Cryptotourism

Disney’s New Yeti Adventure

At Disney World in Florida, with the opening of Disney’s Expedition Everest, get ready for a ride of your life, plus some surprising educational opportunities to learn more about the Yeti or Abominable Snowmen. Several cryptozoologically-inclined people have contributed to the information behind this ride’s entryway and "museum," including me. It is located in the Animal Kingdom, and the waiting time is being filled with educational data about the Yeti. Joe Rohde, executive designer at Walt Disney Imagineering and lead designer of the park, has noted, "It’s a thrilling adventure themed to the tradition of the mysterious Yeti." Disney has [...]

Lake Kanasi Monster

Ancient Chinese Mongolians tell of monsters in Lake Kanasi. Twenty years ago, the first modern wave of sightings of the Lake Kanasi Monster occurred. Today, this Chinese cryptid is well known throughout Asia, and rapidly gaining recognition in the West. Reporter Audra Ang, writing in a breaking Associated Press dispatch, notes: "They have come by the tens of thousands over the years — skeptical scientists, curious tourists — answering the lure of the mysterious Kanasi Huguai, China’s very own version of the Loch Ness Monster….In today’s society, myth-making and chasing are a big business." Ang reflects on this recent trend: [...]

Media Alert: Lake Monsters

Being broadcast tonight, and reportedly to be repeated for months to come, will be "Weird Travels: Lake Monsters" (Sunday, 23 October 2005, 10:00 p.m. Eastern) on the Travel Channel. The episode details cryptozoological research and hunts for the Loch Ness Monsters (Nessie) at Loch Ness, Scotland, and Champ at Lake Champlain in New York, Vermont, and Quebec. The producer and crew stopped by to interview me on August 10, and they had just been to Lake Champlain. My time with them was serious and well-balanced. They did tell me that they had just taped footage of the Vermont Expos mascot, [...]

Hobbits

The media interest in the “Hobbits,” which I still enjoy calling by their more formal name, the Flores people or Homo floresiensis, is finally touching more seriously on their possible affinity to Australopithecus afarensis (“Lucy’). What’s interesting about this to cryptozoologists, of course, is the link to a continuous range of reports of little, upright hairy people from Indonesia, through India and the ancient Ceylon (Nittaewo), over to the homeland of “Lucy.” The reports of Sehite (West Africa) and Agogwe (East Africa) are especially intriguing for matching those of the Ebu Gogo of Flores Island. In the 1940s, there were [...]