CFZ's Next Generation Initiative

The Overtake has a new article up titled "The 'Science' of Cryptozoology" that features interviews with CFZ founder Jon Downes and NGI director Colin Schneider. Colin discusses the state of cryptozoology at the moment and what can be done to make it a "real" science, and not a pseudoscience. The article can be found here . -Tyler Houck

If you bring up the words "nonbeliever" or "skeptic" in most cryptozoology circles (though it seems Bigfoot in particular), you will be met with copious amounts of backlash. I recently saw something on this subject on the  Crypto Crew  website in a post entitled "The Bigfoot Deniers." In it, Crypto Crew founder/head Thomas Marcum went on a bit of a rank about those who will steadfastly deny that Bigfoot exists. He noted the many times he has seen people who don't think a gigantic, hair-covered man-thing walks the forests of North America have been on Facebook chat groups and the like and denied any possibility of Bigfoot existing. He quotes the commonly used "a hunter will say they are always in the woods and have never seen Bigfoot" and argues that, just because they haven't seen Bigfoot, that "doesn't make it any less real." Or does it? He then goes onto the common believer argument that "they [nonbelievers and such...

The third volume of David Weatherly's Wood Knocks: Journal of Sasquatch Research is available now on Amazon.com. This one looks to be quite good, with a lot of great contributors. Volume 3 features the following articles: "Bigfoot in Arizona" by David Weatherly "The Company they Keep" by Timothy Renner "The 'Demon' Bigfoot of the U.K." by Nick Redfern "The Florida Skunk Ape" by Robert Robinson "An Analysis of Relic Hominoid Sightings in the Desert" by Bruce Champagne "The High Strangeness of Bigfoot" by Joshua Cutchin "Oklahoma's Boggy Creek" by Marvin Leeper Overall this one looks quite good. Check it out here .  -Tyler Houck

Over on my other blog Tyler's Cryptozoo, I've started a new series of posts that examine different creatures of folklore and urban legends from around the United States. There's a new post up every Saturday and anything from local cryptid creatures, ghosts, mutants, etc. is fair game. So far, I have six posts in the series, which examine the goatmen of Texas and Kentucky, Texas' Donkey Lady, the green lady of Hawaii, the Washington D.C. demon cat, and the ghost of Cedarhurst Mansion in Alabama. There will be many more to come. Check out the latest posts in the series by clicking here . -Tyler Houck

2018's Monster Week is kicking off on May 27th with the final episode of  Finding Bigfoot  on Animal Planet. Of course, it's not the only "monster" show on that week. Below is a list of some of the new shows premiering, most of which feature cryptid creatures. Finding Bigfoot - " The team of investigators returns for the 100th episode! In a two-hour 'Monster Week' special, the team travels to Willow Creek California to help celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the most famous piece of Bigfoot footage, the Patterson Gimlin film. The discovery of a new copy of the film brings forth the biggest Bigfoot discovery in decades, showing the clearest image of the creature in 50 years. Immediately following is a one-hour special that features the 'Finding Bigfoot' investigators and crew as they share their own stories and experiences together which spans a decade." Premieres Sunday, May 27 at 8 o'clock. The Lost Kingdom of the Yeti - " From...

"Monster Week" is coming next month on Animal Planet and it's starting off with the final episode of  Finding Bigfoot . The Wrap  reports: Animal Planet's 'Monster Week' 2018 will kick off with the 100th and final episode of 'Finding Bigfoot,' TheWrap has learned exclusively. Not a bad way to get things going, or to finally bid adieu to a fan-favorite TV series. The week-long celebration will be hosted by Rhys Darby ('Flight of the Concords'), Dan Schreiber and Buttons of podcast 'The Cryptid Factor,' and it also includes new episodes of 'River Monsters,' 'Expedition Unknown,' 'Deadliest Place on Earth' and 'World's Scariest Animal Attacks,' along with a slew of specials, we're told. We've got the trailer for the annual event posted above and more details below - the news and footage is all ours, not that we're trying to be monsters about it. 'Monster Week' premieres...

Many researchers think that old newspaper accounts of "wild men," "wild women," "gorillas," and "anthropoids" throughout the United States could be historical accounts of Sasquatch. But do these accounts really have anything in common? I examined many old wild man accounts from Ohio, and there are a few comparisons that can be made. Appearance Besides being mysterious and hairy, many old accounts do not have much in common, appearance wise, with modern reports of Bigfoot. Most of the time, the only description is just "ape," "wild man," or "gorilla." However, in several accounts [in Ohio], the appearance of the creature is somewhat similar to today's Bigfoot. The June 7, 1930 report of the Norwalk "ape" from the  Coshocton Tribune  adds the detail that witness John Landoll saw the shape of "what appeared to be a man" as it lumbered away "in anthropoid fashion" into the...

In 2013, Daniel Loxton and Donald R. Prothero's book  Abominable Science! Origins of the Yeti, Nessie, and Other Famous Cryptids  was published.  This book caused quite a bit on controversy within the cryptozoological field at the time of its release and continues to do so today. Loxton is someone who became interested in cryptids as a kid and believed in the existence of Bigfoot, Nessie, and other monsters at the time, but then became skeptical of their existence, but still interested. Prothero is a paleontologist. I decided to get  Abominable Science!  after hearing Donald Prothero on Colin Schneider's Crypto-Kid podcast a few months ago. I thought Prothero made some really great points about cryptids and the people who search for them, and he and Loxton both do in this book. But then, why do so many people in the cryptozoological community hate it so much? I decided to look into this while the book was on its way. So, I went to the best place to fi...

Your’s truly was on Crypto-Kid with Colin Schneider last night. We talked about my new book Buckeye Beasts most of the time, and in the last 20 minutes or so we talked about “prehistoric “ cryptids like Mokele Mbembe and living pterosaurs. Listen to it below: -Tyler Houck 

Last night, Colin Schneider had Tim Renner and Josh Cutchin on his Crypto-Kid show for a 2-hour special discussing fairy lore and how it could be connected to cryptozoology. They discussed what fairies are, how fairy experiences could be similar to UFO and cryptid reports, fairy folklore from around the world, and much, much more. You can listen to it below: Find Tim Renner's books here . Find Josh Cutchin's books here . For updates on Crypto-Kid, check out Colin's Facebook page. NOTE - I will be on the show with Colin next Monday! -Tyler Houck

On March 31, 2018, Sandra Mansi, famous for photographing "Champ" at Lake Champlain in 1977, passed away after her battle with cancer. Mansi's photo has been promoted by many as the best piece of evidence for any lake monster… while I don't necessarily agree with that, this is very saddening, since Champ was one of the first three cryptids I heard about when I got interested in the subject… An obituary can be found on Loren Coleman's  CryptoZooNews . RIP Sandra. -Tyler Houck

In January of this year, Tim Renner published his book   Bigfoot: West Coast Wild Men .  The book is a collection of old newspaper accounts from California, Oregon, and Washington from the 1800s to early 1900s. It is a somewhat follow-up to his 2017 book  Bigfoot in Pennsylvania . The majority of the book is taken up by the old newspaper accounts themselves. The author focuses on one state at a time, and each state is split up into several chapters, each focusing on a certain time period (ex., Washington 1900-1920). At the end of each chapter, Renner gives a list of the articles and papers they originally appeared in and comments on some of them, either to compare them to modern bigfoot accounts, rule them out as hoaxes or humans, or examine them in some other way. If you are someone interested in historical accounts of wild men or Bigfoot, definitely check out Tim's book. It's not that long of a read but the stories are interesting and some of them are very enter...

In February, Roland Watson published his second book on the Loch Ness Monster -  When Monsters Come Ashore: Stories of the Loch Ness Monster on Land.   As is evident from the title, the book examines sightings of Nessie on land. Some of these encounters are very famous within cryptozoological circles (such as the Spicer and Grant sightings), and some are more obscure. Watson includes stories from the late 1800s to 2009. I recently got and read this book. I have always found the land reports of Nessie quite interesting, and this is the only book that focuses fully on this aspect of the mystery. However, while I wanted to like this book, I found that hard to do. And I will explain why. Roland Watson is definitely on the "believers" side of Nessie-hunters and says so in the book. His description of his  blog  on the subject is "reclaiming the Loch Ness Monster from the current tide of debunking and skepticism." I think that is what ruined this book. While I f...

Yesterday on the  Loch Ness Monster  blog I saw something about this Letter to the Editor sent to the  National , a Scottish paper, on March 6th of this year, regarding an odd experience the sender had a Loch Ness many years ago... (Sam Fentress, Wikipedia) It reads: I AM intrigued by Pat Kane's new piece on a new the pence coin bearing an image of Nessie ( Here's to Nessie! Why we're all in thrall to Scotland's mystic monster, The National, March 3 ). While not putting forward any theory, I did have a strange experience on Loch Ness. We were spending a holiday weekend with friends in Turriff, and were invited to visit another friend who had a cabin cruiser, the Rubicon, on Loch Ness.  It was a lovely day and we cruised down the loch to Drumnadrochit, where we had lunch.  In the late afternoon we cruised back and just off Foyers the boat's owner, Jim Hunter suddenly said: "We're running out of water!". He switched the depth sounder from ...

Last night, Colin Schneider’s Crypto-Kid show retuned. Colin’s guest was Matt Bille, a cryptozoologist who has written two books on the subject - Rumors of Existence and Shadows of Existence . They talked mystery cats, bears,  ceataceans (whales/dolphins), and thylacines. Listen below. You can find Matt’s blog here . Check out Colin’s Facebook page for updates on his show. -Tyler Houck **I have decided to post news about new episodes on Monday on my other blog Tyler's Cryptozoo , I will post the archived shows on this blog.** - TH

My book Buckeye Beasts: Historical Accounts of "Gorillas," "Wild Men," and Other Hairy Monsters in Ohio is available on Amazon NOW! Right now only the Kindle version is on there, but the paperback will be in a day or so. Here's some more on the book: Throughout the 19th and early 20th Centuries, encounters with "wild men" were commonly reported in newspapers around Ohio. Many cryptozoology researchers think these reports of wild men, "gorillas," "hairy men," and "anthropoids" could be historical accounts of Bigfoot-like creatures. In this book, author Tyler Houck examines these reports spanning from 1869 to the 1940s. Many are presented here as they originally appeared and are then compared to modern Bigfoot reports and other historical and contemporary reports of strange, man-like cryptids from around the world. Is this all something to do with mythology and folklore, hoaxes on slow news days or misidentificatio...

Making the rounds on all the news sites on the Internet as a "Loch Ness Monster" is this carcass of something that was recently found on a beach in Georgia, USA. Strange remains found by Jeff Warren. Is it real? Fox News  reports: Shocking pictures of a Loch Ness Monster-type beast found on a U.S. beach have sparked talk Nessie could have moved stateside. The mystery creature was reportedly found on Wolf Island, Georgia, by a father and son who were out on a boat trip, The Sun reported.  Father Jeff Warren spotted what he said he thought was a dead seal lying in the surf, according to First Coast News. But upon closer inspection, Warren said it became clear he had no idea what the animal was. Images show the supposed carcass, which Warren said was being eaten by birds when he arrived, lying in the sand. It appears to have a long tail and two fins, as well as a long neck and a tiny head - features usually associated with Nessie in popular culture. The cre...

I have two new books coming out sometime in the near future, both focusing on some of Ohio's cryptid creatures. First, Buckeye Beasts: Historical Accounts of "Wild Men," "Gorillas," and Other Hairy Monsters in Ohio.  The book is an examination of old "wild man" accounts from the 18- and early 1900s in the state. I cover sightings from the "first" report in 1896 up to 1950, since the '50s were the decade when "Bigfoot" was born. After looking at all the newspaper reports, I compare them to other stories of "wild men" from throughout the world (Australia and England for example) and also to modern Bigfoot reports. The book should be available on Amazon before long and I will update things when it is! The other is The Ohio Monster Guidebook: A Look at the Buckeye State's Most Mysterious Creatures. This one is being published by CFZ Press and things are currently underway. In this book, I cover many Ohio cryp...

The UK  Mirror  has a  new article  up on a woman who won £1,500 for having the "best Loch Ness Monster sighting" of 2017. The article reads: A woman who had a monster surprise on her honeymoon in the Highlands has won £1,500 for the experience. The annual Best Nessie Sighting of the year has been won by Rebecca Stewart of Lancashire with a picture she took on her honeymoon last October. Mrs Stewart from Chadderton, Oldham, photographed and saw the large fin shape for five minutes - although it is admittedly somewhat hard to make out on the photograph. Her husband Paul also claims to have seen the Loch Ness Monster as the picture was snapped while they were with their two-year-old son Thomas and the family dog. Mrs Stewart's sighting was accepted by the Official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register and then entered into the competition which has a prize of £1,500 given by bookmakers William Hill.  Mrs Stewart, who has recently been made redundant ...

The Secret History of the Jersey Devil: How Quakers, Hucksters, and Benjamin Franklin Created a Monster  is a brand-new book by Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito. Below is the book description: Legend has it that in 1735, a witch named Mother Leeds gave birth to a horrifying monster - a deformed flying horse with glowing red eyes - that flew up the chimney of her New Jersey home and disappeared into the Pine Barrens. Ever since, this nightmarish beast has haunted these woods, presaging catastrophe and frightening innocent passersby - or so the story goes. In The Secret History of the Jersey Devil, Brian Regal and Frank J. Esposito examine the genesis of this popular myth, which is also one of the oldest monster legends in the United States. According to Regal and Esposito, everything you think you know about the Jersey Devil is wrong. The real story of the Jersey Devil's birth is far more interesting, complex, and important than most people - believers and skeptics alike -...