Van Meter’s ‘Visitor’ keeps the legend alive
9/17/2026More than a century after a winged creature reportedly terrorized the town, the Van Meter Visitor Festival celebrates the folklore, history and mystery behind Iowa’s most famous cryptid.
The odds of seeing a winged monster in Van Meter, Iowa, are slim. Chad Lewis knows that. He spent more than 30 years investigating strange reports and has learned that a trip in search of the unexplained rarely ends with an explanation. Yet, each year, hundreds of people come to this small town for the Van Meter Visitor Festival.
The possibility of finding the creature is only part of the draw. The rest is a chance to walk through a story where it supposedly happened. In 1903, newspaper accounts described a strange, winged visitor that frightened residents. According to the legend, townspeople fired at it, and it retreated toward an abandoned coal mine. Whether it was an animal, a prank or something else remains an open question. More than a century later, Lewis and two fellow authors followed those old accounts to Van Meter and found a story the town could claim as its own.
Their research trip was not supposed to revolve around Van Meter. The Wisconsin-based group had other Iowa stops in mind, including a haunted cemetery and a reported werewolf sighting. Lewis, who had collected unusual newspaper stories, went looking for an anchor to the trip and rediscovered the 1903 coverage. The tale sounded so outlandish that the group expected to dismiss it quickly.
Instead, they searched local archives, talked with residents and wrote a book, “The Van Meter Visitor,” which published in 2013 and was co-authored by Lewis, Kevin Lee Nelson and Noah. Once the book was finished, the three began talking with townspeople about a festival. They had visited other gatherings devoted to mysterious creatures and thought Van Meter’s folklore deserved a place on that map.
“This town really needs something to celebrate the history, the folklore, the uniqueness of this,” Lewis recalled telling his colleagues. The community embraced the idea, he said, whether or not its residents believed in the creature.
The first gathering, Lewis recalled, was modest. The three authors spoke at the public library, then led a walk down Main Street for about 30 people. Lewis said attendance now reaches about 500, which isn’t bad for a town with less than 1,500 residents.
Those numbers are small next to the crowds at better-known cryptid celebrations. Lewis said the Mothman Festival in Point Pleasant, West Virginia, draws nearly 15,000 people. But Van Meter’s scale is an advantage. Visitors can stand near the old bank where, according to the story, a bank manager shot through a window at the creature. On walking tours, they can see the bank vault and trace the route toward the mine.
“You get to literally walk in the footsteps of the townsfolk of 1903,” Lewis said. That proximity makes the legend feel less like a tale imported for a convention and more like something rooted in the streets beneath visitors’ feet.
The setting helps. On his first visit, Lewis said he wondered where the downtown was. It was only a few blocks long and quiet enough to make the old newspaper accounts easier to picture. Van Meter, tucked several miles off Interstate 80, does not need to build a haunted-house version of itself to invite a little imagination.
The festival has changed with its audience. Its early emphasis on lectures appealed to dedicated paranormal enthusiasts. Today, Lewis said, families come for the tours and activities, and children can be more eager than their parents to follow the trail of “The Visitor.” After years of rain, ice and wind disrupting outdoor booths, organizers moved the speakers and vendors to American Legion Post 403 while keeping the walking tours downtown. Lewis said the tours have grown large enough for organizers to plan two departures.
Even local businesses have joined the fun. Lewis said the Fifth Quarter now serves a Winged Creature and The Goose Ice Cream and Coffee Shop has its own Visitor-themed offering. Those gestures help make the festival feel like a town-wide celebration of a century-old story.
Lewis did not enter the field simply to collect monster stories. As a student in Wisconsin, he became interested in UFO reports and in why some people believe supernatural claims while others do not. He studied psychology and wrote his master’s thesis on belief in the supernatural. Decades of interviews have left him with more questions than answers. That uncertainty, he has decided, does not spoil the trip.
“You go to Van Meter, and you don’t see ‘The Visitor,’ ” he said. “You’re still going to have an absolute blast soaking in the folklore, the legend, the feel of it all.” Travelers may stop at the bridges of Madison County or another roadside attraction along the way. They can hear a good story, meet its keepers and return home without having solved it.
That seems like the right bargain for Van Meter. A monster may have brought outsiders to town, but the festival gives them a reason to look around once they arrive. “The Visitor” can remain elusive. The town is real, and it is willing to tell the tale. ♦
