Art by Bill Rebsamen, reproduced with his permission. On this day, August 22, in AD 565, St. Columba came across a group of Picts who were burying a man killed by a monster that today is linked to the Loch Ness Monster. St. Columba supposedly brought the man back to life. In another version, he is said to have saved the man while the man was being attacked, driving away the monster with the sign of the cross. Most histories of Nessie point to this event as the first known reference to the Loch Ness Monster.
Beyond Mothman: I-35W Blues
Things fall down. People look up. And when it rains, it pours.Magnolia, 1999. The collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota is a tragedy, some say of epic proportions. Certainly, it is the most significant bridge collapse, not caused by an easily visible external reason like an earthquake or an impact from a barge, since 1967. An Anomaly National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Mark Rosenker said it is too early for officials to know if the accident could have been avoided. “They are built not to fall down. This is an anomaly and we’re going to try to find out [...]
The Day It Began: Bluff Creek in Bigfoot History
During this 40th anniversary of the filming of Bigfoot at Bluff Creek (October 20, 1967), I’ll drop in at various points to note some significant milestone dates on the calendar. For today, let’s look at the pivotal date of August 3rd. The October 1958 tracks of the Bluff Creek’s Bigfoot became famous because Jerry Crew took a cast of one of them into Eureka to show the newspaper. But the 1958 Bigfoot events began in August. Crew was a new hire that spring with the construction company. The men were getting serious about taking down trees and creating the new [...]
Mothman Deaths Keep Away No One
Anniversaries are those logical points on the calendar when we all naturally think about events that may have been too overwhelming to have sink too deeply into our psyche at the time. Three years ago the Mothman Death Curse, if there is such a thing, hit close to home. On July 19, 2004, the first copies of the August 2004 issue of Fortean Times went on sale in London, with distribution to the USA, later in July. It contained the first publication of “The Mothman Death Curse” article that I had completed a few weeks earlier, after researching the subject [...]
How Big is the Cryptozoology Community?
My late friend, colleague, and mentor, Ivan T. Sanderson, shown above with a lemur in his private zoo, was one of the first in America to try to organize those interested in cryptozoology into a formal “society.” What does his legacy look like today? Matt Bille asked me a simple question: “How big is the cryptozoological community?” Specifically, Matt wanted to know if anyone has tried to estimate the size of the cryptozoological community – that is, the number of people in North America particularly, who actively follow cryptozoological news and publications? How many people, Matt wondered, actually spend time [...]
A CryptoZoo Birthday
Even a hard-working cryptozoologist needs to take a break for his birthday party, once a decade, right? Aren’t we all kids inside, sometimes? Snapshots from the July 12th celebration at the Portland Sea Dogs game: During the event, an unknown cryptid mascot showed up to pose with the specially made Bigfoot birthday cake and some guy in a red shirt. Actually, this creature is the Yarmouth Clam Festival mascot clam. Strange but very cheerful. In the two above photos, you can see how different camera angles and light bouncing off Bigfoot created the illusion that the brown primate may sometimes [...]
Flashback: Johor Hominid – July 4th, 2006 + A New Sighting
Do you remember what we all were talking about on this date a year ago, on July 4th, 2006? Teasers about groundbreaking photographs of a “Johor Hominid” were being promoted with comments about having patience. One website researcher commented to me on this day in 2006 that asking to see the Johor Bigfoot photographs is “like asking for Angelina Jolie’s unpublished baby photos,” and that I now have to “be patient like the rest.” Yes, I said: Patience is a virtue. Patience and passion are two important components of cryptozoology research, as I have often mentioned, as per Bernard Heuvelmans. [...]
Out Of The Ordinary: Weird Virginia
In celebration and dedicated to my birthstate (Norfolk, Virginia: July 12, 1947; yep, my father was in the U. S. Navy)….here’s a June 29, 2007 review of Weird Virginia, a new book by Jeff Bahr, Troy Taylor and Loren Coleman. Weird Virginia As some have told me, I did come in with the era of modern “flying saucers,” as well as with a wave of Sasquatch, Bigfoot and Skunk Ape sightings in British Columbia, Missouri, and Florida, during 1947. Cards, greetings, and 60th birthday checks gratefully accepted at PO Box 360, Portland, ME 04112. Also appearing in my 60th year, [...]
St. John’s Day ‘07
St. John’s Day June 24, 2007 Here is my annual tribute to this special day, which happens to be a little more special than usual for 2007. Does the name Kenneth Arnold (below) ring a bell? Knights Templars display “Mysterious Head” at Poitiers (1308). Founding of the Order of the Garter (1348). John Cabot discovers North America (1497). Galileo released (1633). “Woman of the Wilderness” utopian community arrives in America (1694). “W of W” angelic visions (1701). Grand Lodge of Freemasons inaugurated (1717). Ambrose Bierce born (1842). Red rain, Italy (1877). Ice fall, Ft. Lyon, Colorado (1877). Fall of jelly-like [...]
Penn Giant Snake Eats Kittens
One hundred years ago, explorer Colonel Percy Harrison Fawcett was sent by the Royal Geographic Society to make a thorough survey of the Rio Abuna and Acre Rivers. He encountered a Giant Snake. Today, sightings of a large serpent have stirred the media in the Midwest USA. Click image for full-size version Fawcett ran across his snake in 1907, as he was drifting along the Rio Negro. Fawcett shot the creature and finally examined it on the river bank where it came ashore. According to Fawcett, the snake measured 45 feet out of the water and 17 in it, for [...]
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