I sometimes neglect the fact that few people know really what I have written, in total. Today, for example, a young man emailed me with this message: “How many books have you done Loren? I have only come across two.” Well, I can forget myself, often, for many reasons. It happens. Ha ha. Memory and lists of things-to-do aside, one reason is that there are many ways to count the unfolding of my life that occurs via my modest library of written works. You can look at “how many” in terms of various editions, revisions, and reprints. Or you can [...]
FeeJee Mermaids & Other Gaffs
The easiest pseudocryptozoological exhibition items to have, of course, are often the gaffs and hoaxes. Among those in most cabinets of curiosities are the Feejee mermaids and the furred trouts, both taxidermy fakes. I have my share. I use them to let people know these objects are often shown as “almost real” specimens. Most honest sideshow owners displaying them often merely only ask “What is It?” or “Is it Real?” But slowly the drift has been, perhaps due to eBay, for people to present these items as cryptozoological, from “unknown animals.” For cryptozoologists, we need to be aware of this [...]
Crookston Sasquatch Sightings
In 1990, Wisconsin taxidermist and artist Curtis Christensen created the “world’s most unique Bigfoot in existence,” above, and kept it to himself in his barn for a few years. When I talked to Christensen in 2004, he shared that he merely wished to create the model because he had an interest in doing so and he wanted to see how big it would be. (His model stands 8 feet tall and weighs nearly 500 pounds.) In June 1995, Crookston, Minnesota, based on a series of local sightings, declared itself the “Bigfoot Capital of the World.” Badger State taxidermist Christensen heard [...]
Berkshire Beast Blarney?
A copy (above) of an allegedly actual mountain lion (puma, cougar) track sold commercially by Acorn Products. As you may recall, in the recent posting entitled “Eastern Cougar Catfights”, I discussed the on-going battles between the older pro-eastern felid group, Eastern Puma Research Network (EPRN), and the newer more debunking Eastern Cougar Foundation (ECF). ECF member and mushroom expert Joseph Lankalis has “demanded” that I publish his contribution below, before it goes up on the eastern cougar page. To demonstrate how personal this feud has become, sure, I’ll post this. Lankalis’ argument may have some merit but the way he [...]
Eastern Cougar Mysteries
On display at Harvard’s Museum of Comparative Zoology: The verified casts (one shown above, the other below) of credible eastern cougar tracks found in Massachusetts in 1990. Naturalist Helen McGinnis’ of the Eastern Cougar Foundation, during January 2007, has raised some questions about the above during their “Project Hoax.” A Mystery Melanistic Felid captured on film in Florida turned out to be a black bobcat. Helen McGinnis, in the late 1970s, gathered evidence and privately published her findings in papers widely distributed to cryptozoologically-minded associates saying she thought upwards of 40% of the mystery cats in that state were melanistic. [...]
Where To Dig For Hobbits
What’s wrong with this drawing? (The answer is below.) Homo floresiensis, the “Hobbits” of Indonesia have been in the news again lately. This week it was announced that the dig will start up anew at the same cave where all the previous discoveries have been made on Flores. First, a flashback: How important and significant is the discovery of this species to cryptozoology? The editor of Nature, Henry Gee, in a 2004 editorial entitled “Flores, God and Cryptozoology,” wrote: The discovery that Homo floresiensis survived until so very recently, in geological terms, makes it more likely that stories of other [...]
Bigfooters: Media Targets
You’re a hard-working Bigfoot investigator and get a call from a "newspaper" in Florida, something with a forgettable and simple name. They want to do a story about you and a possible discovery you were looking into, regarding a unique piece of evidence. You are open, trusting, and sharing. But today, you receive a copy of the issue of the publication, and are surprised, nay shocked, to find out the article is in…the Sun, one of the sister tabloids of the National Enquirer of America Media, Inc. That’s what happened to Bart Nunnelly, who first shared with Cryptomundo his story [...]
Mystery Beast Thrice on Top Ten
The Lewiston Sun Journal has posted, in the midst of their current home page, a new listing (with links) of their most viewed news articles for 2006. Their earlier listing of the general story of Turner, Maine’s mysterious monster as number six was based on unknown criteria. This new online-based ranking of individual articles reinforces the common knowledge of those working at the paper – the Mystery Beast stories last summer sold the most newspapers for the L/A media organization over the most days in the reporters’ recent memory. As you can see below, story numbers 1, 5, and 9, [...]
“Destination Truth” Gets Green Light
The Hollywood Reporter is spreading the news that “Destination Truth” on the Sci Fi Channel is a go for April 2007. After the Destination: Truth expedition of February 20, 2006, found footprints at Kampung Lukut, a new wave of ecotourism was stimulated and foreign tour groups began arriving. The cast discussed around the world: Joshua Gates shows the media the footprint cast the “Destination Truth” team discovered in February 2006. Reporter Kimberly Nordyke writes: The six-episode weekly reality show features Josh Gates, described as a world adventurer and “eager truth-seeker,” visiting a different destination every week with his small crew [...]
Mystery Tusk: Definitely Mastodon Not Mammoth – Perhaps
This mastodon (Mammut americanum) is the life-sized bronze representation at the Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne, the home of the “Mastodons.” As you will recall, on the 8th, you first read here about the “Mystery Tusk.” Now comes a “confirmed” answer. Or is it? Therein lies the tale behind the splash on the television screen. The video is running on the local news this morning and WCSH-6 has run a backup item on their website by Peter Weyl. The mystery tusk was discovered by Tim Winchenbach of Cushing. He found it in a scallop net brought up from the Georges [...]
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