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Speaker 1: Now here's a highlight from Coast to Coast AM on

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Speaker 1: iHeartRadio and welcome back to Coast to Coast will take

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Speaker 1: your calls next hour with Chad lewis the latest work.

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Speaker 1: Of course, one are the other ones that we're talking

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Speaker 1: about that came out in twenty thirteen. I think the

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Speaker 1: Van Meter Visitor, and that is in Iowa, Is it not, Chad?

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Speaker 1: It is. It's a small town about twenty minutes southwest

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Speaker 1: of Des Moines. And for people who think we're going

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Speaker 1: to talk about Bigfoot here, this is a weird creature,

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Speaker 1: isn't it? It really is. On my twenty plus years

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Speaker 1: of researching the strange and unusual, I have never come

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Speaker 1: across something as baffling and as scary and perhaps weird

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Speaker 1: as what they were calling the Van Meter Visitor. This

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Speaker 1: giant bat like creature that was reported to be somewhere

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Speaker 1: between eight and nine feet tall, had giant leather bat

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Speaker 1: like wings and had a horn on its head which

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Speaker 1: could project light out of its horn. Let's talk about

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Speaker 1: what this is and when was the first sighting. The

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Speaker 1: first sighting that we know about happened in nineteen oh three,

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Speaker 1: and again Van Meter's the small town of roughly eight

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Speaker 1: hundred people. Twenty miles doesn't sound like a lot today

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Speaker 1: from Des Moines, but back then that was quite a distance.

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Speaker 1: So it's a rural community all on its own. In

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Speaker 1: the heart of nineteen oh three, the fall when darkness

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Speaker 1: was starting to take over the daylight, and that's when

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Speaker 1: all hell erupted in Van Meter. While it was an

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Speaker 1: incredible story too. Now let's describe what this giant bat

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Speaker 1: light creature looks like. How big is it? What was

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Speaker 1: the wingspan? Yeah, witnesses who saw it said when it

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Speaker 1: stood erect, it was about nine feet tall, and they

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Speaker 1: said it it's wings folded out like a giant batwood.

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Speaker 1: And there were many instances where people saw it running.

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Speaker 1: It always appeared late at night, approximately one midnight to

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Speaker 1: two am, and they saw it oftentimes running down the

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Speaker 1: middle of the street and it would extend its wings

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Speaker 1: and fly off towards this old abandon coal mine on

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Speaker 1: the outskirts of town. And just like a lot of

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Speaker 1: the mothman sightings of Point Pleasant, where many people saw it,

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Speaker 1: and it didn't seem to flap its wings like it

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Speaker 1: didn't need to. It was just almost had them for

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Speaker 1: show because it could just run and take off and

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Speaker 1: float out to the old abandon coal mine where people

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Speaker 1: thought it was using as its layer. I was gonna say,

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Speaker 1: you know, you've got a lot of Mothman reports with

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Speaker 1: this type of creature. Is it conceivable we're talking about

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Speaker 1: the same thing. It is quite conceivable. A lot of

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Speaker 1: the descriptions are similar, a lot of the supernatural surroundings

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Speaker 1: of this creature are similar. And Mothman, you had the

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Speaker 1: old tnt mine area, the old bunkers on the outskirts

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Speaker 1: where it seemed to be inhabiting. And here in Van

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Speaker 1: Meter you had this creature out in an abandoned coal mine.

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Speaker 1: And obviously the wings are very similar, the look is

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Speaker 1: very similar. But the visitor you had this horn on

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Speaker 1: its head, which many people were awoken in the middle

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Speaker 1: of the night by this strange light coming into the room,

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Speaker 1: and back then that was a strange thing, so they'd

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Speaker 1: go out to look at it. One of the most

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Speaker 1: prominent people in town, doctor Alcott, was sleeping above his

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Speaker 1: physician's office when he was awoken by this thing. He

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Speaker 1: went out to the window to see what was flashing

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Speaker 1: light into his room, and he looked down and he

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Speaker 1: saw this giant monster. And then maybe as a testament

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Speaker 1: to the time period we're talking about, he didn't just

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Speaker 1: look at this thing. He grabbed his weapon loaded with

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Speaker 1: six shots, and he ran outside and blasted at this moment.

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Speaker 1: He shot at five different times and it seemed to

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Speaker 1: have no effect on the creature, and he saved the

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Speaker 1: last bullet in case he needed it for himself, and

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Speaker 1: he barricaded himself back in the building, waiting for the

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Speaker 1: safety of daylight. The next morning, he went out, thinking,

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Speaker 1: I'm going to see something out here, dead, some fur, blood, something,

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Speaker 1: and there was absolutely nothing on the main street of

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Speaker 1: ann Meter. Could this thing Chad be compared to a

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Speaker 1: thunderbird the large bird sightings or is it still more

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Speaker 1: of a mothman type sighting? It had the similar size

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Speaker 1: to what witnesses describe as the thunderbird, you the wingspan

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Speaker 1: of at least twenty some feet, but outside of that,

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Speaker 1: it seemed to be more monster looking than bird looking.

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Speaker 1: And the newspaper accounts of the time are very scarce

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Speaker 1: in their details. You would think that they would put

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Speaker 1: never ending stories about this monster, but they simply left

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Speaker 1: out what color it was. Was it black or white?

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Speaker 1: We don't know, left details about it in and other

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Speaker 1: elements of this monster, and over five nights they reported it,

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Speaker 1: and the stories get weirder and weirder as the nights

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Speaker 1: go on and on. But yet some of the details

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Speaker 1: that today we would look at and say, why would

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Speaker 1: you not put those in the newspaper accounts, they're simply missing.

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Speaker 1: So a lot of this were speculating on because the

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Speaker 1: newspaper didn't put it exactly. Now people have reported that

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Speaker 1: this creature could project light coming from a horn on

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Speaker 1: its head, and that it had a capability of making

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Speaker 1: you forget your memory. Yeah. What's interesting is one of

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Speaker 1: the witnesses it was on the fourth night, he was

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Speaker 1: sleeping ov White above his hardware store, about one am,

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Speaker 1: and he heard the sound of like two files being

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Speaker 1: rubbed against each other, very loud and aggravating and irritating sound.

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Speaker 1: And he came out to the window and saw this

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Speaker 1: thing sleeping on a light telephone pole. And he took

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Speaker 1: deliberate aim, the newspaper said, with his weapon, and he

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Speaker 1: shot this thing point blank, and it seemed to just

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Speaker 1: wake this monster up. And the monster flashes light right

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Speaker 1: on over White and then released some odor where over

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Speaker 1: White said he couldn't remember what happened next that once

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Speaker 1: that strange, false smelling odor hit him, his memory was

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Speaker 1: completely wiped. And luckily that night there was another witness

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Speaker 1: who heard the gunfire, and Sidney Gregg looked out his

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Speaker 1: window and saw this thing descending the telephone pole, using

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Speaker 1: its beak like some sort of parrot as it descended

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Speaker 1: down to the main street and then flew off toward

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Speaker 1: the old coal mine on the outskirts of town. Now,

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Speaker 1: in nineteen oh three they had this rash of visitations

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Speaker 1: and sightings have they had many sense they have the

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Speaker 1: creature itself in the main nineteen oh three story. They

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Speaker 1: finally track it to an old abandon coal mine, as

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Speaker 1: I mentioned, and a posse gathers out there because right

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Speaker 1: next to the coal mine is a brick and tile

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Speaker 1: factory that had shifts of men working twenty four hours,

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Speaker 1: three shifts throughout day and night. And they gathered this posse,

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Speaker 1: which the newspaper said shot this creature so many times

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Speaker 1: it could have sunk the Spanish fleet. And again it

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Speaker 1: had no effect on this creature. Either the people were

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Speaker 1: the worst shots in Iowa, or this thing was impervious

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Speaker 1: to their weapons. And it descended down into the mines,

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Speaker 1: and as far as we know, that's where the story

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Speaker 1: left off. Like a great Hollywood cliffhanger nineteen oh three,

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Speaker 1: the story just ends. Did they kill it, did they

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Speaker 1: barricade it? Did it fly off and become point pleasants mothman?

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Speaker 1: We don't know. But over the years stories started circulating

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Speaker 1: that the creature was still out and about, And the

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Speaker 1: most recent report I received, which just a few days ago,

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Speaker 1: from a young man who said he was sleeping at

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Speaker 1: a campsite near a late not too far from band

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Speaker 1: Meter when him and his girlfriend were awoken by this

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Speaker 1: giant bat like creature. Had never heard or seen anything

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Speaker 1: about it, but when he went home in googled, he

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Speaker 1: came across the visitor and said, that's exactly what I saw. Now,

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Speaker 1: what's your gut on this one? Chad? Say, what do

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Speaker 1: you think this is? I mean, surely we can't have

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Speaker 1: a bat that big, but who knows. Yes, We'll remember

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Speaker 1: this was nineteen oh three that the mountain gorilla was

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Speaker 1: just discovered, and science was really in its infancy where

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Speaker 1: people were thinking, well, if they just discovered this giant

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Speaker 1: mountain gorilla, if Harley Davidson had come out with his motorcycle,

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Speaker 1: you know, the crayon craon just came out. If all

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Speaker 1: these new things are happening, maybe it's possible that something

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Speaker 1: is out there. And the theories back then ranged from

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Speaker 1: everything that it was something that was released from the

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Speaker 1: coal mine most people don't think of. I was a

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Speaker 1: coal producer, but back then this mine, which closed down

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Speaker 1: at the time, was several hundred feet deep. It ran

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Speaker 1: for miles. They had teams of mules and horses down there.

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Speaker 1: It was a big operation. Many many train cars full

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Speaker 1: of coal were leaving Iowa van Meter every night. So

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Speaker 1: they thought maybe that the miners simply had struck a

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Speaker 1: vein an equal system down there and released this thing,

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Speaker 1: which would account for it only being spotted at night

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Speaker 1: being nocturnal. Others believed it was a demon or the

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Speaker 1: devil itself that was released from this mine in terrorizing

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Speaker 1: the people of Van Meter, and then many others in

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Speaker 1: the community simply believed it was some unknown animal yet

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Speaker 1: to be discovered by science. And much like we were

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Speaker 1: talking Georgia about the big Muddy Monster again, this thing

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Speaker 1: seemed to have supernatural abilities. I don't know any animal

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Speaker 1: that can erase your memory. Obviously, down at the bottom

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Speaker 1: of the ocean, there are some self illuminating creatures that

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Speaker 1: can produce their own light, but none we know of

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Speaker 1: appear to this size scale. So one of my authors,

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Speaker 1: my co authors and colleagues, Kevin Nelson, really took the

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Speaker 1: theory of it being an ultra terrestrial something not of

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Speaker 1: this existence, and you know, I lean maybe more toward

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Speaker 1: that than it's just some undiscovered creature that we're going

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Speaker 1: to find and put next to a bear. Now, was

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Speaker 1: this area of Van the Meter, Iowa the only area

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Speaker 1: where this creature was seen during that time period In

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Speaker 1: the nineteen hundreds, you had people comparing it to the

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Speaker 1: Jersey Devil, the Snally Gaster out east, there were sightings

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Speaker 1: in Utah of a similar giant flying beast. So these

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Speaker 1: things were happening all over America and possibly the world

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Speaker 1: at the time, and they were very similar. These large

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Speaker 1: bat like creatures. Many seem to be almost a dinosaur

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Speaker 1: relic of things that thought to be extinct, but maybe

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Speaker 1: they're not extinct. And we scoured the area around Van

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Speaker 1: Meter of the time, all the newspapers and believe me,

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Speaker 1: as you know, from the early nineteen hundreds, there were many,

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Speaker 1: many more newspapers than we have today, so Des Moines

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Speaker 1: itself had numerous newspapers and various languages, and we scoured

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Speaker 1: all the countryside looking for other paranormal events that were

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Speaker 1: taking place during the time of the visitors sightings, looking

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Speaker 1: for maybe mysterious livestock killings, weird balls of light, hauntings.

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Speaker 1: And the people of band Meter we're familiar with the

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Speaker 1: paranormal because their newspapers are full of stories around Iowa

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Speaker 1: of haunted houses and airships flying through the area. You know,

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Speaker 1: they had just come through the eighteen nineties of the

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Speaker 1: airship flaps, so people were familiar with the weird and unusual,

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Speaker 1: but I don't think they were ready for what this was.

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Speaker 1: We're going to take calls next hour with Chad Lewis

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Speaker 1: on strange creatures and of course tell us a little

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Speaker 1: bit about the lake monsters of Wisconsin. Chad, Wisconsin is

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Speaker 1: my home state, and as of today, I found over

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Speaker 1: forty different lakes, rivers, and streams that claim to have

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Speaker 1: or have had some giant aquatic monster Leviathan of the Deep.

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Speaker 1: And for those of you who listeners who are not

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Speaker 1: familiar with Wisconsin. We have nearly fifteen thousand lakes here

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Speaker 1: in Wisconsin, which is much more than our neighbor of

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Speaker 1: Minnesota that has about twelve thousand, even though they're known

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Speaker 1: as the Land of ten Thousand Lakes, to actually have

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Speaker 1: more lakes here, so it's no surprise that we get

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Speaker 1: these reports of lake monsters. In fact, in the late

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Speaker 1: eighteen hundreds early nineteen hundreds, newspapers joke that if you

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Speaker 1: were a resort town in Wisconsin and you not have

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Speaker 1: a story of a lake monster, you were behind the

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Speaker 1: times because they were everywhere of people spotting these giant

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Speaker 1: creatures that couldn't be explained. But boy, there's something weird

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Speaker 1: going on when you look at this and what's going

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Speaker 1: on in the at the Big Money Monster area, I mean,

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Speaker 1: creatures all were the place, and these creatures again, people,

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Speaker 1: these boaters, these anglers, these fishermen at the time they

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Speaker 1: were seeing these monsters. That two different types of sightings.

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Speaker 1: One would be your traditional humpback, long necked creature thirty

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Speaker 1: to forty feet in length that seemed to bob up

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Speaker 1: and down in the rivers and the lakes, and then

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Speaker 1: the other was more of what you would think of

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Speaker 1: as a long snake or eel like creature, but instead

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Speaker 1: of being relatively thin in diameter like an eel, newspapers

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Speaker 1: said were as big as a telephone pole and longer,

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Speaker 1: and that you could run a barrel through its mouth.

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Speaker 1: And much like the Van Meter visitor that a lot

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Speaker 1: of these anglers, and they would hunt for these things,

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Speaker 1: they would shoot them. One gentleman stabbed it over forty

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Speaker 1: times with his man took his oar and smashed it

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Speaker 1: in the mouth of this giant creature. And it was

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Speaker 1: said when he yanked this thing his oar free, it

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Speaker 1: had several fangs of this monster lodged into them. And

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Speaker 1: how big were they? A couple inches long at least, yes,

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Speaker 1: and they've been lost to history. I don't know. Maybe

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Speaker 1: they're in your listeners attic or their basement right now,

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Speaker 1: but we don't know what happened to them. So out

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Speaker 1: there somewhere somebody has these alleged sea serpent fangs just

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Speaker 1: hanging out in an oar somewhere. That's an amazing story too.

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Speaker 1: It's more like it's lockness monster. It really is. And

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Speaker 1: most of the people that spotted it, these weren't just

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Speaker 1: people rowboating for the day. These that weren't familiar. These

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Speaker 1: were many times fishing guy that they were familiar with muskie,

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Speaker 1: and they were familiar with alligator gar and rolling lateral

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Speaker 1: waves in the water, so they wouldn't be tricked by,

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Speaker 1: you know, an optical illusion of seeing something some ducks

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Speaker 1: at a far distance and it looks like heads bobbing

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Speaker 1: out of the water, that they were coming face to

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Speaker 1: face with these monsters. And as we talked about on

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Speaker 1: the show on the Lake Monsters, we did one of

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Speaker 1: these lake monsters that borders Wisconsin and Minnesota is called

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Speaker 1: Peppy and it has a fifty thousand dollars reward that

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Speaker 1: is attached to it. Fifty thousand really, yeah, much much

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Speaker 1: improvement over that one hundred dollars rewards. Now does that

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Speaker 1: garner some people to go out there and try to

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Speaker 1: look for this thing? It does? And that's what the

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Speaker 1: gentleman who put the money up for the rewards said,

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Speaker 1: is that he was watching a documentary on the Lockness

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Speaker 1: Monster and said, we have the very same story here,

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Speaker 1: but the only difference is nobody knows about it. What

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Speaker 1: can I do to get serious researchers and tourists alike

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Speaker 1: to come check this out, and he thought, all follow

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Speaker 1: you in the footsteps of PD Barnum, who offered a

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Speaker 1: fifty thousand dollars reward for the Lake Champlain monster champ

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Speaker 1: And as of today, nobody has collected this fifty thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars reward on Peppie. I sure hope he's got it right. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: he does, and the town is really embraced at The

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Speaker 1: only stipulation, George, is that you cannot hurt the monster

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Speaker 1: in the process. So whether you use your fishing pole

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Speaker 1: or netting, or maybe you just want to old fashion

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Speaker 1: wrestle it to shore, you cannot actually harm the creature.

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Speaker 1: And it has to be either a creature unknown to

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Speaker 1: science or one thought to have been extinct that is

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Speaker 1: not extinct. You know, it can't turn out to be

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Speaker 1: a sturgeon or a giant catfish. It has to be

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Speaker 1: something unknown to recover that reward and very unusual. Listen

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Speaker 1: to more Coast to Coast AM every week night at

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Speaker 1: one a m. Eastern and go to Coast to Coast

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Speaker 1: am dot com for more