The Strange Story of the Van Meter Monster

 

Over 100 years ago a strange creature was sighted in a  small town called  Van Meter in Iowa.In October  1903, strange  winged creature had been sighted around the town frightening residents . It was described as having large bat-like wings, left a terrible smell and firing beams of light from its forehead.

The Van Meter Monster was first seen by a man called  Griffith. He saw what he thought was an electric searchlight gliding across a storefront before disappearing. The next night, the town doctor was awakened by a flash of light. Grabbing his shotgun, he ran outside to find a half-human creature on the ground. He fired, and the monster leaped into the air and flew away. Bank cashier Peter Dunn later also  saw the creature and opened fire. Dunn even took a plaster cast of the "great three-toed tracks." it left behind. ( which has since disappeared)

 Then O.V.White, was awakened by a loud noise, and when he looked out his window, saw a creature sitting on top of a telephone pole. When he shot at it, positive that the bullet hit home, it simply flew away. This awakened Sidney Gregg, who had been sleeping in his store nearby. Gregg said the monster hopped like a kangaroo. The local high school teacher saw it and called it  some sort of antediluvian monster.Volunteers assembled as an armed posse. They headed for the old brickyard where J.L. Platt Jr. heard a noise down by the abandoned coal mine.

From the Des Moines Daily News on Oct. 3, 1903:

"Presently the noise opened up again, as though Satan and a regiment of imps were coming forth for battle. The monster appeared, joined by a smaller version. In a brilliant light they sailed away, only to return in the morning where the men had gathered "to rid the earth of them" with their firepower heard far and wide.The reception they received would have sunk the Spanish fleet, but aside from unearthly noise and peculiar odour they did not seem to mind it, but slowly descended the shaft of the old mine."

The Van Meter Monsters were never seen again. 

A strange tale indeed.The cast of the tracks has not been found.All those involved however were prominent citizens so unlikely to be involved in a hoax. So what could it have been? There are some bats that have enormous wing spans such as the giant golden-crowned flying fox, a.k.a. a golden-capped fruit bat, a species of megabat endemic to the Philippines. It is one of the largest bat species in the world, weighing up to 3.1 pounds but with a wingspan that can stretch to 5.6 feet.Could it have been a species of large bat ? It would appear so if it weren’t for the firing lights from its forehead.Unless the bat had very shiny eyes or perhaps phosphorescence of some kind on its head from the mine,no known species does that. There are those who speculate it was alien from another planet or from an underground world beneath our feet.(The Hollow Earth theory).Unless it returns or the cast of its footprints turns up,we will never know what occurred in October 1903.