About this episode
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? YOUTUBE - https://www.youtube.com/@hauntedchris TikTok - @chris_hah LEAVE A VOICEMAIL - 609-891-8658 The Nightmare Collective SUBSCRIBE!! Available on all podcast platforms! Apple https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-nightmare-collective/id1707943952 Spotify https://spotify.link/IPUVpAyWcDb Zoning Out - https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZLb8oK5uxgK64GL7vUHwK Draft Class - https://open.spotify.com/show/3BEobZXMT1kiPbffV0VT3F Twitter- @Haunted_A_H Instagram- haunted_american_history email- hauntedamericanhistory@gmail.com Patreon- https://www.patreon.com/hauntedamericanhistory 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 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.