Speaker 1: Hello, it's Richard mccleinsmith here with a quick update before
Speaker 1: we dive into today's episode. Unexplained is very excited to
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Speaker 1: joining forces with some of the eeriest voices in the
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Speaker 1: Crimewave Atsea dot com forward slash Unexplained to grab your
Speaker 1: fan coat and lock in your cabin. We'd love to
Speaker 1: see you on board. The town of Van Meter sits
Speaker 1: in Dallas County, Iowa, one of many small, once hopeful
Speaker 1: community out in the wide flat middle of America. Today
Speaker 1: it is easily missed by those barreling east or west
Speaker 1: on the I eighty, though, were anyone to pull off
Speaker 1: the interstate, they may find a history far deeper and
Speaker 1: more interesting than they might expect. Indigenous Americans had long
Speaker 1: made the area their home. Members of the Sac and
Speaker 1: Fox Nation hunted, fished, and settled along the banks of
Speaker 1: the Raccoon River for centuries until an eighteen forty treaty
Speaker 1: come land grab with the U. S Government forced their relocation.
Speaker 1: Van Meter's first colonial settlement began in eighteen forty seven
Speaker 1: when brothers Lewis and Daniel Stump built a cabin there,
Speaker 1: attracted by the area's natural and geological rewards. Soon another
Speaker 1: pair of brothers, Levi and James Wright, would become their neighbours,
Speaker 1: constructing their own cabin on the banks of the Raccoon.
Speaker 1: Before long, other adventurous pioneers joined them. Isolated cabins clustered
Speaker 1: into accidental neighbourhoods. A church was built, and in eighteen
Speaker 1: sixty eight, the newly extended railroad brought the first train
Speaker 1: to what was then named Tracy, Iowa. The following year,
Speaker 1: the budding town of four hundred and fifty people was
Speaker 1: renamed van Meter, commemorating the early Dutch pioneer Jacob Rhodes
Speaker 1: van Meter, whose family had been instrumental in the early
Speaker 1: days of the community. Like many such towns in the
Speaker 1: middle of the country, van Meter was born from localized industry. First,
Speaker 1: it was mining. The van Meter shaft was sunk in
Speaker 1: eighteen seventy eight. Nearly three hundred feet deep, it tapped
Speaker 1: a huge seam of coal and was regarded as a
Speaker 1: model for successful mining nationwide. The traveling out of town
Speaker 1: were loaded heavily with anthrokite, and in return came prosperity
Speaker 1: and growth. Van Meter was suddenly on the map. In
Speaker 1: eighteen ninety three, the mine owners sought to further capitalize
Speaker 1: on their success, establishing the Plat Pressed Fire and Brick Company.
Speaker 1: A factory located near to the mine transmuted the red
Speaker 1: clay from a mining byproduct to the raw material for
Speaker 1: quality bricks and tiles. Even when the mine was closed
Speaker 1: in nineteen o two due to labour shortages and repeated strikes,
Speaker 1: the factory continued to pump money into the town for decades. Nonetheless,
Speaker 1: Van Meter never really grew For much of the twentieth century,
Speaker 1: its population numbered less than one thousand, and the twenty
Speaker 1: twenty census recorded only five hundred and thirteen households and
Speaker 1: four hundred families. It's a limited but relatively dense population
Speaker 1: for a town covered only one point three square miles.
Speaker 1: It's a small, quiet place, the kind of town that
Speaker 1: some might derisively describe as one that epitomizes the flyover States,
Speaker 1: a place of little importance or standing. They imagine nothing
Speaker 1: of interest ever happens. But not only would that do
Speaker 1: an immense disservice to its people, they would be wrong.
Speaker 1: In nineteen oh three, something paid a visit to Van Meter,
Speaker 1: and its brief presence would mark the town forever. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained and I'm Richard McLean Smith. Ulysses Griffith
Speaker 1: was the first person to see the visitor. A local
Speaker 1: farm equipment trader, the thirty five year old Griffith served
Speaker 1: on the Van Meter Council and was a member of
Speaker 1: both the Masonic Lodge and the Modern Woodman Society. He
Speaker 1: was a highly respected member of the tiny community, considered
Speaker 1: trustworthy and solid. In the early morning of Tuesday, September
Speaker 1: twenty ninth, nineteen o three, Griffith was returning from a
Speaker 1: long circuit of salesmanship around Dallas County. It had just
Speaker 1: gone one a m. When he drove his new Model
Speaker 1: a Ford down Main Street and drew to a brief
Speaker 1: stop in the town center. Something had drawn his attention
Speaker 1: to the roofline three stories up. An unexpected light beaming
Speaker 1: out from the top of a local business named Matha
Speaker 1: and Greg, bright enough to cast shadows across the silent
Speaker 1: nighttime street. Concerned that he was witnessing a burglary in action,
Speaker 1: Griffith eased the car forward to get a better look.
Speaker 1: When the unexplained illumination appeared, leaped suddenly from the roof,
Speaker 1: clearing the entire street before landing on top of the
Speaker 1: building opposite. What the hell, he said to himself as
Speaker 1: he tried to focus in on what on earth he
Speaker 1: was looking at. The only thing Griffith knew was that
Speaker 1: whatever he was seeing, it wasn't burglar's because it couldn't
Speaker 1: possibly have even been human. He tried again to inch
Speaker 1: closer to the source of the light, but almost as
Speaker 1: quickly as the brightness had appeared, it was gone. With
Speaker 1: nothing else to be done, Griffith retired to bed, no doubt,
Speaker 1: exhausted from the day, but left restless in his curiosity
Speaker 1: about its closing moments. The following day, he told several
Speaker 1: people about his strange sighting. Griffith was well regarded enough
Speaker 1: not to be dismissed, but in the bright morning sunshine,
Speaker 1: his uncanny tail generated far more of amusement than anything
Speaker 1: resembles fear. The following night, in a small bedroom behind
Speaker 1: his office, Doctor Fred Orcot slept as storm winds buffeted
Speaker 1: the town and rain spattered against the pine walls outside.
Speaker 1: Neither woke him, Yet, just after one a m. He
Speaker 1: was wrenched from sleep by a beam of intense light
Speaker 1: shining through his window. Immediately alert, all Cock leapt from
Speaker 1: his bed and reached for his gun. The light was
Speaker 1: brighter than any torch he'd ever seen, and the doctor
Speaker 1: had been awoken by enough nighttime emergencies to know that
Speaker 1: this was no fellow citizen seeking his help. All Cock
Speaker 1: rushed outside in his NightWare to confront whatever was making
Speaker 1: such a blaze, and came face to face with a
Speaker 1: sight that stopped him dead in his muddy tracks. Outside,
Speaker 1: doctor Orcott squinted into the light beyond which he saw,
Speaker 1: to his horror, a bizarre creature that he later described
Speaker 1: as being half human and half animal. According to Allcot,
Speaker 1: it stood eight or nine feet tall, with a huge
Speaker 1: pair of bat like wings and a sharply protruding face,
Speaker 1: almost like a beak, and from the center of the
Speaker 1: creature's forehead jutted a single thick horn. It was this
Speaker 1: appendage that seemed to be the source of the light.
Speaker 1: The man and whatever this other thing was stood only
Speaker 1: a few yards apart as the rain continued to lash down.
Speaker 1: Scared for his life, Allcot raised his pistol and fired
Speaker 1: five times at close range, but the winged creature showed
Speaker 1: no sign of impact or injury. It merely stirred in
Speaker 1: passively watching, still emanating its strange light. Doctor Orcott beat
Speaker 1: a fast retreat, diving back into the relative safety of
Speaker 1: his office. Understandably terrified, Alcott hurriedly barred the door, then
Speaker 1: rushed around, securely locking every window of his office and home.
Speaker 1: By the time he returned to the one facing the street,
Speaker 1: there was no sign of the strange entity. Alcott shivered
Speaker 1: in his damp night clothes as he secured the last
Speaker 1: of the windows. He spent the rest of the night
Speaker 1: trembling in bed, his pistol right beside him. The next day,
Speaker 1: doctor Orcott told several people about his nighttime encounter, and,
Speaker 1: in the way of all small intimate communities, word quickly spread.
Speaker 1: Some people scoffed, worried what it meant for the health
Speaker 1: of the town that the local doctor seemed to have
Speaker 1: gone crazy. However, had caught wind of Ulysses Griffith's sighting
Speaker 1: just twenty four hours earlier, and they began to wander
Speaker 1: two pillars of the community, each with an outlandish story
Speaker 1: what on earth was happening in Van Meter. One person
Speaker 1: who treated the doctor's tale with special incredulity was twenty
Speaker 1: six year old Clarence Done, known as Peter to his friends.
Speaker 1: Done was a man on an upward trajectory in van Meter.
Speaker 1: Later in life, he would go on to manage the
Speaker 1: town's bank before becoming town treasurer, mayor and head of
Speaker 1: the school district. On the evening of Thursday, October one,
Speaker 1: nineteen o three, however, Done was still a cashier in
Speaker 1: the bank he would one day run, but as a
Speaker 1: committed member of the community and a loyal employee, he
Speaker 1: felt a responsibility to protect both his town and place
Speaker 1: of employment. Was convinced that Griffith and Orcott had misconstrued
Speaker 1: criminal activity in van Meter. Because the strange sightings had
Speaker 1: been made around the same time each night downtown. It
Speaker 1: made sense to Done that they were simply part of
Speaker 1: an orchestrated plot by thieves to rob local businesses, and
Speaker 1: so one night, instead of clocking off for work, Done
Speaker 1: armed himself with a shotgun full of buckshot and settled
Speaker 1: down in the middle of the bank's small foyer and
Speaker 1: waited for the robbers to appear outside the bank. It
Speaker 1: was an overcast night, and the shadows were in constant
Speaker 1: flux as the clouds shifted across a bright half moon.
Speaker 1: Clarence Done was on edge. After all, it's no small
Speaker 1: feat preparing to face thieves in the night with no
Speaker 1: knock of just how dangerous they might be. For the
Speaker 1: first few hours, at least, he took solace in the
Speaker 1: presence of all the townsfolk, still going about their day
Speaker 1: in the street outside, heading home from work or evening drinks.
Speaker 1: But as midnight ticked past, both the dark and the
Speaker 1: silence of the night settled deeper. Done gripped the gun
Speaker 1: tighter in his hands. It had just gone one when
Speaker 1: Done was suddenly distracted by a strange rustling at the
Speaker 1: front window. He raised his gun, only for the noise
Speaker 1: to then change to something far more disturbing. He later
Speaker 1: described it as a gurgling, choking sound, as if some
Speaker 1: person or other animal was gasping for air. Just then,
Speaker 1: from only meters away, a bright light struck through the window.
Speaker 1: It landed first on Done, dazzling him for a moment
Speaker 1: before swinging left and right like a spotlight from a
Speaker 1: watch tower. As his eyes readjusted, Done saw, to his
Speaker 1: immense alarm the shadowy bulk of an inexplicable creature beyond
Speaker 1: the glass. Then the light swung back round and fixed
Speaker 1: once more Undone. In a panic, he raised the shotgun
Speaker 1: to his shoulder and fired. Though they were separated by
Speaker 1: the window pane, the shot was practically point blank, with
Speaker 1: a deafening blast, The shot shattered the glass and ripped
Speaker 1: the wooden sash free, But just like doctor Orcott's bullets,
Speaker 1: the buckshot seemed to have no effect on the creature
Speaker 1: at all. Stunned by what he had seen, Done none
Speaker 1: the less righted himself and rushed to the door, But
Speaker 1: in the seconds it took him to spill outside, the
Speaker 1: winged figure had already disappeared. He scanned the street, but
Speaker 1: saw nothing. Whether he thought to look up in the
Speaker 1: air or not, we shall never know. Understandably, Shaken and
Speaker 1: well passed the limit of what company loyalty could demand,
Speaker 1: Done went home to his family. Six hours later, at
Speaker 1: the first light of dawn, Dun returned to the bank,
Speaker 1: determined to find evidence of the strange thing he'd encountered.
Speaker 1: He arrived to find the remains of the damage he'd caused,
Speaker 1: half spilling out into the street, but there was no
Speaker 1: blood to be seen anywhere. Then, finally, imprinted in the
Speaker 1: mud at the base of the boardwalk, he apparently found
Speaker 1: what he was looking for, a three toed track bird
Speaker 1: like in configuration, only much much bigger than any bird
Speaker 1: he'd ever seen before. Dun made a plaster cast of
Speaker 1: the claw marks and displayed it to anyone who would listen.
Speaker 1: On that cloudy fall day, the most residents of Van Meter,
Speaker 1: like millions of other Americans, were well distracted because October one,
Speaker 1: nineteen o three, just happened to be the day in
Speaker 1: which the first game of the modern Baseball World Series
Speaker 1: took place. All ears were turned to radios, temporarily deaf
Speaker 1: to the growing anxiety of those few in Van Meter
Speaker 1: who knew something very strange should come to their town soon,
Speaker 1: though everyone would have reason to listen later that evening,
Speaker 1: a few hours after the Pittsburgh Pirates had beaten the
Speaker 1: Boston Americans in the first game of the World Series.
Speaker 1: The citizens of Van Meter slumbered under a light fall
Speaker 1: drizzle in a room above Fisher and White, the town
Speaker 1: hardware store. The proprietor, mister White, was woken from sleep
Speaker 1: by a loud, scraping noise outside. His startled, he reached
Speaker 1: immediately for his gun, instinctively worried that a robbery might
Speaker 1: be taking place, But then a whole other, terrifying thought
Speaker 1: entered his mind. Had the creature now come to pay
Speaker 1: him a visit. Gathering his thoughts, he decided against rushing
Speaker 1: outside or firing indiscriminately as others had done, and instead
Speaker 1: quietly made his way to the casement window, gently slid
Speaker 1: it open, and peered out into the dark. At first
Speaker 1: he saw nothing, but as its gaze landed on a
Speaker 1: telegraph pole at the corner of Main Street, he saw,
Speaker 1: with a sickening lurch in the pit of his stomach,
Speaker 1: standing on top of it, statue like was the exact
Speaker 1: same creature that he'd heard so much about over the
Speaker 1: previous days, And, just as Peter had done had reported
Speaker 1: the night before, a light seemed to be emanating from
Speaker 1: its head, ringing pendulously up and down the street. Mister
Speaker 1: White steadily took aim when suddenly the light landed right
Speaker 1: on his face. Without thinking, the shopkeeper pulled the trigger,
Speaker 1: but once more, the gun had no effect on the visitor,
Speaker 1: as it would later be named. Instead, it seemed as
Speaker 1: if the shot had merely served to wake it up.
Speaker 1: To mister White's horror, it then began to slowly descend
Speaker 1: the pole down to the street. At this point. In
Speaker 1: some tellings of the tale, mister White was said to
Speaker 1: be rendered almost insensible by a putrid smell emanating from
Speaker 1: the creature, after which White claimed to have no further
Speaker 1: memory of the evening's events. If that all sounds a
Speaker 1: little bit far fetched, it's worth knowing that, incredibly, there
Speaker 1: was another witness to this event across the street from
Speaker 1: mister White and its hardware store, Sydney Gregg, just happened
Speaker 1: to be gazing out of his window when he saw
Speaker 1: White appear with its gun. After hearing shots, Greg frantically
Speaker 1: scanned the street to try and see what an earth
Speaker 1: mister White had fired at that's when he too saw
Speaker 1: the same shadowy form sliding down the telegraph pole. Greg
Speaker 1: described its movements as parrot like and that it used
Speaker 1: its elongated, beaked appendage for extra traction. He estimated the
Speaker 1: thing to be at least eight feet tall, and, like
Speaker 1: other witnesses, was amazed by the sprawl of featherless wings
Speaker 1: that stretched out from its back. When the creature got
Speaker 1: to the ground, it beat its wings once with a
Speaker 1: whip crack of air. Then it swept its bizarre light
Speaker 1: around once more. It was as bright, Greg said, as
Speaker 1: the headlights on the brand new automobiles he sometimes saw
Speaker 1: around town. The young man watched dumbfound it as the
Speaker 1: creature loped down Main Street, hopping like an injured kangaroo.
Speaker 1: Greg continued to watch with terror as it stopped right
Speaker 1: outside its property, less than a dozen feet away and
Speaker 1: only a single story below him. Then it turned to
Speaker 1: face him. Greg had just enough time to feel the
Speaker 1: rush of fear before the early morning mail train came
Speaker 1: ripping along the tracks parallel to Main Street and spooted
Speaker 1: the animal. The creature dropped quickly to all fours and
Speaker 1: started to run, then popped out its wings and took
Speaker 1: flight Sydney. Greg kept his eyes firmly fixed on the
Speaker 1: creature's dimming light as it flew off toward the old
Speaker 1: coal mine on the edge of town. By the time
Speaker 1: in Friday October two dawned, heavy and humid, van Meter
Speaker 1: was a wash with anxious rumors, not least of all
Speaker 1: because there'd been rumblings about strange goings on at the
Speaker 1: mine for some time. The van Meter Brick and Tile
Speaker 1: Factory was situated close to the now defunct mine shaft
Speaker 1: for the past few days. When the factory day crew
Speaker 1: returned from their shift, they brought tales of ominous sounds
Speaker 1: emanating from the mouth of the pit. One worker described
Speaker 1: it as though Satan and a regiment of his imps
Speaker 1: were preparing for battle. So when Sydney Gregg revealed that
Speaker 1: he'd seen the creature flying off in that direction, it
Speaker 1: was easy to draw a connection. The people of van
Speaker 1: Meter began to wonder if the mine that had once
Speaker 1: served so well as the beating heart of their town
Speaker 1: had now become the nesting place for something hell bent
Speaker 1: on attacking it. The following night, the brick and tile
Speaker 1: factory's chief operator, J. L. Platt, was working a late
Speaker 1: shift when at some time around one a m. He
Speaker 1: heard the strange noises again emanating from the edge of
Speaker 1: the mine shaft. Like many of his men. He'd heard
Speaker 1: the noises several times during the previous days, but this
Speaker 1: was different. No longer faint as they had been before,
Speaker 1: the noises now sounded much closer, as if whatever was
Speaker 1: making the rattling, gasping, growling sounds was no longer in
Speaker 1: the bowels of the mine, but just below the surface.
Speaker 1: Platt peered into the open mouth of the shaft, only
Speaker 1: able to see a few feet before darkness and the
Speaker 1: twists of the seam obscured things. Suddenly, without any warning,
Speaker 1: something large burst from the mine. It all happened too
Speaker 1: fast and hectically for Platt to notice any details other
Speaker 1: than its gigantic size and its odd half human shape.
Speaker 1: As Platt recoiled, stumbling away and blinded by a bright light,
Speaker 1: he then saw another smaller figure emerge from the shaft
Speaker 1: before shooting up into the sky. As it happened. J. L.
Speaker 1: Platt wasn't the only witness to the sudden appearance of
Speaker 1: two creatures escaping the mine, with the brick and Tile
Speaker 1: factory only a few hundred yards away. Having heard the commotion,
Speaker 1: more than a dozen colleagues came rushing over to investigate,
Speaker 1: just in time. To see the creatures disappear into the night.
Speaker 1: Many of them later reported the now familiar features illuminated horns,
Speaker 1: beak like faces, and those broad bat like wings. Astonished
Speaker 1: by what they'd say, the men promptly stopped work and
Speaker 1: went straight home to report their sighting, and, as is
Speaker 1: so often the case when a community feels under threat,
Speaker 1: a posse soon materialized. As a heavy rain began to fall,
Speaker 1: the men of van Meter gathered on main Street, many
Speaker 1: of them armed with rifles and shotguns, and promptly set
Speaker 1: out together for the mine. In their wake, the remaining
Speaker 1: people of van Meter turned on all the lights around town,
Speaker 1: both in solidarity and out of fear. Walking out into
Speaker 1: the surrounding scrub in the dark, their backs turned to
Speaker 1: the lights of home, the men must have felt like
Speaker 1: ships sailing out into the night. It wasn't long before
Speaker 1: the posse reached the old mine, where they formed a
Speaker 1: loose curve around its entrance. The plan was to either
Speaker 1: trap the creatures inside or keep them out if they
Speaker 1: were still yet to return. As the hours passed by,
Speaker 1: the men grew more nervous and disheartened as the cold
Speaker 1: rain crept through their oilskins and soaked their clothes steadily.
Speaker 1: One by one, many in the group grew bored and
Speaker 1: headed back to bed. By the time dawn broke just
Speaker 1: after five forty five, only a handful of the makeshift
Speaker 1: company remained at their post. Just then, someone shouted out
Speaker 1: in alarm, pointing to the sky, and there, against the
Speaker 1: weak dawnlight, a peculiar figure could be seen coming towards them.
Speaker 1: Behind that a smaller iteration of the same thing, just
Speaker 1: as Platte had reported stealing themselves. Each of the men
Speaker 1: grabbed their weapons, and, taking aim, fired at the approaching duo.
Speaker 1: The blast was loud enough to be heard all the
Speaker 1: way back in Van Meter, but the teachers didn't flinch
Speaker 1: and responded with their own unearthly noises As they drew
Speaker 1: ever closer to the mine. The men took aim and
Speaker 1: fired again, but could only watch, bewildered and impotent, as
Speaker 1: both creatures casually proceeded through the hail of bullets and
Speaker 1: disappeared once more into the mine. With nothing else to
Speaker 1: do and understandably unwilling to give chase into the darkness
Speaker 1: of the mine, what was left of the Van Meter
Speaker 1: posse dispersed. Most returned to town while an unlucky few had
Speaker 1: no other choice but to go to their Saturday shift
Speaker 1: at the factory, and no doubt kept a wary eye
Speaker 1: on the mine shaft throughout the day. Back in Van Meter,
Speaker 1: it was decided that the only reasonable response was to
Speaker 1: wall up the mine as quickly as possible, in the
Speaker 1: hope of trapping the visitors in their burrow forever. It's
Speaker 1: not known if the townspeople manage this feat before another
Speaker 1: night set in. H. H. Phillips, the local postmaster, who
Speaker 1: published an account of this strange event in the Des
Speaker 1: Moines Register, does not go into detail on the attempted barricade,
Speaker 1: so we are left to wonder whether the visitor was
Speaker 1: trapped or whether it had the chance to fly free
Speaker 1: along with its companion. And what of that companion? Was
Speaker 1: it a mate or an offspring? Could it be there
Speaker 1: was even a breeding population somewhere out in the flatlands
Speaker 1: of Iowa. The van meet a visitor is treated, like
Speaker 1: most small town monsters, as a gimmick, a tourist trap,
Speaker 1: and a chance to celebrate and sell the quirks of
Speaker 1: those small towns they come from. Since twenty thirteen, has
Speaker 1: hosted the annual than Meet Visitor festival with walking tours,
Speaker 1: games and lectures on crypto zoology. It's a way to
Speaker 1: remember the law while presenting it as a safe, half
Speaker 1: humorous nod to a more credulous era in American life.
Speaker 1: But no amount of marketing can fully defang the legend
Speaker 1: of the Visitor, because that week in late September and
Speaker 1: early October of nineteen o three is far from the
Speaker 1: only time that something odd has flown through the local
Speaker 1: Midwestern skies. For centuries, the Indigenous people of the Upper
Speaker 1: Midwest shared tales of the thunderbird, a giant avian creature
Speaker 1: that could create thunderstorms and fire lightning from its eyes.
Speaker 1: Though tribal traditions differ, those features remain consistent, and perhaps
Speaker 1: it is worth remembering the unexpectedly vicious storms that came
Speaker 1: to van Meter on almost every night of that fateful
Speaker 1: week in eighteen ninety, thirteen years before the Van Meet visitation,
Speaker 1: townspeople in Independence, another small Iowan town, claimed to have
Speaker 1: seen something large with wings, horns, and an alligator shaped
Speaker 1: snout on the outskirts of town. When confronted, it made
Speaker 1: a terrible rattling, roaring noise, and its eyes gave off
Speaker 1: electrical light. In the states neighboring Iowa, sightings of oversized
Speaker 1: flying creatures were even more common. In eighteen sixty eight,
Speaker 1: an eight year old named Jemmy Kenney was said to
Speaker 1: have been killed by a huge bird. The boy was
Speaker 1: snatched from his school yard in Tipper County, Missouri and
Speaker 1: dragged into the air before being dropped to his death.
Speaker 1: His teacher described the bird's talons as having torn into
Speaker 1: the child's flesh. Over a century later, in nineteen seventy seven,
Speaker 1: a similar terror would strike ten year old Marlon Lowe
Speaker 1: in Lawndale, Illinois. This time, the boy was attacked by
Speaker 1: what were described as a pair of nine foot bird
Speaker 1: like things. As his horrified mother watched screaming. Marlon was
Speaker 1: dragged thirty feet before being dropped. This time, however, thankfully,
Speaker 1: the boy survived. Tales of similar encounters are so numerous
Speaker 1: over the decades they've given rise to a whole specific
Speaker 1: category of cryptid becoming known as Ioware dragons. Back in
Speaker 1: van Meter, there are some who still don't consider that
Speaker 1: strange week of nineteen o three to be the end
Speaker 1: of things there either. In nineteen eighty, a man walking
Speaker 1: his dog by the old mine claimed to have seen
Speaker 1: what he described as a large winged man flying out
Speaker 1: of the shaft, and as recently as two thousand and six,
Speaker 1: the local pastor, driving back from Colfax, about thirty miles
Speaker 1: from Van Meter, claimed he was followed by a flying
Speaker 1: dragon like creature which hovered above his car for a
Speaker 1: short time before flying away at the edge of town.
Speaker 1: To this day, many questions remain, and with so many
Speaker 1: recorded encounters that stretch back centuries, there is one, perhaps
Speaker 1: that are nerves above all others, the possibility that the
Speaker 1: people of Van Meter got it wrong when naming their
Speaker 1: local monster. It isn't it that is the visitor. It
Speaker 1: is us. This episode was written by Neil mac robert
Speaker 1: and produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Neil is
Speaker 1: the creator and host of his own brilliant podcast called
Speaker 1: Talking Scared, in which he discusses the craft of horror,
Speaker 1: writing with every one from to Nanaeve Do to the
Speaker 1: god of horror himself, Stephen King, I can't recommend it
Speaker 1: highly enough. Thank you as ever for listening. Unexplained as
Speaker 1: an Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc lean smith.
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are
Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained. The
Speaker 1: book and audiobook is now available to buy worldwide. You
Speaker 1: can purchase from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores.
Speaker 1: Please subscribe to and rate the show wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with
Speaker 1: any thoughts or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on
Speaker 1: the show. Perhaps you have an explanation or a story
Speaker 1: of your own you'd like to share. You can find
Speaker 1: out more at Unexplained podcast dot com and reaches online
Speaker 1: through x and Blue Sky at Unexplained Pod and Facebook
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