In the fall of 1903, the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, was shaken by a bizarre and terrifying encounter. Over several nights, multiple residents claimed to witness a strange winged creature—part bat, part man—with a glowing horn on its head and wings that spanned the night sky. Guns had no effect on it, fear spread like wildfire, and by the end of the week, the beast vanished into the depths of an abandoned mine, never to be seen again.

Was it a cryptid, a supernatural omen, or something not of this world? In this episode, we dive deep into the accounts from that eerie week, exploring the original newspaper clippings, eyewitness testimonies, and the theories that have emerged in the century since. Is the Van Meter Visitor a forgotten piece of folklore—or does something still lurk in the old mines outside town?

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Music

Nightmare Machine by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/4133-nightmare-machine

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Music: Drone in D by Kevin MacLeod

Free download: https://filmmusic.io/song/3680-drone-in-d

Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

Cryptic Sorrow by Kevin MacLeod

Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/3568-cryptic-sorrow

License: https://filmmusic.io/standard-license

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