Encounter File 016: The Van Meter Visitor – Five Nights in 1903

Encounter File 016: The Van Meter Visitor – Five Nights in 1903

Case Information

File No.: 016

Classification: Winged Cryptid

Cryptid: Van Meter Visitor

Region: Van Meter, Dallas County, Iowa

First Report Referenced: September 29, 1903

Case Status: Closed – Evidence Unverified

Confidence Level: ★★☆☆☆

Primary Evidence: Historical Newspaper Reports, Eyewitness Testimony, Reported Tracks

Filed By: Chasing Cryptids Field Research Department

Incident Summary

In late September 1903, residents of Van Meter, Iowa, reportedly encountered a large winged creature unlike anything they recognized.

The sightings continued over several nights and involved prominent members of the small community, including local businessmen, a physician, and a bank employee.

Witnesses described a dark, human-sized or larger figure with enormous bat-like wings. Its most unusual feature was a blunt horn or projection on its forehead that reportedly produced a brilliant beam of light.

Gunshots were said to have little or no effect on the creature.

The encounters culminated near an abandoned coal mine outside town, where residents reportedly observed two winged beings before they disappeared underground.

The story reached newspapers in October 1903, briefly turning Van Meter into the scene of one of the strangest creature reports in Midwestern history.

The entity would eventually become known as the Van Meter Visitor.

Investigation

The modern version of the case describes a series of encounters beginning on September 29, 1903.

Local implement dealer Ulysses “U.G.” Griffith reportedly noticed a strange light moving above Van Meter. As it approached, he believed the light was coming from a large winged creature moving rapidly over the buildings.

Griffith allegedly fired his rifle at it. The creature continued flying and disappeared into the darkness.

During the following nights, other residents reported similar encounters.

Dr. Alcott, a local physician, was said to have observed the creature at close range. His account described an animal with large wings and a horn-like growth projecting from its forehead. A powerful light reportedly shone from the projection.

Clarence “Peter” Dunn, associated with the local bank, reportedly stood guard inside the building after strange activity was reported around town. During the early morning hours, Dunn heard an unusual sound outside and saw a brilliant light shine toward the bank.

Believing someone or something was approaching, he fired through a window.

When the area was examined afterward, Dunn reportedly found large three-toed impressions in the soft ground. Later retellings state that he made a plaster cast of one of the tracks, although no authenticated cast is currently available for independent examination.

Hardware store owner O.V. White also reported encountering the creature. According to the story, White saw a dark figure perched on a telephone pole or nearby structure and fired at it.

Another resident, Sidney Gregg, described a winged creature moving in unusual leaps before taking flight. Some versions of his account state that the animal produced a strong odor.

The sightings appeared to lead toward an abandoned coal mine outside Van Meter.

A group of armed townspeople reportedly gathered near the mine, where they heard disturbing sounds and observed the winged creature emerge accompanied by a smaller animal of similar appearance.

The residents opened fire. Neither creature was visibly injured.

Both reportedly returned to the mine, after which the entrance was sealed or abandoned. The concentrated wave of sightings ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Evidence Reviewed

Physical Evidence

  • Reported three-toed tracks near the Van Meter bank

  • A reportedly created plaster cast

  • Alleged evidence of shots fired during several encounters

  • Reported mine entrance connected to the final sighting

  • No authenticated track cast available for examination

  • No preserved feathers, tissue, blood, hair, or biological samples

  • No verified photographs of the creature

  • No recovered specimen

The physical evidence described in later accounts has either been lost, was never preserved, or cannot now be authenticated.

Eyewitness Testimony

The principal names associated with the story include:

  • U.G. Griffith

  • Dr. Alcott

  • Clarence “Peter” Dunn

  • O.V. White

  • Sidney Gregg

  • Additional unnamed residents involved in the reported mine confrontation

Commonly repeated features include:

  • Dark or black body

  • Large bat-like wings

  • Upright or partly humanoid posture

  • Great height

  • Three-toed tracks

  • Rapid flight

  • Powerful or rasping vocalizations

  • Unpleasant odor

  • A horn or projection producing a bright light

  • Apparent resistance to gunfire

Not every feature appears consistently in every surviving version of the story.

Historical Documentation

The earliest known newspaper coverage appeared in October 1903. The story was published by the Des Moines Daily News and subsequently repeated by other newspapers, including the St. Paul Globe.

Contemporary coverage demonstrates that the story existed in 1903 rather than being invented entirely by modern cryptid writers.

It does not, however, independently verify each encounter. Much of the surviving narrative can be traced back to a small number of newspaper reports that may have repeated the same original account.

Later authors reconstructed the sequence through newspaper archives, local history, and information about the people named in the story.

Environmental Factors

Van Meter was a small but active Iowa community surrounded by:

  • Farmland

  • Wooded areas

  • Railroad lines

  • Coal-mining activity

  • Creeks and river corridors

  • Large populations of birds and other wildlife

Nighttime visibility in 1903 would have been limited. Artificial lighting was far less common than it is today, making distant lanterns, railroad lights, electrical equipment, celestial objects, and reflected light more difficult to identify.

Coal mines and industrial activity could also produce unusual noises, odors, ground disturbances, and moving lights.

Findings

Several explanations have been proposed for the Van Meter Visitor.

Large Bird

A large owl, heron, crane, or other bird could explain the creature’s wings, rapid flight, unusual silhouette, and three-toed tracks.

Owls can appear surprisingly large in poor lighting, particularly when their wings are fully extended. Their eyes can also reflect light intensely.

This explanation does not easily account for reports of a concentrated beam emerging from the creature’s forehead unless that detail resulted from reflected light, a separate light source, or later embellishment.

Misidentified Light and Animal

Witnesses may have observed an animal and an unrelated light source at the same time.

A bird passing in front of a lantern, locomotive, electrical arc, or distant industrial light could have appeared to carry the light with it. Darkness and distance may then have merged the two objects into a single creature.

This could also explain why gunfire appeared to have no effect.

Escaped or Unfamiliar Animal

An escaped exotic bird or other unfamiliar animal may have caused some of the sightings.

Traveling shows, private animal collections, and railroad transport occasionally brought exotic species through small communities. No record has been found confirming that such an animal escaped near Van Meter during the reported period.

Industrial or Mining Activity

The abandoned coal mine plays a central role in the legend.

Mining operations can produce strange sounds, odors, gases, vibrations, and lights. Residents unfamiliar with a particular piece of equipment or mining event might have interpreted several unrelated disturbances as evidence of a creature.

However, this does not fully explain the reported winged figure seen above buildings in town.

Newspaper Hoax

The story may have been created or exaggerated to entertain readers, promote the town, or fill space in a newspaper.

Early twentieth-century newspapers regularly published sensational stories about sea serpents, airships, wild men, enormous animals, and mysterious lights. Some were genuine local reports. Others were jokes, promotional stories, or outright fabrications.

Later accounts state that some Van Meter residents accused local postmaster H.H. Phillips of inventing the story for the Des Moines Daily News.

This possibility is significant because many details may originate from a single article rather than multiple independently preserved statements.

Collective Expectation

Once the first strange light or creature was reported, residents may have interpreted ordinary animals, sounds, and lights through the same developing story.

Fear can spread quickly in a small community, particularly when respected residents appear to confirm that something unusual is happening.

Witnesses may have been entirely sincere while still misinterpreting what they experienced.

Unknown Winged Animal

Cryptid researchers have proposed a surviving prehistoric animal, giant bat, unknown bird, or undocumented flying creature.

The three-toed tracks and repeated descriptions of large wings are sometimes offered in support of this theory.

No fossil, biological, photographic, or genetic evidence connects an unknown animal to the 1903 reports.

Current Assessment

The Van Meter Visitor is remarkable because the story can be traced to newspapers published in 1903.

That historical foundation distinguishes it from legends created decades after their supposed events. Something was being reported in Iowa at the time, and the account was strange enough to be repeated outside Van Meter.

The weakness of the case is that most of the evidence comes from newspaper stories rather than surviving witness statements, photographs, official records, or physical specimens.

The reported tracks cannot be examined. The plaster cast has not been authenticated. The mine confrontation cannot be independently reconstructed, and it is unclear how much of the familiar five-night sequence comes directly from separate witnesses.

The most reasonable possibilities include sensational journalism, misidentified birds and lights, community expectation, or some combination of all three.

An unknown animal cannot be completely excluded, but the available evidence does not require one.

Investigator’s Notes

The Van Meter Visitor is sometimes grouped with Mothman, the Jersey Devil, Thunderbirds, and other winged cryptids. The resemblance is useful for comparison, but it should not be treated as evidence that these legends describe the same phenomenon.

The forehead light is the feature that makes this case especially unusual.

Natural eyeshine can appear extremely bright when illuminated, but witnesses reportedly described something closer to a directed beam. If the accounts are accurate, the light may have originated from a separate source that observers mistakenly associated with the animal.

The story’s disappearance is almost as curious as its arrival. After several nights of reported activity, the Visitor vanished from the historical record.

No comparable wave of well-documented sightings followed.

Today, Van Meter preserves the legend through local storytelling and the Van Meter Visitor Festival. The celebration has helped recover an obscure piece of Iowa folklore that might otherwise have disappeared completely.

Future Encounter Files may examine:

  • The original 1903 newspaper accounts

  • The reported Van Meter coal mine

  • Three-toed tracks associated with winged cryptids

  • Historical newspaper monster hoaxes

  • Comparisons with Mothman and the Jersey Devil

References

Chasing Cryptids Assessment

The Van Meter Visitor is an authentic piece of 1903 newspaper folklore, but that does not make the creature itself authentic.

The surviving reports preserve an extraordinary story: respected townspeople confronted a winged being with a glowing forehead, followed it to a coal mine, and fired upon it without effect.

What they do not preserve is testable evidence.

The case may have begun with an unfamiliar bird, a strange light, industrial activity, or a frightened witness. It may also have been shaped by sensational journalism until several unrelated events became one dramatic narrative.

Until the reported tracks, witness records, or other physical evidence can be authenticated, the Van Meter Visitor remains one of Iowa’s most memorable mysteries: historically documented as a story, unresolved as an encounter, and unconfirmed as a creature.

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