Mokele-mbembe being killed by Pygmies; drawn by Bill Rebsamen and used with permission. Who are today’s and tomorrow’s African American cryptozoologists? When I was at the 5th Annual Texas Bigfoot Conference, held October 14-16, 2005, I found it was a good event. I discovered the gathering was attended by a wider diversity of people than I have seen in my three decades of presenting at Fortean, cryptozoological, and Bigfoot gatherings. Of the 500 people there, I noticed more families, more women, more Hispanics, and more Native peoples than at any other public Bigfoot meeting, conference, and presentation I’ve personally experienced. [...]
Cuero’s Chupacabras Tee-Shirts
Photograph by Sonny Long, Victoria Advocate. A new creature report or series of sightings has turned into a “flap,” this time in Cuero, Texas. A flap is the term (with origins in the Air Force treatment of groups of ufo sightings) where there is a great deal of official and media attention, in this case related to a “monster,” such as happened in Texas during August, and now moving into September. What is part of the popular culture outcome from this out-of-control interest in such a beast? A new cryptid tee-shirt, of course. You’ve seen multiple examples of this recently. [...]
Circus Train Wreck Myth
Cecil B. DeMille’s The Greatest Show on Earth, released in 1952, influenced many future explanations of Midwestern “varmint” sightings in the 1950s – through the Present.
Ratatosk Predicts Red Sox Victory
I’ve spent some time here discussing melanistic or black squirrels. It seems only logical, perhaps even nuts, to not ignore the significant publishing of an article in today’s New York Times regarding some squirrel lore that can be seen to unfold in the coming weeks. What is being set up is a testable experiment. If a scholar of Norse mythology had been in the stands of Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, he or she probably would have advised Yankees fans to not make too much out of the 5-3 victory against the Red Sox. The result, after all, still left [...]
Steve Irwin’s Thylacine Hunt
Sadly, the world lost the Crocodile Hunter almost a year ago. The anniversary is approaching quickly. Feelings are still stirred by how Steve Irwin (February 22, 1962 – September 4, 2006) died and that he left the Earth too quickly. Intriguingly, here we are again talking about Steve and one of his quests that overlapped with cryptozoology. On Thursday, August 30, 2007, at 6:00 pm ET/PT, at least in the USA, on the Animal Planet, the long-lost episode with a segment on Steve Irwin’s mini-hunt for the Thylacine will be broadcast. This occurs during his 60 minutes program, “The Crocodile [...]
Civil War Pterodactyl to Maine
I’ve returned from Patrick Huyghe’s cabana, completing this weekend, the extended adventure in transporting the “Civil War Mystery Pterodactyl” to New England. The following images are courtesy of Allie Huyghe. The photo above is courtesy of Gregg Hale, Executive Director, Haxan Productions, Fox TV (at the time). My deep thanks to the Huyghes for their great hospitiality, cryptozoological conversations and Fortean brainstorming. By the way, if you were the passenger in a car with New York plates driving on I-84, who rolled your window down to ask me “What is that?” – and then had a short dialogue with me [...]
Jersey Mermaid
August 10 – The people of Tom’s River, N.J., are just now having a little sensation – it being nothing less than the capture of a veritable mermaid or at least a water animal strongly resembling that poetic species of fish. Two fishermen, while pursuing their vocation a few days ago in the Inlet, effected the capture after a violent struggle. At seeing the animal its captors became hugely frightened, and took to their heels. After a while they mustered up sufficient courage to return and look at their prize. In appearance it more resembled a human being than a [...]
Apes In Green Hell: Racism and Revisions
Dr. Karl Shuker has written numerous articles and several major books devoted to cryptozoological topics. One of his earliest books is the classic like Mystery Cats of the World (1989). But today, I do not speak of felines. He also wrote other books that have become favorites of cryptozoologists, such as Extraordinary Animals Worldwide (1991), The Lost Ark: New and Rediscovered Animals of the 20th Century (1993), From Flying Toad to Snakes with Wings (1997) and, acting jointly as consultant and contributor, Man and Beast (1993). During the 21st Century, Shuker has undertaken the revising and updating of many of [...]
Chupacabras 1951
Kenneth F. Thomas, editor of the Steamshovel Press and Missouri university archivist, shares an old reference to what seems like a new occurrence of “Chupacabras” in a sinister context, which he found on August 23, 2007. Thomas writes that he made the discovery while…. …watching the 1951 movie Bride of the Gorilla with Raymond Burr and Lon Chaney. Burr gets poisoned by a witch and either starts becoming a gorilla or it’s all in his mind and he’s running around naked at night in a South American jungle. The natives are convinced that it’s a legendary beast called something like [...]
Does Champ Exist?
A new 256-page book has been published that is an incredibly important contribution to cryptozoological history. It is a welcome document capturing a pivotal time in Lake Champlain Monster research Published by Coachwhip Publications, Does Champ Exist? Notes on the Historic Lake Monster Conference held in Shelburne, Vermont, 29 August 1981 by Gary S. Mangiacopra and Dwight G. Smith, has just been released. Does Champ Exist? was written, according to Chad Arment, to preserve the transcript of the (so far) only cryptozoological conference held to discuss the possible existence of an unknown species of animal in the waters of Lake [...]
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