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Preview: The Van Meter Visitor

Unresolved

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Preview: The Van Meter Visitor

Unresolved

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UnresolvedPreview: The Van Meter Visitor. Machine-transcribed; use the interactive transcript above to jump the player to any line.

In the summer of 1903, the town of Van Meter, Iowa was not a place where unusual things were expected to happen. Van Meter sat west of Des Moines along the Raccoon River, a railroad town shaped by agriculture and coal. At the turn of the 20th century, it was home to a few hundred residents. Most people worked with their hands, and their days were measured by train schedules and the steady rhythms of Midwestern life. When the sun went down, the town went quiet. That is why, in early June of that year, when residents began waking one another in the middle of the night, it did not take long for panic to spread. According to reports published at the time, something was moving through the town after dark. It was not moving quickly, but deliberately. It appeared on rooftops, near buildings, sometimes along the edge of the river. Men who believed they had seen every animal that the state of Iowa had to offer, said

they did not recognize it. People reached first for land turns, then for guns. Within days, what began as a late night disturbance would escalate into armed watches, shots fired in the street, and a decision by towns people to seal off an abandoned coal mine on the edge of town. Use papers as far away as New York would carry stories out of van meter describing a creature that no one could identify, and that no one could capture. The sightings lasted less than a week. They ended as abruptly as they began, and they left behind no body, no tracks, and no clear explanation. This has been a preview of an unresolved bonus episode, available to those who support the show on Patreon. If you would like to hear it, please head over to patreon.com slash unresolved pod, or click

on the link below in the show notes to learn more. And as always, thanks for listening. Well, there are court costs, attorney fees, higher insurance costs, damage to your car, do you why finds? Not to mention the damage to your social life, plan a sober ride, or pay the price, drinking and driving costs more than your drinks. It could cost a life. Learn more at What'sTheDamage.org, brought to you by Virginia DMV.

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