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The Iowa Mothman

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Gene Steinberg

Gene Steinberg

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On the evening of Thursday, August 22, we'll be taking a break from our diet of UFO lore to interview Chad Lewis, a co-author of "The Van Meter Visitor: A True and Mysterious Encounter with the Unknown."

According to Lewis, for several nights in 1903, the small town of Van Meter, Iowa was terrorized by a giant bat-like creature that emerged from an old abandoned mine. The identity of this mysterious visitor was never discovered. Over 100 years later, Lewis set out to Van Meter to shine a light on this amazingly bizarre case. Filled with eye witness reports, historic photos, and current accounts of the paranormal, this in-depth book looks to discover what really happened in the town of Van Meter.

Indeed this will be a fascinating discussion of a still unexplained paranormal case.
 
This will be very interesting and I'm looking forward to the show.

Has Mr. Lewis looked into any other paranormal phenomena in Iowa? Particularly the Northeast portion of the state in the "Driftless" region?

Thank you.
 
1. Have you looked into the possibility of this being an actual bat that was affected by some type of gigantism (just like there are rare cases of giant humans, see: Gigantism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia). Do you know of such a phenomenon having been scientifically observed in wild animals? (My very quick Google search didn't find anything of real relevance.)

2. How does this stack up against sightings of similar creatures such as the WV Mothman or the Jersey Devil?
 
1) Does the author find any similarities between this creature and the reports of a flying humanoid creature a few years ago in mexico?
2) Has there been any thought about anyone mounting an expedition into the mine shaft to look for the creature?
Steve C. (aka The Lurker)
 
Any chance this creature might have been something akin to Spring Heeled Jack or Perak, the Spring Man of Prague? Spring Heeled Jack and Perak were human-like creatures that wore what was possibly a "costume" and seemed to have super human abilities. Also, "the strange smell that disoriented witnesses" and the wave of sightings is a bit reminiscent of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon...any thoughts on similarities of the two cases (even though they were separated by many years)? Thanks!
 
I also would assist with an investigation being close to the area. I bought this book a few weeks ago and enjoyed it thoroughly. How many other pre web gems exist in newspaper archives-kudows to lewis for digging into this and bringing it to publication.At the end of the day,what does he believe happened in Van Meter over 100 years ago?
 
LeBombette said:
Any chance this creature might have been something akin to Spring Heeled Jack or Perak, the Spring Man of Prague? Spring Heeled Jack and Perak were human-like creatures that wore what was possibly a "costume" and seemed to have super human abilities. Also, "the strange smell that disoriented witnesses" and the wave of sightings is a bit reminiscent of the Mad Gasser of Mattoon...any thoughts on similarities of the two cases (even though they were separated by many years)? Thanks!
Click to expand...

Hi,
I'm thinking along the same lines...
I enjoyed Chad's enthusiasm for his work, and a couple of details from the Van Meter case struck me as having similarities to other stories. The memory-loss inducing vapour emitted by the creature reminded me of the story we heard on an earlier show where a hunter out in the forest was driven up a tree by robot that blew gas up at him knocking him out. (perhaps someone can remind us of the name of that case ?) The Van Meter visitor does indeed sound like the Spring Heel Jack reports from Victorian London in that it 'leapt like a Kangaroo' with wings.
Spring-heeled Jack - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 
During the show my mind immediately started going to the creature known as the Devil Monkey and other "kangaroo" like reports...just a curious thing...we've often heard researchers refer to the various "winged creatures" that share the characteristic of wings, whether used in flight or not, but often it seems the kangaroo like behavior is sort of glossed over, yet many of these anomalous creatures have that very strange shared characteristic. Just more oddness to layer upon already existing oddness!
By the way, THANK YOU GENE & CHRIS for referencing my question in the show!!! I just listened to the episode this morning and when I heard my question I was shouting "I'm on the Paracast, I'm on the Paracast"...well, I sort-of was anyhow. Regardless, it made my day and I'm sure my antics gave my fellow commuters a good laugh. :)
 
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