America's Cryptid Tourism Trail: Museums and Festivals Devoted to Bigfoot, Mothman and More
A growing network of cryptid-themed museums and festivals across the US, from a new Bigfoot attraction in Texas to the Mothman Museum in West Virginia, draws hundreds of thousands of visitors each year. The sites show how local communities have turned unproven creature legends into part of their identity.
Across the United States, tourism built around "cryptids" — creatures whose existence science has not confirmed, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and the Chupacabra — continues to expand. The term stems from cryptozoology, the study of hidden animals. Belgian-French biologist Bernard Heuvelmans defined cryptids in 1983 as creatures so singular and startling that they become capable of inspiring myth.
A network of Bigfoot museums
Among the most notable sites is the International Cryptozoology Museum, founded by cryptozoologist Loren Coleman, which relocated from Portland to Bangor, Maine, in April 2026 after more than two decades at its previous site. Coleman has built his collection since 1960, and it now includes more than 10,000 items, among them the eight-and-a-half-foot "Crookston Bigfoot."
In June 2026, a new North American Cryptid Museum opened in Plano, Texas, offering an immersive walkthrough with life-sized recreations of creatures from all 50 US states plus Canada, Mexico, and Puerto Rico. In Boring, Oregon, the North American Bigfoot Center takes an evidence-based approach, founded by Cliff Barackman, known from the television series "Finding Bigfoot." Georgia's Expedition Bigfoot in Cherry Log claims the largest collection of Bigfoot-related artifacts of any museum.
Mothman and regional legends
Point Pleasant, West Virginia, has become the center of the Mothman legend — a winged, red-eyed creature residents reported seeing repeatedly in 1966 and 1967, shortly before the collapse of the Silver Bridge killed 46 people. The town now has a Mothman Museum, a steel statue, and an annual festival.
In Florida, the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters in the Everglades is devoted to a foul-smelling, ape-like creature and was named among the country's top roadside attractions in a 2024 USA Today readers' poll.
