humanoid sporting about in the freezing cold weather.

I can only hope his furry pelt was protecting him! He was surrounded by paparazzi, catching reaction shots of the citizenry, including myself and my roommate, who just about had a fit, startled as she was by the sight.

What were those crazy guys at Emptyhouse Film up to? Well, whatever it was, they were having fun. *grin* Thanks for making our afternoon so surreal!!!

Don't forget that they're running a premiere showing of their latest Maine-based film, Monster in the Woods at the Merrill Auditorium here in Portland on January 12th. Check out their ad for the event here on YouTube. And keep your eyes peeled for a sasquatch near you!

Maine Ridge Monster

Today, class, we are going to discuss the Maine Ridge Monster. This variant on the Bigfoot legend is wildly inconsistent throughout its sightings, varying from an 18-inch furry person to a 6 to 8-foot tall furry person. Sometimes it has black fur, sometimes it has brown fur with a white chest patch. You never know what to expect with this big fuzzball of legend. Bearing that in mind, here is a selection of Maine sightings and related information for you to peruse.

[NOTE: The two paragraphs below reference a now-defunct site. However, the information referenced is available in the appendices section of Janet and Colin Bord's 1982 book, The Bigfoot Casebook, the source from which it was originally drawn.]
This site is run by Roger Thomas, who oddly enough doesn't even live in the U.S., let alone Maine. Nope, he lives in Wales, in the U.K. This has not prevented him from developing an enthusiasm for Bigfoot, and creating a bang-up site discussing whether he is fact or fiction. Very nice green, foresty aesthetic and well-organized. The "News" segments on the front page are very current.

I found Roger's site when I was looking for mention of Maine and discovered this nice little chart that details some surprisingly early Maine sightings as published in a 1982 Bigfoot book. Who knew? These wooly bipeds were being witnessed in Maine as early as the 1800s! Sadly, recorded sightings detailed on the page have a 120-year gap between the early sightings and the 1970s when Bigfoot became "popular" again. Man, we humans are fickle. I wonder what happened to the tiny one that was captured in Waldoboro in the 1850s? Now that would be a good story.

We can hardly discuss mythic simians without mentioning Maine's own cryptozoological creature, Loren Coleman. Back in 2001, he discovered an antique lettuce crate. Yes, oh my gods, a LETTUCE CRATE! Now you are scratching your head. Was the lettuce crate used to bring mass quantities of leafy greens to a captive Sasquatch? Did Bigfoot use it for cave furniture? Well, though these are likely histories for the crate, what Coleman did in fact find exciting was the crate's label, which featured -- you guessed it! -- a sasquatch!

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you say -- big deal, some schmo developed a gimmick for his lackluster lettuce. No, no, no, Coleman could tell you, this is quite exciting. Why? Because, oh students of the strange, there is a 50+ year gap between Bigfoot sightings countrywide. From the early 1900s to 1958, the historic recording of sightings simply .... disappears. The "California Giant" lettuce crate, being from 1933, has given Coleman hope that there are sightings that occurred in this time frame, and has encouraged him in his search to fill that gap. To get a look at the label, which is admittedly quite cool, please see Coleman's own press release about the event and its ramifications.

Coleman's press release may also make more clear the reason for Roger's interest in Bigfoot despite his extraneous location in England, as Coleman begins to draw connections between Bigfoot and "Wild Man" or "Green Man" artifacts from Europe's Middle Ages. Hmm...

Last spring (2004), Drew, a fellow in Waldo, Maine, spotted a 4 to 5-foot tall black-furred anthropomorphic creature that he thinks might have been the Maine Ridge Monster. His account of the sighting is very brief but entertaining, and includes a graphic map of the encounter, and relates a delightful tale of school buses and his sasquatch startling a field full of donkeys. His humble and matter-of-fact acceptance of the fact that, with his luck, the sasquatch will turn out to be a squirrel in the end makes me want to meet the guy. Maybe I'll e-mail him for an interview.

Back in 1974, again in the spring, another fellow had an encounter that was much more disturbing. This took place off Route 1 in York County, in an area known sometimes as the Barrens. A late night camping stop off the road, a terrible scream in the dark, and large bipedal footprints evident in the morning. Eeek!!

A Sidney, Maine sighting of 16-inch footprints going into the Sidney Bog from January 2000 sounds promising, but the quick continuance of consecutive sightings all within the next week or so, including one in northeast Portland (?!!), make one wonder if they were simply distorted human footsteps in the snow (snow is very deceptive when it comes to footprint sizes, as most of us snow-bound Mainers know). It's unclear whether these sightings, all within a few days of eachother, were observed by the same Bigfoot enthusiast.

Another fellow ran into the Maine Ridge Monster in 1988 when he was out fishing with his father. The most interesting part of this story is the account of an old cabin they found, and the log of Maine Ridge Monster sightings that had been left there. While sounding a little fantastic, it's still pretty exciting to entertain the thought that everything happened as he said. Also of note is the mention of Maine Indians' legends of the creature, which bears some research in the future.

More links to Maine sightings are found here, including one of the most recent one I've found yet, from 2004. There are some extremely clear footprint photos from the Frenchville area in 2000. Of particular note is a detailed historical account of Maine sightings that fills in a few more blanks in the chronology of the chart on Roger's site (see above). I would love to read the story of the man who shared a meat pie with Bigfoot, which I've found mention of in some of the posts.

Well, all food for thought. It's good to flex the little grey cells before they start growing fur too.