Travis McHenry | |
|---|---|
 McHenry as Grand Duke of Westarctica | |
| Born | June 4, 1980 |
| Occupation | Publisher |
Travis McHenry is an American-born micronationalist and occultist.
Travis McHenry | |
|---|---|
| McHenry as Grand Duke of Westarctica | |
| Born | June 4, 1980 |
| Occupation | Publisher |
Travis McHenry is an American-born micronationalist and occultist.
In 2001, while a seaman in the United States Navy, McHenry founded the micronation of Westarctica. [1] In 2004, he appointed himself ruler of a territory of 620,000 square miles he called the Grand Duchy of Westarctica located, in the Marie Byrd Land region of Antarctica. He has said that this took advantage of an apparent loophole in the Antarctic Treaty System. In 2006, after learning that McHenry had been communicating with foreign governments asking them to recognize the nation, the Navy required him to abdicate. [2] [3] [4] [5] As of August 2018 [update] , Westarctica claims a population of 2,356 citizens (none of whom actually live there), and McHenry still calls himself its Grand Duke. [6] [7]
In 2009, after McHenry left the military, he acquired a few acres of rural desert land in Southern California from his family, and founded Calsahara. McHenry later expanded it to cover 117 acres. A 2015 profile in Los Angeles magazine described the project as good-natured. [3] In October 2017, McHenry's two micronations were linked when Calsahara was "annexed" by Westarctica. [8]
Sometime before 2011, McHenry changed the name of Westarctica from "Grand Duchy of Westarctica" to "Protectorate of Westarctica." [9] In 2014, McHenry made Westarctica into a non-profit organization that advocates for protection of Antarctic wildlife and for the study of climate change. [10] [11] [12]
McHenry publishes a line of tarot decks and other occult paraphernalia through his company Bloodstone Studios. [11] [13] He developed an interest in the occult in the 1990s and was allegedly initiated as a priest of Anubis. [14] [15] He has been offering his services as speaker on the occult specializing in demonology. [16]
At some point in the early 2000s, McHenry was active in the Bigfoot community. [17] [18] His 2006 self-published book Into the Abyss: The Memoirs of a Paranormal Adventurer [19] speculates about Bigfoot physiology. He calls the Patterson–Gimlin film, generally considered a hoax, the best photographic evidence for the existence of such a creature. He also goes over several well-known UFO cases, somewhat critically, and speculates they might be humans from the future. [12]
McHenry has taken acting classes at Orange Coast College and the Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute. [20]
Since 2007, McHenry has appeared as lead actor in short video productions (Life on Mars 2007, Richard and Anne 2013) and in smaller roles in feature films (uncredited role in Body of Lies 2008, [12] Monster & Me 2013, Painkiller 2013), as well as in small television roles. [21] He also produced and directed the television miniseries In the Footsteps of Vlad Dracula (2020). [21]
McHenry also acted in theatre productions, notably in the 2023 production You Make me Physically Ill: Love Never Dies presented at the 2023 Hollywood Fringe Festival. [22] [20]
McHenry is also the author of a satire play entitled The Female of the Species (2005), [23] self-published on Lulu Press, as well as Delusions of Grandeur (2010), [24] about a family seceding from the United States so as to live under a king. [12]
Bigfoot, also commonly referred to as Sasquatch, is a large and hairy human-like mythical creature alleged by some to inhabit forests in North America, particularly in the Pacific Northwest. Bigfoot is featured in both American and Canadian folklore, and since the mid-20th century has grown into a cultural icon, permeating popular culture and becoming the subject of its own distinct subculture.
A micronation is a political entity whose representatives claim that they belong to an independent nation or sovereign state, but which lacks legal recognition by any sovereign state. Micronations are classified separately from de facto states and quasi-states; they are also not considered to be autonomous or self-governing as they lack the legal basis in international law for their existence. The activities of micronations are almost always trivial enough to be ignored rather than disputed by the established nations whose territory they claim—referred to in micronationalism as macronations. Several micronations have issued coins, flags, postage stamps, passports, medals and other state-related items, some as a source of revenue. Motivations for the creation of micronations include theoretical experimentation, political protest, artistic expression, personal entertainment and the conduct of criminal activity. The study of micronationalism is known as micropatriology or micropatrology.
The Patterson–Gimlin film is an American short motion picture of an unidentified subject that the filmmakers have said was a Bigfoot. The footage was shot in 1967 in Northern California, and has since been subjected to many attempts to authenticate or debunk it.
The Yeti is an ape-like creature purported to inhabit the Himalayan mountain range in Asia. In Western popular culture, the creature is commonly referred to as the Abominable Snowman. Many dubious articles have been offered in an attempt to prove the existence of the Yeti, including anecdotal visual sightings, disputed video recordings, photographs, and plaster casts of large footprints. Some of these are speculated or known to be hoaxes.
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Jon-Erik Beckjord was an American paranormal investigator, photographer, and cryptozoologist interested in UFOs, crop circles, the Loch Ness Monster, and Bigfoot. Throughout his life, he owned three separate, small-scale museums that featured displays, mostly photographs, of alleged UFO, Nessie, and Bigfoot sightings. He made guest appearances on national radio and television shows, but was criticized by skeptics and fellow cryptozoologists alike for not providing substantive evidence to back up his claims of the existence of paranormal beings.
Paranormal television is a genre of reality television that purports to document factual investigations of the paranormal rather than fictional representations seen in traditional narrative films and TV. Over the years, the genre has grown to be a staple of television and even changed the programming focus of networks like the History Channel and the Travel Channel. By highlighting beliefs in topics ranging from Bigfoot to aliens, paranormal television continues to elevate popular interest in the paranormal.
Joe Nickell is an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal.
Bossburg is a ghost town in Stevens County, Washington, and is located on the east bank of the Columbia River just south of the Canada–US border. Bossburg had a maximum population of 800 in 1892. The town was once named "Young America," although in 1896 it was renamed in honor of the town's first citizen, C. S. Boss. It is currently best known for the 1969 discovery of the footprints in the snow of a supposed Sasquatch known as "Cripplefoot," and subsequent hi-jinks.
Raymond L. Wallace was an American amateur Bigfoot hoaxer.
Bigfoot is an alleged human or ape-like cryptid in North America. Since the mid-20th century, Bigfoot has become increasingly relevant in popular culture and is the subject of film, television, advertising, music, literature and more.
The Honey Island Swamp Monster, also known as the Cajun Sasquatch and in Cajun French: La Bête Noire, is an ape-like humanoid cryptid creature, similar to descriptions of Bigfoot, purported to inhabit the Honey Island Swamp in St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana. It has become a part of Louisiana folklore, with many swamp tour companies in the area capitalizing on its alleged existence, which is considered unlikely by scientists.
The Kingdom of Vikesland was a micronation in Manitoba, Canada. It was founded in 2005 by Christopher Barry Joseph Beyette, a television news cameraman employed by the CHUM network.
Micronations: The Lonely Planet Guide to Home-Made Nations is an Australian gazetteer about micronations, published in September 2006 by Lonely Planet. It was written by John Ryan, George Dunford and Simon Sellars. Self-described as a humorous guidebook and written in a light-hearted tone, the book's profile of micronations offers information on their flags, leaders, currencies, maps and other facts. It was re-subtitled Guide to Self-Proclaimed Nations in later publications.
A pet psychic is a person who claims to communicate by psychic means with animals, either living or dead. The term psychic refers to the claimed ability to perceive information unavailable to the normal senses by what is claimed to be extrasensory perception. It is the opinion of scientific skeptics that people believe in such abilities due to cognitive biases and the use of various techniques by the practitioners, including intentional deception.
Oh No, Ross and Carrie! is an investigative journalism podcast produced in Los Angeles and distributed by the Maximum Fun network. The hosts personally investigate claims about spirituality, fringe science, religion, and the paranormal, then discuss their findings on the show. The motto of the podcast is "We show up so you don't have to."
MicroCon is a biennial summit or conference of micronationalists held in every other year since April 11, 2015. The event was created by Kevin Baugh of the Republic of Molossia, and every summit since has been hosted by a different micronation. MicroCon is a significant event in the micronational community, serving as a venue for exchanging ideas between micronationalists. The event has also been compared to the micronational equivalent of a session of the United Nations General Assembly. The largest edition, MicroCon 2019 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, had 113 attendees from 43 micronations. MicroCon 2023 was the first edition to consist of two separate events: an American summit in Joliet, Illinois, and a European summit in Ypres, Belgium.
Westarctica, officially the Grand Duchy of Westarctica and formerly the Protectorate of Westarctica, is a micronation in Antarctica, founded in 2001 by Travis McHenry, who styles himself as Grand Duke Travis. It claims a region of West Antarctica that has not been claimed by any nation state, comprising most of Marie Byrd Land. This wedge is located between the Ross Dependency claimed by New Zealand, and the Chilean Antarctic Territory, between 90 degrees and 150 degrees west longitude and south of the 60th parallel. The region includes 1,600,000 square kilometres (620,000 sq mi) of land, making it the largest territory not claimed by any recognized nation. Westarctica claims over 2,000 citizens, but none of them reside within the claimed territory, which has no permanent settlements or research stations.
How to Rule Your Own Country: The Weird and Wonderful World of Micronations is a 2022 book by Australian lawyers and legal academics Harry Hobbs and George Williams about micronationalism—exploring several micronations and their motivations for declaring independence. The book gives an overview on the topic of micronationalism and explores numerous micronations, extant and defunct, as well as their motivations for declaring sovereignty. An overarching theme is the disproportionate number of micronations located within Australia. How to Rule Your Own Country is a follow-up to Hobbs' and Williams' more academic 2021 work Micronations and the Search for Sovereignty.