© David Barkasy and Loren Coleman
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Since 2003 the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine has been famous mostly for getting its owner Loren Coleman into huge trouble with the IRS. The Museum, built around animals that may or may not exist but that most people think don’t, was run out of Coleman’s house. But after several years of nonsense Coleman’s persistence is paying off and his exhibits of unreal and surreal fauna are getting a new home:
Loren Coleman says his International Cryptozoology Museum will open in a Congress Street storefront on Nov. 1. As a cryptozoologist, Coleman studies creatures that have been reported to exist but aren’t formally recognized by science. Among the displays will be his 8-foot-tall, 400-pound Bigfoot sculpture, which now stands on the front porch of his home. He’ll also have a model of the Loch Ness monster, along with what he says are a footprint cast and hair sample from the Abominable Snowman, found during a 1959 expedition in the Himalayas.
The new location will be the Green Hand, a Portland store that sells strange fiction and supernatural fiction. We’re kind of iffy on the choice, since it threatens to give the space a freak show vibe. In one way that’s obviously appropriate, since most of these animals do fall under the category of “natural freaks.” But in another it’s kind of unfortunate.
While it’s easy to make fun of someone who writes books about tracking Bigfoot, there are serious people who take Coleman seriously. He’s given talks at Universities and at the American Museum of Natural History. He’s obviously not a mainstream zoologist but he’s not a kook either. There’s an underlying seriousness to his work. Plus some of the Museum’s carvings and etchings are just neat.
On the other hand, Coleman did keep a 400 lbs statue of Bigfoot. And sometimes it just feels good to needlessly mock people at the beginning of a long week. So if you get the urge to comment on his collection of Abominable Snowman fur, we won’t necessarily judge. But keep in mind the man’s a scientist.