Men in Cryptozoology

50th Anniversary: Slick Begins Snowman Search

This week marks the 50th anniversary of Tom Slick’s most organized, first San Antonio Zoo-sponsored expedition in search of the Yeti. It was formally called the Slick-Johnson Snowman Expedition. Via a feature giving a flashback of 50 years ago, the Los Angeles Times reprinted an old Matt Weinstock column, from the reporter who was sort of the “Herb Caen of Los Angeles.” In this passage, Weinstock talked of the Abominable Snowman and Tom Slick, thus giving a good period view of one newspaper columnist’s way of dealing with the event. Matt Weinstock (You gotta love Weinstock’s 1950s’ haircut.) The following [...]

Robert Rines: “Are They All Liars?”

It reads like an obituary. And after a fashion, it is a pre-obit, a reflection on how it must feel as the end is in sight. The Boston Globe looks at the final and waning days of the Loch Ness Monster hunter Robert Rines. The article carried in today’s New England newspaper is detailed, joyous, and, I must admit, a little sad to read. In 1999, along with my sons (one of whom has a very Scottish name and it’s his birthday today), I came upon Rines and one of his sons in a teahouse on the shores of the [...]

Cryptozoology Futurology

Yes, I have turned up in this new book, What’s Next: The Experts’ Guide: Predictions from 50 of America’s Most Compelling People by Jane Buckingham. I am one of the fifty “most compelling people” in the country. I’m still trying to explain what that means to my sons. I do like the company I get to keep in the pages of this tome, which has just hit the bookstores. What’s Next takes cryptozoology seriously. It contains my next decade’s predictions about where I see the field going and what animals I feel will be discovered. I won’t spoil this author’s [...]

Staying On Track: 2008’s Forthcoming Cryptozoology Books

A new year is always exciting, for no telling what it holds. New species to be discovered? Of course. New cryptid sightings? Certainly. New cryptozoology books being published? Needless to say. The Top Cryptozoology Books of 2007 have been picked and discussed, so it is time to look to the future. There, indeed, are hints of many new cryptozoology books on the horizon. Let me split them between the nonfiction and cryptofiction. Cryptozoology Nonfiction Titles Ivan T. Sanderson’s classic book, Abominable Snowmen: Legend Come to Life has been republished by Cosimo in 2008, with a new preface. I have already [...]

My Favorite Hillary & Yeti Photo

The tributes to Sir Edmund Hillary continue to roll in from afar, a fact acknowledged in today’s New York Times. The man’s reach was far indeed. In Portland, Maine, the local newspaper recalled Sir Edmund visited here in 1962, and gave a lecture for teachers and school children at the-then-grand Lafayette Hotel on his Abominable Snowman expedition. As a final goodbye to Sir Edmund Hillary, I want to share my favorite photograph of him. It is Hillary with an unknown artist’s drawing of the Abominable Snowman that Hillary loved to show to the media before his 1960 expedition. To prepare [...]

Yeti Hunter Sir Edmund Hillary Dies

Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb the world’s highest mountain, Mount Everest, has died at the age of 88, on January 11, 2008, local New Zealand time. He climbed the 29,035 ft (8,850m) peak with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay, reaching the top on May 29, 1953. Hillary’s health had reportedly been in decline since April 2007, after a fall while visiting Nepal. He suffered a heart attack in hospital on Friday morning. Sir Edmund’s fellow climber, Sherpa Tenzing Norgay (right), died in May 1986. Born July 20, 1919, in Auckland, New Zealand, Sir Edmund Hillary began [...]

Living Moa News

The little blue moa. The Thylacine of the Avian world is in the news again. Australian cryptozoologist Rex Gilroy recently discussed the latest new findings for Moas with the Hawke’s Bay Today. One of the good points about Gilroy is that he does serve as a lightning rod for unusual animal accounts in the region sometimes, and likewise has the ear of the media. The press reports tend to lower the ridicule curtain and more reports and sightings, historical and recent ones, then come forth. Most of the cryptozoological attention to the survival of the Moas has been directed to [...]