August 29, 2025 • 33 mins
The small American town of Van Meter in Iowa is the kind of town that some might derisively describe as one that epitomises the fly-over states - a place of little importance or standing.
They imagine nothing of interest ever happens. But not only would that do an immense disservice to its people - they would be very wrong.
In 1903 something paid a visit to Van Meter, and its brief presence would mark the town forever...
Written by Neil McRobert and produced by Richard MacLean Smith
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,
joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
world of true crime and the paranormal four Nights in
the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,
(00:20):
Scared to Death and many more live shows, Meet and greets,
creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,
but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to
Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your
fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to
see you on board. The town of Van Meter sits
(00:55):
in Dallas County, Iowa, one of many small, once hopeful
community out in the wide flat middle of America. Today
it is easily missed by those barreling east or west
on the I eighty, though, were anyone to pull off
the interstate, they may find a history far deeper and
more interesting than they might expect. Indigenous Americans had long
(01:20):
made the area their home. Members of the Sac and
Fox Nation hunted, fished, and settled along the banks of
the Raccoon River for centuries until an eighteen forty treaty
come land grab with the U. S Government forced their relocation.
Van Meter's first colonial settlement began in eighteen forty seven
(01:43):
when brothers Lewis and Daniel Stump built a cabin there,
attracted by the area's natural and geological rewards. Soon another
pair of brothers, Levi and James Wright, would become their neighbours,
constructing their own cabin on the banks of the Raccoon.
Before long, other adventurous pioneers joined them. Isolated cabins clustered
(02:08):
into accidental neighbourhoods. A church was built, and in eighteen
sixty eight, the newly extended railroad brought the first train
to what was then named Tracy, Iowa. The following year,
the budding town of four hundred and fifty people was
renamed van Meter, commemorating the early Dutch pioneer Jacob Rhodes
(02:31):
van Meter, whose family had been instrumental in the early
days of the community. Like many such towns in the
middle of the country, van Meter was born from localized industry. First,
it was mining. The van Meter shaft was sunk in
eighteen seventy eight. Nearly three hundred feet deep, it tapped
(02:52):
a huge seam of coal and was regarded as a
model for successful mining nationwide. The traveling out of town
were loaded heavily with anthrokite, and in return came prosperity
and growth. Van Meter was suddenly on the map. In
eighteen ninety three, the mine owners sought to further capitalize
(03:14):
on their success, establishing the Plat Pressed Fire and Brick Company.
A factory located near to the mine transmuted the red
clay from a mining byproduct to the raw material for
quality bricks and tiles. Even when the mine was closed
in nineteen o two due to labour shortages and repeated strikes,
(03:35):
the factory continued to pump money into the town for decades. Nonetheless,
Van Meter never really grew For much of the twentieth century,
its population numbered less than one thousand, and the twenty
twenty census recorded only five hundred and thirteen households and
four hundred families. It's a limited but relatively dense population
(03:58):
for a town covered only one point three square miles.
It's a small, quiet place, the kind of town that
some might derisively describe as one that epitomizes the flyover States,
a place of little importance or standing. They imagine nothing
of interest ever happens. But not only would that do
(04:21):
an immense disservice to its people, they would be wrong.
In nineteen oh three, something paid a visit to Van Meter,
and its brief presence would mark the town forever. You're
listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Ulysses Griffith
(04:49):
was the first person to see the visitor. A local
farm equipment trader, the thirty five year old Griffith served
on the Van Meter Council and was a member of
both the Masonic Lodge and the Modern Woodman Society. He
was a highly respected member of the tiny community, considered
trustworthy and solid. In the early morning of Tuesday, September
(05:14):
twenty ninth, nineteen o three, Griffith was returning from a
long circuit of salesmanship around Dallas County. It had just
gone one a m. When he drove his new Model
a Ford down Main Street and drew to a brief
stop in the town center. Something had drawn his attention
to the roofline three stories up. An unexpected light beaming
(05:40):
out from the top of a local business named Matha
and Greg, bright enough to cast shadows across the silent
nighttime street. Concerned that he was witnessing a burglary in action,
Griffith eased the car forward to get a better look.
When the unexplained illumination appeared, leaped suddenly from the roof,
(06:01):
clearing the entire street before landing on top of the
building opposite. What the hell, he said to himself as
he tried to focus in on what on earth he
was looking at. The only thing Griffith knew was that
whatever he was seeing, it wasn't burglar's because it couldn't
possibly have even been human. He tried again to inch
(06:25):
closer to the source of the light, but almost as
quickly as the brightness had appeared, it was gone. With
nothing else to be done, Griffith retired to bed, no doubt,
exhausted from the day, but left restless in his curiosity
about its closing moments. The following day, he told several
(06:46):
people about his strange sighting. Griffith was well regarded enough
not to be dismissed, but in the bright morning sunshine,
his uncanny tail generated far more of amusement than anything
resembles fear. The following night, in a small bedroom behind
his office, Doctor Fred Orcot slept as storm winds buffeted
(07:10):
the town and rain spattered against the pine walls outside.
Neither woke him, Yet, just after one a m. He
was wrenched from sleep by a beam of intense light
shining through his window. Immediately alert, all Cock leapt from
his bed and reached for his gun. The light was
(07:31):
brighter than any torch he'd ever seen, and the doctor
had been awoken by enough nighttime emergencies to know that
this was no fellow citizen seeking his help. All Cock
rushed outside in his NightWare to confront whatever was making
such a blaze, and came face to face with a
sight that stopped him dead in his muddy tracks. Outside,
(08:06):
doctor Orcott squinted into the light beyond which he saw,
to his horror, a bizarre creature that he later described
as being half human and half animal. According to Allcot,
it stood eight or nine feet tall, with a huge
pair of bat like wings and a sharply protruding face,
(08:27):
almost like a beak, and from the center of the
creature's forehead jutted a single thick horn. It was this
appendage that seemed to be the source of the light.
The man and whatever this other thing was stood only
a few yards apart as the rain continued to lash down.
(08:48):
Scared for his life, Allcot raised his pistol and fired
five times at close range, but the winged creature showed
no sign of impact or injury. It merely stirred in
passively watching, still emanating its strange light. Doctor Orcott beat
a fast retreat, diving back into the relative safety of
(09:11):
his office. Understandably terrified, Alcott hurriedly barred the door, then
rushed around, securely locking every window of his office and home.
By the time he returned to the one facing the street,
there was no sign of the strange entity. Alcott shivered
in his damp night clothes as he secured the last
(09:32):
of the windows. He spent the rest of the night
trembling in bed, his pistol right beside him. The next day,
doctor Orcott told several people about his nighttime encounter, and,
in the way of all small intimate communities, word quickly spread.
Some people scoffed, worried what it meant for the health
(09:55):
of the town that the local doctor seemed to have
gone crazy. However, had caught wind of Ulysses Griffith's sighting
just twenty four hours earlier, and they began to wander
two pillars of the community, each with an outlandish story
what on earth was happening in Van Meter. One person
(10:18):
who treated the doctor's tale with special incredulity was twenty
six year old Clarence Done, known as Peter to his friends.
Done was a man on an upward trajectory in van Meter.
Later in life, he would go on to manage the
town's bank before becoming town treasurer, mayor and head of
(10:39):
the school district. On the evening of Thursday, October one,
nineteen o three, however, Done was still a cashier in
the bank he would one day run, but as a
committed member of the community and a loyal employee, he
felt a responsibility to protect both his town and place
of employment. Was convinced that Griffith and Orcott had misconstrued
(11:03):
criminal activity in van Meter. Because the strange sightings had
been made around the same time each night downtown. It
made sense to Done that they were simply part of
an orchestrated plot by thieves to rob local businesses, and
so one night, instead of clocking off for work, Done
(11:25):
armed himself with a shotgun full of buckshot and settled
down in the middle of the bank's small foyer and
waited for the robbers to appear outside the bank. It
was an overcast night, and the shadows were in constant
(11:46):
flux as the clouds shifted across a bright half moon.
Clarence Done was on edge. After all, it's no small
feat preparing to face thieves in the night with no
knock of just how dangerous they might be. For the
first few hours, at least, he took solace in the
(12:07):
presence of all the townsfolk, still going about their day
in the street outside, heading home from work or evening drinks.
But as midnight ticked past, both the dark and the
silence of the night settled deeper. Done gripped the gun
tighter in his hands. It had just gone one when
(12:29):
Done was suddenly distracted by a strange rustling at the
front window. He raised his gun, only for the noise
to then change to something far more disturbing. He later
described it as a gurgling, choking sound, as if some
person or other animal was gasping for air. Just then,
(12:50):
from only meters away, a bright light struck through the window.
It landed first on Done, dazzling him for a moment
before swinging left and right like a spotlight from a
watch tower. As his eyes readjusted, Done saw, to his
immense alarm the shadowy bulk of an inexplicable creature beyond
(13:12):
the glass. Then the light swung back round and fixed
once more Undone. In a panic, he raised the shotgun
to his shoulder and fired. Though they were separated by
the window pane, the shot was practically point blank, with
a deafening blast, The shot shattered the glass and ripped
(13:34):
the wooden sash free, But just like doctor Orcott's bullets,
the buckshot seemed to have no effect on the creature
at all. Stunned by what he had seen, Done none
the less righted himself and rushed to the door, But
in the seconds it took him to spill outside, the
winged figure had already disappeared. He scanned the street, but
(13:58):
saw nothing. Whether he thought to look up in the
air or not, we shall never know. Understandably, Shaken and
well passed the limit of what company loyalty could demand,
Done went home to his family. Six hours later, at
the first light of dawn, Dun returned to the bank,
(14:19):
determined to find evidence of the strange thing he'd encountered.
He arrived to find the remains of the damage he'd caused,
half spilling out into the street, but there was no
blood to be seen anywhere. Then, finally, imprinted in the
mud at the base of the boardwalk, he apparently found
what he was looking for, a three toed track bird
(14:42):
like in configuration, only much much bigger than any bird
he'd ever seen before. Dun made a plaster cast of
the claw marks and displayed it to anyone who would listen.
On that cloudy fall day, the most residents of Van Meter,
like millions of other Americans, were well distracted because October one,
(15:05):
nineteen o three, just happened to be the day in
which the first game of the modern Baseball World Series
took place. All ears were turned to radios, temporarily deaf
to the growing anxiety of those few in Van Meter
who knew something very strange should come to their town soon,
(15:25):
though everyone would have reason to listen later that evening,
a few hours after the Pittsburgh Pirates had beaten the
Boston Americans in the first game of the World Series.
The citizens of Van Meter slumbered under a light fall
(15:47):
drizzle in a room above Fisher and White, the town
hardware store. The proprietor, mister White, was woken from sleep
by a loud, scraping noise outside. His startled, he reached
immediately for his gun, instinctively worried that a robbery might
be taking place, But then a whole other, terrifying thought
(16:10):
entered his mind. Had the creature now come to pay
him a visit. Gathering his thoughts, he decided against rushing
outside or firing indiscriminately as others had done, and instead
quietly made his way to the casement window, gently slid
it open, and peered out into the dark. At first
(16:33):
he saw nothing, but as its gaze landed on a
telegraph pole at the corner of Main Street, he saw,
with a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach,
standing on top of it, statue like was the exact
same creature that he'd heard so much about over the
previous days, And, just as Peter had done had reported
(16:54):
the night before, a light seemed to be emanating from
its head, ringing pendulously up and down the street. Mister
White steadily took aim when suddenly the light landed right
on his face. Without thinking, the shopkeeper pulled the trigger,
but once more, the gun had no effect on the visitor,
(17:17):
as it would later be named. Instead, it seemed as
if the shot had merely served to wake it up.
To mister White's horror, it then began to slowly descend
the pole down to the street. At this point. In
some tellings of the tale, mister White was said to
be rendered almost insensible by a putrid smell emanating from
(17:40):
the creature, after which White claimed to have no further
memory of the evening's events. If that all sounds a
little bit far fetched, it's worth knowing that, incredibly, there
was another witness to this event across the street from
mister White and its hardware store, Sydney Gregg, just happened
(18:01):
to be gazing out of his window when he saw
White appear with its gun. After hearing shots, Greg frantically
scanned the street to try and see what an earth
mister White had fired at that's when he too saw
the same shadowy form sliding down the telegraph pole. Greg
described its movements as parrot like and that it used
(18:24):
its elongated, beaked appendage for extra traction. He estimated the
thing to be at least eight feet tall, and, like
other witnesses, was amazed by the sprawl of featherless wings
that stretched out from its back. When the creature got
(18:50):
to the ground, it beat its wings once with a
whip crack of air. Then it swept its bizarre light
around once more. It was as bright, Greg said, as
the headlights on the brand new automobiles he sometimes saw
around town. The young man watched dumbfound it as the
(19:10):
creature loped down Main Street, hopping like an injured kangaroo.
Greg continued to watch with terror as it stopped right
outside its property, less than a dozen feet away and
only a single story below him. Then it turned to
face him. Greg had just enough time to feel the
(19:30):
rush of fear before the early morning mail train came
ripping along the tracks parallel to Main Street and spooted
the animal. The creature dropped quickly to all fours and
started to run, then popped out its wings and took
flight Sydney. Greg kept his eyes firmly fixed on the
(19:52):
creature's dimming light as it flew off toward the old
coal mine on the edge of town. By the time
in Friday October two dawned, heavy and humid, van Meter
was a wash with anxious rumors, not least of all
because there'd been rumblings about strange goings on at the
mine for some time. The van Meter Brick and Tile
(20:16):
Factory was situated close to the now defunct mine shaft
for the past few days. When the factory day crew
returned from their shift, they brought tales of ominous sounds
emanating from the mouth of the pit. One worker described
it as though Satan and a regiment of his imps
were preparing for battle. So when Sydney Gregg revealed that
(20:40):
he'd seen the creature flying off in that direction, it
was easy to draw a connection. The people of van
Meter began to wonder if the mine that had once
served so well as the beating heart of their town
had now become the nesting place for something hell bent
on attacking it. The following night, the brick and tile
(21:02):
factory's chief operator, J. L. Platt, was working a late
shift when at some time around one a m. He
heard the strange noises again emanating from the edge of
the mine shaft. Like many of his men. He'd heard
the noises several times during the previous days, but this
was different. No longer faint as they had been before,
(21:25):
the noises now sounded much closer, as if whatever was
making the rattling, gasping, growling sounds was no longer in
the bowels of the mine, but just below the surface.
Platt peered into the open mouth of the shaft, only
able to see a few feet before darkness and the
(21:46):
twists of the seam obscured things. Suddenly, without any warning,
something large burst from the mine. It all happened too
fast and hectically for Platt to notice any details other
than its gigantic size and its odd half human shape.
As Platt recoiled, stumbling away and blinded by a bright light,
(22:11):
he then saw another smaller figure emerge from the shaft
before shooting up into the sky. As it happened. J. L.
Platt wasn't the only witness to the sudden appearance of
two creatures escaping the mine, with the brick and Tile
(22:34):
factory only a few hundred yards away. Having heard the commotion,
more than a dozen colleagues came rushing over to investigate,
just in time. To see the creatures disappear into the night.
Many of them later reported the now familiar features illuminated horns,
beak like faces, and those broad bat like wings. Astonished
(22:59):
by what they'd say, the men promptly stopped work and
went straight home to report their sighting, and, as is
so often the case when a community feels under threat,
a posse soon materialized. As a heavy rain began to fall,
the men of van Meter gathered on main Street, many
(23:20):
of them armed with rifles and shotguns, and promptly set
out together for the mine. In their wake, the remaining
people of van Meter turned on all the lights around town,
both in solidarity and out of fear. Walking out into
the surrounding scrub in the dark, their backs turned to
(23:41):
the lights of home, the men must have felt like
ships sailing out into the night. It wasn't long before
the posse reached the old mine, where they formed a
loose curve around its entrance. The plan was to either
trap the creatures inside or keep them out if they
were still yet to return. As the hours passed by,
(24:04):
the men grew more nervous and disheartened as the cold
rain crept through their oilskins and soaked their clothes steadily.
One by one, many in the group grew bored and
headed back to bed. By the time dawn broke just
after five forty five, only a handful of the makeshift
(24:24):
company remained at their post. Just then, someone shouted out
in alarm, pointing to the sky, and there, against the
weak dawnlight, a peculiar figure could be seen coming towards them.
Behind that a smaller iteration of the same thing, just
as Platte had reported stealing themselves. Each of the men
(24:48):
grabbed their weapons, and, taking aim, fired at the approaching duo.
The blast was loud enough to be heard all the
way back in Van Meter, but the teachers didn't flinch
and responded with their own unearthly noises As they drew
ever closer to the mine. The men took aim and
(25:10):
fired again, but could only watch, bewildered and impotent, as
both creatures casually proceeded through the hail of bullets and
disappeared once more into the mine. With nothing else to
do and understandably unwilling to give chase into the darkness
(25:34):
of the mine, what was left of the Van Meter
posse dispersed. Most returned to town while an unlucky few had
no other choice but to go to their Saturday shift
at the factory, and no doubt kept a wary eye
on the mine shaft throughout the day. Back in Van Meter,
it was decided that the only reasonable response was to
(25:58):
wall up the mine as quickly as possible, in the
hope of trapping the visitors in their burrow forever. It's
not known if the townspeople manage this feat before another
night set in. H. H. Phillips, the local postmaster, who
published an account of this strange event in the Des
Moines Register, does not go into detail on the attempted barricade,
(26:22):
so we are left to wonder whether the visitor was
trapped or whether it had the chance to fly free
along with its companion. And what of that companion? Was
it a mate or an offspring? Could it be there
was even a breeding population somewhere out in the flatlands
of Iowa. The van meet a visitor is treated, like
(26:47):
most small town monsters, as a gimmick, a tourist trap,
and a chance to celebrate and sell the quirks of
those small towns they come from. Since twenty thirteen, has
hosted the annual than Meet Visitor festival with walking tours,
games and lectures on crypto zoology. It's a way to
(27:09):
remember the law while presenting it as a safe, half
humorous nod to a more credulous era in American life.
But no amount of marketing can fully defang the legend
of the Visitor, because that week in late September and
early October of nineteen o three is far from the
only time that something odd has flown through the local
(27:33):
Midwestern skies. For centuries, the Indigenous people of the Upper
Midwest shared tales of the thunderbird, a giant avian creature
that could create thunderstorms and fire lightning from its eyes.
(27:56):
Though tribal traditions differ, those features remain consistent, and perhaps
it is worth remembering the unexpectedly vicious storms that came
to van Meter on almost every night of that fateful
week in eighteen ninety, thirteen years before the Van Meet visitation,
townspeople in Independence, another small Iowan town, claimed to have
(28:20):
seen something large with wings, horns, and an alligator shaped
snout on the outskirts of town. When confronted, it made
a terrible rattling, roaring noise, and its eyes gave off
electrical light. In the states neighboring Iowa, sightings of oversized
(28:41):
flying creatures were even more common. In eighteen sixty eight,
an eight year old named Jemmy Kenney was said to
have been killed by a huge bird. The boy was
snatched from his school yard in Tipper County, Missouri and
dragged into the air before being dropped to his death.
(29:02):
His teacher described the bird's talons as having torn into
the child's flesh. Over a century later, in nineteen seventy seven,
a similar terror would strike ten year old Marlon Lowe
in Lawndale, Illinois. This time, the boy was attacked by
what were described as a pair of nine foot bird
(29:24):
like things. As his horrified mother watched screaming. Marlon was
dragged thirty feet before being dropped. This time, however, thankfully,
the boy survived. Tales of similar encounters are so numerous
over the decades they've given rise to a whole specific
category of cryptid becoming known as Ioware dragons. Back in
(29:51):
van Meter, there are some who still don't consider that
strange week of nineteen o three to be the end
of things there either. In nineteen eighty, a man walking
his dog by the old mine claimed to have seen
what he described as a large winged man flying out
of the shaft, and as recently as two thousand and six,
(30:14):
the local pastor, driving back from Colfax, about thirty miles
from Van Meter, claimed he was followed by a flying
dragon like creature which hovered above his car for a
short time before flying away at the edge of town.
To this day, many questions remain, and with so many
(30:34):
recorded encounters that stretch back centuries, there is one, perhaps
that are nerves above all others, the possibility that the
people of Van Meter got it wrong when naming their
local monster. It isn't it that is the visitor. It
is us. This episode was written by Neil mac robert
(31:03):
and produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Neil is
the creator and host of his own brilliant podcast called
Talking Scared, in which he discusses the craft of horror,
writing with every one from to Nanaeve Do to the
god of horror himself, Stephen King, I can't recommend it
highly enough. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained as
(31:27):
an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc lean smith.
All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
also produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The
book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You
can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.
(31:48):
Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with
any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story
of your own you'd like to share. You can find
out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online
through x and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook
(32:10):
at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast
Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
be a part of Crime Wave at Sea this November,
joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
world of true crime and the paranormal four Nights in
the Caribbean, with amazing podcasts like Last Podcast on the Left,
(00:20):
Scared to Death and many more live shows, Meet and greets,
creepy Stories under the Stars and you can be there too,
but don't wait. Rooms are nearly sold out. Head to
Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your
fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to
see you on board. The town of Van Meter sits
(00:55):
in Dallas County, Iowa, one of many small, once hopeful
community out in the wide flat middle of America. Today
it is easily missed by those barreling east or west
on the I eighty, though, were anyone to pull off
the interstate, they may find a history far deeper and
more interesting than they might expect. Indigenous Americans had long
(01:20):
made the area their home. Members of the Sac and
Fox Nation hunted, fished, and settled along the banks of
the Raccoon River for centuries until an eighteen forty treaty
come land grab with the U. S Government forced their relocation.
Van Meter's first colonial settlement began in eighteen forty seven
(01:43):
when brothers Lewis and Daniel Stump built a cabin there,
attracted by the area's natural and geological rewards. Soon another
pair of brothers, Levi and James Wright, would become their neighbours,
constructing their own cabin on the banks of the Raccoon.
Before long, other adventurous pioneers joined them. Isolated cabins clustered
(02:08):
into accidental neighbourhoods. A church was built, and in eighteen
sixty eight, the newly extended railroad brought the first train
to what was then named Tracy, Iowa. The following year,
the budding town of four hundred and fifty people was
renamed van Meter, commemorating the early Dutch pioneer Jacob Rhodes
(02:31):
van Meter, whose family had been instrumental in the early
days of the community. Like many such towns in the
middle of the country, van Meter was born from localized industry. First,
it was mining. The van Meter shaft was sunk in
eighteen seventy eight. Nearly three hundred feet deep, it tapped
(02:52):
a huge seam of coal and was regarded as a
model for successful mining nationwide. The traveling out of town
were loaded heavily with anthrokite, and in return came prosperity
and growth. Van Meter was suddenly on the map. In
eighteen ninety three, the mine owners sought to further capitalize
(03:14):
on their success, establishing the Plat Pressed Fire and Brick Company.
A factory located near to the mine transmuted the red
clay from a mining byproduct to the raw material for
quality bricks and tiles. Even when the mine was closed
in nineteen o two due to labour shortages and repeated strikes,
(03:35):
the factory continued to pump money into the town for decades. Nonetheless,
Van Meter never really grew For much of the twentieth century,
its population numbered less than one thousand, and the twenty
twenty census recorded only five hundred and thirteen households and
four hundred families. It's a limited but relatively dense population
(03:58):
for a town covered only one point three square miles.
It's a small, quiet place, the kind of town that
some might derisively describe as one that epitomizes the flyover States,
a place of little importance or standing. They imagine nothing
of interest ever happens. But not only would that do
(04:21):
an immense disservice to its people, they would be wrong.
In nineteen oh three, something paid a visit to Van Meter,
and its brief presence would mark the town forever. You're
listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Ulysses Griffith
(04:49):
was the first person to see the visitor. A local
farm equipment trader, the thirty five year old Griffith served
on the Van Meter Council and was a member of
both the Masonic Lodge and the Modern Woodman Society. He
was a highly respected member of the tiny community, considered
trustworthy and solid. In the early morning of Tuesday, September
(05:14):
twenty ninth, nineteen o three, Griffith was returning from a
long circuit of salesmanship around Dallas County. It had just
gone one a m. When he drove his new Model
a Ford down Main Street and drew to a brief
stop in the town center. Something had drawn his attention
to the roofline three stories up. An unexpected light beaming
(05:40):
out from the top of a local business named Matha
and Greg, bright enough to cast shadows across the silent
nighttime street. Concerned that he was witnessing a burglary in action,
Griffith eased the car forward to get a better look.
When the unexplained illumination appeared, leaped suddenly from the roof,
(06:01):
clearing the entire street before landing on top of the
building opposite. What the hell, he said to himself as
he tried to focus in on what on earth he
was looking at. The only thing Griffith knew was that
whatever he was seeing, it wasn't burglar's because it couldn't
possibly have even been human. He tried again to inch
(06:25):
closer to the source of the light, but almost as
quickly as the brightness had appeared, it was gone. With
nothing else to be done, Griffith retired to bed, no doubt,
exhausted from the day, but left restless in his curiosity
about its closing moments. The following day, he told several
(06:46):
people about his strange sighting. Griffith was well regarded enough
not to be dismissed, but in the bright morning sunshine,
his uncanny tail generated far more of amusement than anything
resembles fear. The following night, in a small bedroom behind
his office, Doctor Fred Orcot slept as storm winds buffeted
(07:10):
the town and rain spattered against the pine walls outside.
Neither woke him, Yet, just after one a m. He
was wrenched from sleep by a beam of intense light
shining through his window. Immediately alert, all Cock leapt from
his bed and reached for his gun. The light was
(07:31):
brighter than any torch he'd ever seen, and the doctor
had been awoken by enough nighttime emergencies to know that
this was no fellow citizen seeking his help. All Cock
rushed outside in his NightWare to confront whatever was making
such a blaze, and came face to face with a
sight that stopped him dead in his muddy tracks. Outside,
(08:06):
doctor Orcott squinted into the light beyond which he saw,
to his horror, a bizarre creature that he later described
as being half human and half animal. According to Allcot,
it stood eight or nine feet tall, with a huge
pair of bat like wings and a sharply protruding face,
(08:27):
almost like a beak, and from the center of the
creature's forehead jutted a single thick horn. It was this
appendage that seemed to be the source of the light.
The man and whatever this other thing was stood only
a few yards apart as the rain continued to lash down.
(08:48):
Scared for his life, Allcot raised his pistol and fired
five times at close range, but the winged creature showed
no sign of impact or injury. It merely stirred in
passively watching, still emanating its strange light. Doctor Orcott beat
a fast retreat, diving back into the relative safety of
(09:11):
his office. Understandably terrified, Alcott hurriedly barred the door, then
rushed around, securely locking every window of his office and home.
By the time he returned to the one facing the street,
there was no sign of the strange entity. Alcott shivered
in his damp night clothes as he secured the last
(09:32):
of the windows. He spent the rest of the night
trembling in bed, his pistol right beside him. The next day,
doctor Orcott told several people about his nighttime encounter, and,
in the way of all small intimate communities, word quickly spread.
Some people scoffed, worried what it meant for the health
(09:55):
of the town that the local doctor seemed to have
gone crazy. However, had caught wind of Ulysses Griffith's sighting
just twenty four hours earlier, and they began to wander
two pillars of the community, each with an outlandish story
what on earth was happening in Van Meter. One person
(10:18):
who treated the doctor's tale with special incredulity was twenty
six year old Clarence Done, known as Peter to his friends.
Done was a man on an upward trajectory in van Meter.
Later in life, he would go on to manage the
town's bank before becoming town treasurer, mayor and head of
(10:39):
the school district. On the evening of Thursday, October one,
nineteen o three, however, Done was still a cashier in
the bank he would one day run, but as a
committed member of the community and a loyal employee, he
felt a responsibility to protect both his town and place
of employment. Was convinced that Griffith and Orcott had misconstrued
(11:03):
criminal activity in van Meter. Because the strange sightings had
been made around the same time each night downtown. It
made sense to Done that they were simply part of
an orchestrated plot by thieves to rob local businesses, and
so one night, instead of clocking off for work, Done
(11:25):
armed himself with a shotgun full of buckshot and settled
down in the middle of the bank's small foyer and
waited for the robbers to appear outside the bank. It
was an overcast night, and the shadows were in constant
(11:46):
flux as the clouds shifted across a bright half moon.
Clarence Done was on edge. After all, it's no small
feat preparing to face thieves in the night with no
knock of just how dangerous they might be. For the
first few hours, at least, he took solace in the
(12:07):
presence of all the townsfolk, still going about their day
in the street outside, heading home from work or evening drinks.
But as midnight ticked past, both the dark and the
silence of the night settled deeper. Done gripped the gun
tighter in his hands. It had just gone one when
(12:29):
Done was suddenly distracted by a strange rustling at the
front window. He raised his gun, only for the noise
to then change to something far more disturbing. He later
described it as a gurgling, choking sound, as if some
person or other animal was gasping for air. Just then,
(12:50):
from only meters away, a bright light struck through the window.
It landed first on Done, dazzling him for a moment
before swinging left and right like a spotlight from a
watch tower. As his eyes readjusted, Done saw, to his
immense alarm the shadowy bulk of an inexplicable creature beyond
(13:12):
the glass. Then the light swung back round and fixed
once more Undone. In a panic, he raised the shotgun
to his shoulder and fired. Though they were separated by
the window pane, the shot was practically point blank, with
a deafening blast, The shot shattered the glass and ripped
(13:34):
the wooden sash free, But just like doctor Orcott's bullets,
the buckshot seemed to have no effect on the creature
at all. Stunned by what he had seen, Done none
the less righted himself and rushed to the door, But
in the seconds it took him to spill outside, the
winged figure had already disappeared. He scanned the street, but
(13:58):
saw nothing. Whether he thought to look up in the
air or not, we shall never know. Understandably, Shaken and
well passed the limit of what company loyalty could demand,
Done went home to his family. Six hours later, at
the first light of dawn, Dun returned to the bank,
(14:19):
determined to find evidence of the strange thing he'd encountered.
He arrived to find the remains of the damage he'd caused,
half spilling out into the street, but there was no
blood to be seen anywhere. Then, finally, imprinted in the
mud at the base of the boardwalk, he apparently found
what he was looking for, a three toed track bird
(14:42):
like in configuration, only much much bigger than any bird
he'd ever seen before. Dun made a plaster cast of
the claw marks and displayed it to anyone who would listen.
On that cloudy fall day, the most residents of Van Meter,
like millions of other Americans, were well distracted because October one,
(15:05):
nineteen o three, just happened to be the day in
which the first game of the modern Baseball World Series
took place. All ears were turned to radios, temporarily deaf
to the growing anxiety of those few in Van Meter
who knew something very strange should come to their town soon,
(15:25):
though everyone would have reason to listen later that evening,
a few hours after the Pittsburgh Pirates had beaten the
Boston Americans in the first game of the World Series.
The citizens of Van Meter slumbered under a light fall
(15:47):
drizzle in a room above Fisher and White, the town
hardware store. The proprietor, mister White, was woken from sleep
by a loud, scraping noise outside. His startled, he reached
immediately for his gun, instinctively worried that a robbery might
be taking place, But then a whole other, terrifying thought
(16:10):
entered his mind. Had the creature now come to pay
him a visit. Gathering his thoughts, he decided against rushing
outside or firing indiscriminately as others had done, and instead
quietly made his way to the casement window, gently slid
it open, and peered out into the dark. At first
(16:33):
he saw nothing, but as its gaze landed on a
telegraph pole at the corner of Main Street, he saw,
with a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach,
standing on top of it, statue like was the exact
same creature that he'd heard so much about over the
previous days, And, just as Peter had done had reported
(16:54):
the night before, a light seemed to be emanating from
its head, ringing pendulously up and down the street. Mister
White steadily took aim when suddenly the light landed right
on his face. Without thinking, the shopkeeper pulled the trigger,
but once more, the gun had no effect on the visitor,
(17:17):
as it would later be named. Instead, it seemed as
if the shot had merely served to wake it up.
To mister White's horror, it then began to slowly descend
the pole down to the street. At this point. In
some tellings of the tale, mister White was said to
be rendered almost insensible by a putrid smell emanating from
(17:40):
the creature, after which White claimed to have no further
memory of the evening's events. If that all sounds a
little bit far fetched, it's worth knowing that, incredibly, there
was another witness to this event across the street from
mister White and its hardware store, Sydney Gregg, just happened
(18:01):
to be gazing out of his window when he saw
White appear with its gun. After hearing shots, Greg frantically
scanned the street to try and see what an earth
mister White had fired at that's when he too saw
the same shadowy form sliding down the telegraph pole. Greg
described its movements as parrot like and that it used
(18:24):
its elongated, beaked appendage for extra traction. He estimated the
thing to be at least eight feet tall, and, like
other witnesses, was amazed by the sprawl of featherless wings
that stretched out from its back. When the creature got
(18:50):
to the ground, it beat its wings once with a
whip crack of air. Then it swept its bizarre light
around once more. It was as bright, Greg said, as
the headlights on the brand new automobiles he sometimes saw
around town. The young man watched dumbfound it as the
(19:10):
creature loped down Main Street, hopping like an injured kangaroo.
Greg continued to watch with terror as it stopped right
outside its property, less than a dozen feet away and
only a single story below him. Then it turned to
face him. Greg had just enough time to feel the
(19:30):
rush of fear before the early morning mail train came
ripping along the tracks parallel to Main Street and spooted
the animal. The creature dropped quickly to all fours and
started to run, then popped out its wings and took
flight Sydney. Greg kept his eyes firmly fixed on the
(19:52):
creature's dimming light as it flew off toward the old
coal mine on the edge of town. By the time
in Friday October two dawned, heavy and humid, van Meter
was a wash with anxious rumors, not least of all
because there'd been rumblings about strange goings on at the
mine for some time. The van Meter Brick and Tile
(20:16):
Factory was situated close to the now defunct mine shaft
for the past few days. When the factory day crew
returned from their shift, they brought tales of ominous sounds
emanating from the mouth of the pit. One worker described
it as though Satan and a regiment of his imps
were preparing for battle. So when Sydney Gregg revealed that
(20:40):
he'd seen the creature flying off in that direction, it
was easy to draw a connection. The people of van
Meter began to wonder if the mine that had once
served so well as the beating heart of their town
had now become the nesting place for something hell bent
on attacking it. The following night, the brick and tile
(21:02):
factory's chief operator, J. L. Platt, was working a late
shift when at some time around one a m. He
heard the strange noises again emanating from the edge of
the mine shaft. Like many of his men. He'd heard
the noises several times during the previous days, but this
was different. No longer faint as they had been before,
(21:25):
the noises now sounded much closer, as if whatever was
making the rattling, gasping, growling sounds was no longer in
the bowels of the mine, but just below the surface.
Platt peered into the open mouth of the shaft, only
able to see a few feet before darkness and the
(21:46):
twists of the seam obscured things. Suddenly, without any warning,
something large burst from the mine. It all happened too
fast and hectically for Platt to notice any details other
than its gigantic size and its odd half human shape.
As Platt recoiled, stumbling away and blinded by a bright light,
(22:11):
he then saw another smaller figure emerge from the shaft
before shooting up into the sky. As it happened. J. L.
Platt wasn't the only witness to the sudden appearance of
two creatures escaping the mine, with the brick and Tile
(22:34):
factory only a few hundred yards away. Having heard the commotion,
more than a dozen colleagues came rushing over to investigate,
just in time. To see the creatures disappear into the night.
Many of them later reported the now familiar features illuminated horns,
beak like faces, and those broad bat like wings. Astonished
(22:59):
by what they'd say, the men promptly stopped work and
went straight home to report their sighting, and, as is
so often the case when a community feels under threat,
a posse soon materialized. As a heavy rain began to fall,
the men of van Meter gathered on main Street, many
(23:20):
of them armed with rifles and shotguns, and promptly set
out together for the mine. In their wake, the remaining
people of van Meter turned on all the lights around town,
both in solidarity and out of fear. Walking out into
the surrounding scrub in the dark, their backs turned to
(23:41):
the lights of home, the men must have felt like
ships sailing out into the night. It wasn't long before
the posse reached the old mine, where they formed a
loose curve around its entrance. The plan was to either
trap the creatures inside or keep them out if they
were still yet to return. As the hours passed by,
(24:04):
the men grew more nervous and disheartened as the cold
rain crept through their oilskins and soaked their clothes steadily.
One by one, many in the group grew bored and
headed back to bed. By the time dawn broke just
after five forty five, only a handful of the makeshift
(24:24):
company remained at their post. Just then, someone shouted out
in alarm, pointing to the sky, and there, against the
weak dawnlight, a peculiar figure could be seen coming towards them.
Behind that a smaller iteration of the same thing, just
as Platte had reported stealing themselves. Each of the men
(24:48):
grabbed their weapons, and, taking aim, fired at the approaching duo.
The blast was loud enough to be heard all the
way back in Van Meter, but the teachers didn't flinch
and responded with their own unearthly noises As they drew
ever closer to the mine. The men took aim and
(25:10):
fired again, but could only watch, bewildered and impotent, as
both creatures casually proceeded through the hail of bullets and
disappeared once more into the mine. With nothing else to
do and understandably unwilling to give chase into the darkness
(25:34):
of the mine, what was left of the Van Meter
posse dispersed. Most returned to town while an unlucky few had
no other choice but to go to their Saturday shift
at the factory, and no doubt kept a wary eye
on the mine shaft throughout the day. Back in Van Meter,
it was decided that the only reasonable response was to
(25:58):
wall up the mine as quickly as possible, in the
hope of trapping the visitors in their burrow forever. It's
not known if the townspeople manage this feat before another
night set in. H. H. Phillips, the local postmaster, who
published an account of this strange event in the Des
Moines Register, does not go into detail on the attempted barricade,
(26:22):
so we are left to wonder whether the visitor was
trapped or whether it had the chance to fly free
along with its companion. And what of that companion? Was
it a mate or an offspring? Could it be there
was even a breeding population somewhere out in the flatlands
of Iowa. The van meet a visitor is treated, like
(26:47):
most small town monsters, as a gimmick, a tourist trap,
and a chance to celebrate and sell the quirks of
those small towns they come from. Since twenty thirteen, has
hosted the annual than Meet Visitor festival with walking tours,
games and lectures on crypto zoology. It's a way to
(27:09):
remember the law while presenting it as a safe, half
humorous nod to a more credulous era in American life.
But no amount of marketing can fully defang the legend
of the Visitor, because that week in late September and
early October of nineteen o three is far from the
only time that something odd has flown through the local
(27:33):
Midwestern skies. For centuries, the Indigenous people of the Upper
Midwest shared tales of the thunderbird, a giant avian creature
that could create thunderstorms and fire lightning from its eyes.
(27:56):
Though tribal traditions differ, those features remain consistent, and perhaps
it is worth remembering the unexpectedly vicious storms that came
to van Meter on almost every night of that fateful
week in eighteen ninety, thirteen years before the Van Meet visitation,
townspeople in Independence, another small Iowan town, claimed to have
(28:20):
seen something large with wings, horns, and an alligator shaped
snout on the outskirts of town. When confronted, it made
a terrible rattling, roaring noise, and its eyes gave off
electrical light. In the states neighboring Iowa, sightings of oversized
(28:41):
flying creatures were even more common. In eighteen sixty eight,
an eight year old named Jemmy Kenney was said to
have been killed by a huge bird. The boy was
snatched from his school yard in Tipper County, Missouri and
dragged into the air before being dropped to his death.
(29:02):
His teacher described the bird's talons as having torn into
the child's flesh. Over a century later, in nineteen seventy seven,
a similar terror would strike ten year old Marlon Lowe
in Lawndale, Illinois. This time, the boy was attacked by
what were described as a pair of nine foot bird
(29:24):
like things. As his horrified mother watched screaming. Marlon was
dragged thirty feet before being dropped. This time, however, thankfully,
the boy survived. Tales of similar encounters are so numerous
over the decades they've given rise to a whole specific
category of cryptid becoming known as Ioware dragons. Back in
(29:51):
van Meter, there are some who still don't consider that
strange week of nineteen o three to be the end
of things there either. In nineteen eighty, a man walking
his dog by the old mine claimed to have seen
what he described as a large winged man flying out
of the shaft, and as recently as two thousand and six,
(30:14):
the local pastor, driving back from Colfax, about thirty miles
from Van Meter, claimed he was followed by a flying
dragon like creature which hovered above his car for a
short time before flying away at the edge of town.
To this day, many questions remain, and with so many
(30:34):
recorded encounters that stretch back centuries, there is one, perhaps
that are nerves above all others, the possibility that the
people of Van Meter got it wrong when naming their
local monster. It isn't it that is the visitor. It
is us. This episode was written by Neil mac robert
(31:03):
and produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Neil is
the creator and host of his own brilliant podcast called
Talking Scared, in which he discusses the craft of horror,
writing with every one from to Nanaeve Do to the
god of horror himself, Stephen King, I can't recommend it
highly enough. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained as
(31:27):
an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc lean smith.
All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
also produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The
book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You
can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.
(31:48):
Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with
any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story
of your own you'd like to share. You can find
out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online
through x and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook
(32:10):
at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast
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