After I posted this morning’s blog “Flashback: Thirty Year Ago – South Dakota Bigfoot,”” about a Bigfoot flap taking place in 1977, Scott Maruna at The Anomalist commented: “Come to think of it, there were a lot of flaps going on that year.”

Indeed, there were.

The anniversary of the Dover Demon sightings (April 21-22, 1977) is rapidly approaching. On April 21, 2007, I’ll be a guest on the “Dover Demon” 30th Anniversary Special (“Dover Demon” is a chapter in Mysterious America), from 10 pm to Midnight, on the Eastern Spooky Southeast broadcast, on WBSM-AM, 1420 AM, New Bedford, Massachusetts. Later in the year, I’ll be giving a “Dover Demon” illustrated presentation at the “Mass Monster Mash” in Massachusetts in October 2007.

The March 2007 issue of TAPS Magazine (see ad to the right) has an update article about the Dover Demon and a companion “Coleman’s CryptoCorner” article with my top ten choices for the cryptids reported during 1977.

That year had, besides the Dover Demon, a series of livestock killings by a mysterious Black Panther in Ohio (beginning April 25, 1977), and the Lawndale Big Bird near-abduction (July 25, 1977) in Logan County, Illinois. Bizarre beast encounters took place so often thirty years ago, 1977 became known as the "Year of the Creature" because there were so many Bigfoot and other creature sightings occurring, especially in the Midwest.

As I mention in the TAPS article, “Year of the Creature” was coined by David Fideler, then the editor of The Anomaly Research Bulletin, and reinforced by concurrent, coincidential remarks by Ohio researcher Ron Schaffner.

Yes, Scott, there were a lot of flaps going on in 1977!