North American Cryptid Museum in Plano, Texas

Allen Hopps, owner and creator of the North American Cryptid Museum (NACM) in Plano, Texas, has a message he wants everyone to hear: Our world needs monsters! He is on a quest to bring you face-to-face with our homegrown North American monsters. As a kid who was afraid of the dark, he’s come a long way. His first love was the werewolf. The Loch Ness Monster and Bigfoot were not far behind. After decades immersed in the world of haunted houses—including Dark Hour, a year-round attraction he started with his wife—and providing costumes, monsters, and mayhem to theme parks, entertainment venues, and movie studios, Hopps knew it was time to celebrate uniquely American folklore. His decades in the “monster” industry shaped him into an expert storyteller, creating little worlds for others to experience in real time. Traditional cryptozoology museums typically display photos, videos, and plaster casts. If you are lucky, there may be one or two life-sized figures. The NACM comes from a different angle that Hopps calls “crypto-tainment.” Hopps wanted to create an immersive experience with dozens of life-sized models, allowing guests to come face-to-face, or sometimes face-to-chest, with th…