The Van Meter Visitor

In the Fall of 1903, the small town of Van Meter, Iowa was visited by a strange creature that had no business being there. Over the course of several days, well-respected residents of Van Meter saw a giant flying creature with a horrible, uncanny smell, and a light glowing from a horn atop its dinosauric head. This pterodactyl-like being has come to be known as the Van Meter Visitor. For a week it haunted the town, until it was eventually hunted down to a coal mine shaft alongside it’s child, never to be seen again. This episode from cryptid history was largely lost for about a century until some intrepid reporters brought the story back to life after reading articles from the surrounding newspapers of the time. But what really happened in Van Meter in 1903? Was this really a monster, or was it a hoax or maybe even an example of mass hysteria? On this episode of Mythic Existence, we’ll get to the bottom of the legend of the Van Meter Visitor.