Creature Feature Friday: The Van Meter Visitor
There’s more than corn in Iowa! The Van Meter Visitor is a very unusual cryptid characterized by its sudden appearance around the turn of the 20th century, its unique physical characteristics, and the sheer number of named witnesses who reportedly saw the monster during its nights of terror in Van Meter:
1) Mysterious Appearing: The Van Meter Visitor emerged suddenly in the small town of Van Meter, Iowa in 1903 at the end of September through early October. Catching the small community of approximately 1,000 people completely off guard, the fearsome-looking creature resembled something like a humanoid pterodactyl with bizarre characteristics - including its impressive 8-foot-tall height, a strong odor, and a hide seemingly impervious to bullets.
2) Blinded by the Light: But perhaps the most unique feature in the whole of the Van Meter Visitor’s unusual appearance was the horn on its forehead. This horn emitted a brilliant, disorienting white light, making it a unique and eerie entity. The blinding effect of this light was so intense that those who encountered it reported temporary blindness. In fact, the very first sighting of the mysterious cryptid was of the the horn’s light itself, spotted on September 29, 1903 by local business owner Ulysses G. Griffith. On his way home at the end of a long day, Griffith witnessed an unexpected light atop the Mather & Gregg’s building in Van Meter. He observed the strange light jump across the street and land on another rooftop, where it blinked out and disappeared.
3) Credible Witnesses: The creature's first appearance on the Mather &Gregg’s building occurred right in the heart of Van Meter's business district, leading to a flurry of reports from several credible witnesses in addition to Ulysses G. Griffith. The second sighting was reported by the town doctor, A. C. Alcott, who was awoken on September 30 by a bright light shining through his window. The light’s appearance made Alcott grab his gun and run outside, where the winged beast was seen in detail for the first time. Alcott allegedly witnessed a beaked, 8-foot-tall humanoid with large leathery wings, which he promptly fired at five times. Though he believes he struck the creature, the Van Meter Visitor remained unaffected by the bullets.
Van Meter Bank in 1903. Image from My American Odyssey,
On October 1, bank cashier Clarence Dunn (and Van Meter’s future mayor), was guarding the bank with a shotgun following the initial creature sightings; at one o’clock int he morning, he experienced a sighting of his own. After hearing a noise outside like something was being strangled, a bright light suddenly shone through the bank window, and Dunn fired his shotgun through it. Upon further investigation, Dunn found several three-toed tracks in the mud outside.
Over the course of several more nights, the Van Meter Visitor continued to make appearances, sending shockwaves of fear and curiosity through the town's population. On October 2, the owner of a furniture and hardware store, O.V. White, was sleeping above the store when he was awoken by a loud scrapping sound. Checking out the window revealed a dark creature on the telephone pole across the street. White, who also had his gun on hand, shot at it but just as before, the winged beast suffered no harm; instead, it turned its beaming horn on White, who reported smelling a strong odor right before he passed out.
White’s gunshot roused his neighbor Sydney Gregg, who emerged to check on the commotion, when he too witnessed the Van Meter Visitor atop the telephone pole. As Gregg watched, the creature descended the pole by using its beak to lower itself, jumped onto two legs, and then began crawling on all fours. Before the monster could reach Gregg, an inbound train scared it away.
Image from Cryptid Wiki.
4) Abandoned Mine Encounter: The climax of the Van Meter Visitor saga occurred when a group of determined residents decided to investigate the creature’s presence at an abandoned coal mine on the town's outskirts. For several days in early October, unusual and eerie sounds emanated from the mine, which The Des Moines Daily News described as if “Satan and a regiment of imps were coming forth for a battle.” Upon investigating these terrifying sounds on October 3, local factory manager J.L. Platt witnessed the Van Meter Visitor flying out of the abandoned mine - and it was not alone. A second smaller Van Meter Visitor, complete with a beaming horn, came with it, and they took off into the night.
Platt swiftly rustled up a monster-hunting posse of local townsfolk, who waited at the entrance of the mine until daybreak. At dawn, both monsters returned and the armed townsfolk let loose a hail of bullets. Though the monsters screamed and emitted their terrible odor, the bullets did nothing to bring them down. Instead, the winged pair disappeared into the mine and were never seen again, leaving behind a perplexing enigma that still baffles the town of Van Meter to this day.
5) Enduring Legend: Following the terror of the Van Meter Visitor(s), several unnamed residents contested the creature accounts, claiming that town postmaster H.H. Phillips made up the story of the winged monsters for an article published in The Des Moines Daily News - although those anonymous locals also admitted that the town did experience several days of strange lights and unidentified noises, and Clarence Dunn did, in fact, blow out the bank’s window with a shotgun blast for some reason. But with no further sightings, and the infamous abandoned mine bricked up following the alleged encounter, the Van Meter Visitor has winged its way into cryptid lore and mysterious legend, where it will remain until its terrifying tale can ever be proven or disproven.
What do you think the Van Meter Visitor was? And where did it come from?
