The International Cryptozoology Museum™
Ours is the world’s only cryptozoology museum. Come visit year-round this unique gem in the beautiful city of Portland, Maine. Join our nonprofit educational and scientific mission.
Regular Hours:
Open: Mondays Noon to 4 PM
Open: Wednesdays – Saturdays 11 AM to 4:30 PM
Open: Sundays Noon to 3:30 PM
Admission prices (cash only)
Babies in your arms and/or in strollers (not toddlers who walk or crawl) = Free.
Children (kids 12 and below) = $5.00 each
Everyone else (13 and older) = $7.00 each
New Exhibits Routinely Added:
Exhibits are being added routinely and enhanced continuously.
Southwest cryptozoologist Ken Gerhard presents Loren Coleman, on October 16, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference, with a Mesoamerican unknown hominoid mask. See the native artifact, newly added to the museum’s hominology display.
The new exhibit of Megamouth #1, discovered in 1976 off Hawaii, was also recently added. This is only the second model of this species in any museum collection in the world. The other is in Hawaii.
Jeff Johnson replica (above) of the Loch Ness Monster is on exhibit at our new well-lit ICM (below) location on Avon Street.
We appreciate cryptozoology-inspired art.
The International Cryptozoology Museum supports local and national artists, and its collection now contains, for example, artist Andy Finkle’s paintings, including those of Baldfoot, red Bigfoot, other cryptids, and individual portraits of Finding Bigfoot’s Cliff Barackman, the Bigfoot Discovery Center’s Mike Rugg, plus the ICM’s Loren Coleman (all three below).
One individual portrayed, National Geographic Channel’s Beast Hunter Pat Spain (below), was the generous donator behind the purchase of a sizable group of Finkle’s painting collection. See it with other artists’ work at the museum.
Our Grand Monster Reopening on October 30th, 2011, a Sunday, was very successful. We had a count of 161 guests. At our first downtown opening day in 2009, we had 82 visitors.
Above is a new mid-century modern “cryptozoologist’s study” art installation in the re-curated ICM. Note the 1960 flag is the first item obtained by Loren Coleman in that year, beginning his mission to build a historical and educational cryptozoological collection, which has resulted in this museum.
Our new, expanded, enlarged location is now open at 11 Avon Street, Portland, Maine. This is just around the corner from our former 661 Congress Street location that we shared with the Green Hand bookstore.
Please use “11 Avon Street, Portland, Maine” for GPS purposes. The new reopening has occurred after the massive move and re-curating of the 3000+ artifacts, including the full-sized art sculptures of the Crookston Bigfoot, Freaky Links’ pterodactyl, P.T. Barnum’s FeeJee Mermaid, the Naden Harbor Caddy, and other cryptid and new species replicas, evidence, and more. Our fiberglass lifesize coelacanth is the only model of the first 1938 specimen displayed in America.
Admissions and on-site donations are welcome. Greater donations will be appreciated to help with our on-going new design, larger space requirements, and additions to the collection we are making.
The museum will be closed on some major holidays, and when the director and docents have to undertake expeditions or presentations elsewhere. It is a public museum, and appointments are not necessary. Introductory brief overviews are given as visitors arrive, and not at any specific times.
The museum is mentioned on the local tourist map, on the Duck Tours and sometimes during the scenic trolley and cruise-related rides. It is easy to find. We are located on the Portland Metro Bus Route 1, near Avon Street, on Congress Street. The Amtrak train from Boston arrives less than a mile from the museum, as do the major bus lines. It is a short cab ride from the train or bus stations. We are right off I-95, then off I-295, for those driving. Congress Street is a major throughfare in downtown Portland, and our Avon Street is right off Congress Street. We are located next to Joe’s Smoke Shop’s parking lot, down Congress Street from the Children’s Museum and the Portland Museum of Art. On-street parking is available nearby, or simply use the parking garage attached to the Eastland Hotel on High Street a couple blocks away, less than a 5-minute walk.
The mission of the museum is to share the items cryptozoologically collected by Loren Coleman during the last half a century, with Mainers, New Englanders, out-of-town visitors, tourists, teachers, home-schoolers, researchers, scholars, professors, colleagues, students, documentary filmmakers, news people and the general public.
The International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine, includes exhibits about cryptids (beyond Bigfoot & Nessie). We also features displays about the finds of “living fossils” and other classic animals of discovery — the successful cryptozoological stories. One of the most famous, of course, is the coelacanth, as featured in the ICM logo. We have a lifesize model in the museum.
Our one-of-a-kind movie prop, the FeeJee Mermaid, is a sterling example of a fake in the museum demonstrating the skeptically open-minded approach to investigating cryptid reports to be found here. Critical thinking is important to this museum.
Some of the items on exhibit are actual hair samples of Abominable Snowmen, Bigfoot, Yowie, and Orang Pendek. A letter from the actor Jimmy Stewart is on display as he is linked to the Pangboche Yeti hand mystery. Fecal matter from a small Yeti was collected by the Tom Slick-F. Kirk Johnson Snowman Expedition of 1959, and the ICM’s sample has been featured on three television series: In Search Of, MonsterQuest, and Mysteries at the Museum.
A life-size model of Caddy is also contained in the collection, as well as the 8 ft tall Crookston Bigfoot and a large number of Bigfoot, Yowie, and Snowman footcasts. Because Loren Coleman has been on various television documentaries and programs, there are props from Lost Tapes, In Search Of, MonsterQuest, Freaky Links, Beasts of the Bible, and other shows.
During 2011, the museum was featured in History’s Ancient Aliens: Aliens and Monsters. Loren Coleman, in 2011, was also found discussing Mothman on Discovery Channel’s Will Shatner’s Weird or What? and “Maine’s Mystery Beast” and “Tom Slick’s Yeti Samples” on Travel Channel’s Mysteries At The Museum. You may see him documentary television reruns going back to the 1980s.
Oftentimes, various editions of the 35+ books by Loren Coleman are available, as well as other items for sale, in the ICM bookstore/gift shop. Autographs may be obtained, when the author is present, as he usually is, unless he is doing fieldwork or on location for a documentary taping.
This is an educational/scientific/natural history museum containing over 3000 items on display. As of September 15, 2011, we are an official State of Maine nonprofit corporation.
Your donations are important.
Please click on the button below to take you to PayPal if you would like to help us out with a donation.
If you wish to send in your donation via the mails, by way of an international money order or, for the USA, via a check or bank money order, please use this snail mail address:
Loren Coleman
International Cryptozoology Museum
PO Box 4311
Portland, ME 04101
Thank you!!
Art by Craig LaRotonda for Yankee.
We are featured in the July/August 2011 issue of Yankee Magazine, and via a full-page ad in the August 2011 issue of Portland Monthly Magazine. The museum was noted as the most unique museum to visit in the “Best of USA” picks in the May 2011 issue of Reader’s Digest. Numerous other awards and list selections have occurred in 2009 and 2010, as well as mentions and good reviews on Roadside America, Atlas Obscura, Yelp, Huffington Post, MSNBC, and Trip Advisor.
Late in 2011, the museum was featured on radio (in Spain, Russia, China, UK, Ireland, as well as on Radio Free Europe and Coast to Coast AM), in newspapers/online news (in Huffington Post, AOL News, Christian Science Monitor, Portland Daily Sun, USM Free Press, Enterprise News, and 136 other news sites), and various television programs (such as Boston’s Chronicle and Portland’s 207).
Local media love the museum: Rob Caldwell of Channel 6′s 207, and Susan Kimball of Maine Public Broadcasting Network taped programs at the new Avon location of the museum during the winter of 2011-2012.
April 2012 Event: We will be a site for the 2012 Atlas Obscura Day on April 28, 2012. We plan to give a special presentation on the Dover Demon in conjunction with that day’s events.
July 2012 Event: The International Cryptozoology Museum is sponsoring “Halloween at Hadlock” with the Portland Sea Dogs, the Boston Red Sox’s AA team, on Friday the 13th in July 2012. Come to the evening ballgame for a fun cryptic night of baseball and cryptozoology, after a day visiting the museum.
Visitors’ Guidelines:
Photography is encouraged for personal and educational use. You consent to allow us to use your photos in social media and publications with our permission for you to photograph our exhibits. Professional photographers please check in with staff.
Cellphones on vibrate are okay. Talking on cellphones is not okay, and you will be asked to leave, have your conversation outside, and allowed to return.
This is a museum. Touching and handling items is not allowed. This is a kid-friendly, youthful, and adult-oriented educational collection with many levels. However, ours is not a children’s museum.
We are happy to inform you we now have a public restroom, lots more space in which to move around, and a slowly expanding giftshop.
Sorry, we do not take credit cards yet. In our modest gift shop, purchases may be made with check or cash. (Check back to see when credit cards are okay.) There is an ATM next door at Joe’s Smoke Shop.
Donations are greatly appreciated to support our educational and scientific missions.
Contact Info
Loren Coleman, Director and Founder
International Cryptozoology Museum™
Post Office Box 4311
Portland, ME 04101
Phone: (207) 518-9496
Email: lcoleman@maine.rr.com