cryptid

I never heard the term, ‘cryptid’, until two weeks ago. Wikipedia describes it as:

“…An animal or plant whose existence has been suggested but has not been discovered or documented by the scientific community. Cryptids often appear in folklore and mythology, leading to stories and unfounded belief about their existence.”

So, basically, cryptids are entities like Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and werewolves. Who hasn’t heard about these creatures, right?

So, two weeks after learning the term, ‘cryptid’, I found myself in Frankfort, Kentucky attending a convention that focuses on them. I had no idea that there were enough hard-core believers out there to merit putting on a convention of this size… not to mention people who put themselves forward as experts of sorts! I was especially keen to attend the lecture on faerie phenomenon, having witnessed some strange creatures many years ago that I chalked up as being fae.

Aside from terrific people-watching opportunities, there were fascinating bits of information shared. For instance, did you know there are two camps of Bigfoot believers? I didn’t. One camp believes Bigfoot is more human, the other more ape. Scratch that. There is yet another division of camps: one who believes that Bigfoot is flesh and blood and another who believes it is paranormal. This could get really confusing really fast.

At least one presenter claims that any Bigfoot DNA collected has only ever shown up as human. He then presented Bigfoot reports from the 1920’s of Northwest Native Americans identifying a tribe of tall, hairy, “Giant Indians”. They called them Seeahtik. I’m looking forward to digging further into the information offered.

More to come about what I learned this weekend…