Our post today comes from Portland Local
We’d stumbled upon Portland’s Cryptozoology Museum in our research and were immediately intrigued. We finally made it over to the small museum, found on Avon Street off of Congress, right in between Joe’s Smoke Shop and The Green Hand bookstore.
Cryptozoology is the “study of hidden animals”, so that includes animals that are extinct, animals whose existence has yet to be proven and animals discovered far from where they should be geographically. The most well known cryptids are Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, the Yeti and the Chupacabra. ICM is a nonprofit historical and educational museum containing over 3000 items related to Cryptozoology.
We were greeted by museum founder and director (and former Waynflete parent!), Loren Coleman. It was instantly clear Coleman is really in to what he does, with a twinkle in his eye he gave us an explanation of cryptozoology, cryptids and an overview of the museum’s layout. Coleman’s resume is pretty damn impressive too; he’s written almost forty books on the subject of cryptozoology and has appeared on quite a few documentaries and tv shows, including Ancient Aliens and MonsterQuest.
The museum carries rare models, replicas, fossils, artifacts, inspired art popculture from toys, and model coelacanths. They also have life size (fake) cryptids and rare and unique evidence of hair foot prints.
Out of all the museums featured cryptids on display, we found the Feejee Mermaid the most memorable.
The 7$ entry fee may seem a tiny bit steep for the fairly small museum, but it’s all about the details here. Open a book, read every description on display, strike up a conversation with Coleman–you’ll get a lot more out of it, whether you’re a believer or not.
The coolest part? The International Cryptozoology Museum is actually the only one of its kind in the world, which makes it pretty special to Portland. So let’s keep it around and encourage it to grow!
Entry Fee: $7
Location: 11 Avon St., Portland, Maine, USA
WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The Exhibition List 
patrick
May 27, 2012
reckon i’ve spotted one or two potential exhibits wanderin’ the streets of my locale
Jesus Christ
June 18, 2012
“Bigfoot Is Real”
http://bigfootsightings.org/friends-sasquatch-different/#comment-25296
Preeti Gandhi
June 19, 2012
Wonderful Pics. I am also a part time photographer but hats off to you for such a good pics. I will keep an eye to your next few posts and if you will be consistent, I am surely gonna follow you….