People did come. What a day! What a success!
Yesterday, after getting up at some incredibly post-setting-the-clocks-back time, I went downtown to finish the placing of the diorama in the front window of the International Cryptozoology Museum. There’s more fine-tuning to do, but one form of the changing assembly is in place. It is of Ice Age mammals on a snowfield with a few “sightings” available of a certain cryptid (“Where’s Sasquatch?”). I won’t identify the other species in the window display. You’ll have to come see for yourself.
The media attention to our opening on Sunday, November 1, had been nonstop, and thus people were coming, no matter what. We built it, and they came. You came.
Emily Burnham of the Bangor Daily News took one of the last pre-opening photos of the preparation.
The time for building the field of dreams was over, and despite the Green Hand Bookshop’s opening being temporarily delayed, separately, to the musuem, people were coming; they were coming in droves, as it turns out, from around the country for the “unofficial” museum opening on Sunday.
The big ribbon cutting “Grand Opening” for the bookstore and museum is very much happening at 6 pm on Friday, Nov. 6th, with State Rep. Herb Adams reading a State of Maine Proclamation, celebrating this as the world’s first cryptozoology museum.
But early on Sunday, I noticed an interesting thing began happening. People who had driven up from Boston and folks from Virginia had dropped by at 10 am, asking if they could give an advance donation for a spot in line to be first in the door. Those two groups came back at 11 am, and I gave them an advance, pre-noon tour of the museum space.
Then by 11:30 am, two guys had decided to sit near the front door to be first inside. A line was developing. What was this? A rock concert?
Before the day was over, upwards of 80 people had “stopped” by from Baltimore and Boston, Virginia and New Jersey, northern Maine and South Portland. This also included a visit from my son Malcolm who lives in South Boston, and my son Caleb who rearranged his hospice volunteer work so they could both surprise me, with their mom. It was a day filled with family, friends, fans, and folks from all over. I was overjoyed with the casual turnout of so many people, despite the “official” delay that was announced.
Indeed, there was a non-stop stream of people going through the museum, from noon to closing at five. Everyone got a personalized overview of the highlights of the contents. Some stayed an hour, others viewed what they wanted to see and left in shorter windows of time. Most visitors seemed to ask questions, and the majority of people wanted to take their photos with taxidermy artist Curtis Christensen’s Crookston Bigfoot, out front.
I got yeoman’s service from docent coordinator Jeff Meuse who literally manned the front door, to steer traffic to the back exhibition space.
Jeff Meuse, chief docent coordinator, was in cryptocommand throughout the day, and I would not have made it without him, for I was in the back all day, without a break.
So, how about some more pictures?
Without captions, here are some selected photos from the start of the day, taken as the door flew open and the afternoon unfolded.
All photos are © 2009 ~ International Cryptozoology Museum™
Read what others are saying about the ICM opening. Online mentions and critiques I’ve stumbled across include (to be expanded as I see more):
David Buscher’s “Cryptid Keeper” at his Upside Down Hippo blog gives an inside look.
Matt Bille’s Sci/Tech Blog has “Nothing like it in the world: Crypto Museum Opens.”
Red Pill Junkie, over at the Daily Grail, writes of the “Cryptozoology Museum: Open For Business.”
Meanwhile…
Your donation support is greatly appreciated.
Please click on the button below (not the one up top) to take you to PayPal for your museum donation.
Thank you.
Follow CryptoZooNews
Not Found
The resource could not be found.