Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum

The spookiest, most unexplainable phenomena always seem to happen in rural America. So where else would you open a museum dedicated to things that go bump in the night?

Any wooded area is bound to have at least one Bigfoot/Sasquatch/Yeti sighting, and Littleton, North Carolina is no exception. However, when residents in this tiny town see strange creatures, they get local cryptozoologist Stephen Barcelo on the case.

Barcelo isn’t just a one-man operation. He founded Littleton’s Cryptozoology & Paranormal Museum, which is surprisingly well-stocked for the size of the town. It’s here that he collects and displays his research artifacts, as well as other items that would be of interest to fans of the paranormal. 

There are casts of Bigfoot prints, many of them made by Barcelo himself. Mrs. Beasley the haunted doll is reported to move about in her locked case. UFO sighting testimonials accompany photographic evidence of their appearances in the night sky. There is also a section of fakes—such as a Feejee mermaid. Barcelo also hosts ghost tours of Littleton, and displays ghost hunting equipment at the museum.

The museum and the tours educate guests on the paranormal, but also on the history of Littleton, something Barcelo holds equally important. Since the museum’s founding in 2015, more cryptic sightings have been reported than ever before. Perhaps this is because people now have someplace to report their experiences, but Barcelo maintains that the sightings are becoming more frequent because the local logging industry is encroaching on the creatures’ habitat.