Over five consecutive nights in late September 1903, the small town of Van Meter became the epicenter of a “high-strangeness” event that was documented by its most reputable citizens. The entity, often referred to as the Van Meter Visitor, was described as a nine-foot-tall winged humanoid with a massive, muscular build and leathery, bat-like wings. Its most anomalous feature was a blunt, protruding horn on its forehead that reportedly emitted a focused, blinding beam of white light—a detail that appeared in newspaper records decades before modern “UFO” or “alien” tropes were popularized. Prominent witnesses, including town banker Clarence Dunn, U.G. Griffith, and Dr. Alcott, reported the creature perched atop the Old Brick School and the local hardware store, noting that the entity was entirely unfazed by high-caliber gunfire.

The “hotspot” for the encounter was an abandoned coal mine on the outskirts of town. Witnesses described a powerful, sulfurous odor—reminiscent of rotting eggs and chemical waste—that preceded the creature’s appearance. On the final night of the panic, a local posse tracked the entity to the mine entrance, where they claimed to have seen two distinct creatures: the original nine-foot giant and a smaller, identical companion. The men fired a sustained volley of bullets at both entities as they descended into the shaft; the creatures reportedly remained physically unharmed, descending into the dark while emitting a high-pitched, mechanical clicking sound. Today, the town of Van Meter embraces the lore with the Van Meter Visitor Festival, and the site of the now-sealed mine remains a point of intense interest for researchers who report “dead-air” pockets and unexplained battery drainage near the old shaft.