[Josh Gates] On this episode of Expedition X...
[Phil] Oh, God, this is a graveyard.
[Josh] Jess and Phil journey to America's heartland...
-[Jess] Oh, check this out. Jawbone. -[Phil] Skull. Another one.
[Josh] ...to investigate reports of a winged creature
that began terrorizing the area over a century ago.
He actually fires at the creature.
[gunshot]
[Josh] Now, residents around Van Meter, Iowa,
are claiming the beast is real and and it's back.
-It was flying. Had a real strange long body -[Jess] Mmm-hmm.
[Mike] ...and a face that looked more like a reptile.
It looked directly at us.
[shushing]
[Jess whispering] Did you hear all that rustling? Right over there.
- [Phil] Ohh! - [Jess] Careful, careful!
Holy [bleep].
[Josh] And when the evidence leads underground...
- Oh, boy! - [Jess gasps]
- Look at that. - [exclaiming]
[Josh] ...the team digs for the truth behind...
[Jess] Get the cameras in! Get the cameras in!
[Josh] the Van Meter monster.
My name is Josh Gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things that defy logic
and made me question everything.
Oh, my God.
Now, I've put together a team to investigate
the stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go.
Phil Torres is a scientist
who hunts for rational explanations.
[Jess speaking]
[Josh] Jessica Chobot's paranormal research
has made her a true believer.
[Josh] Together we're searching for answers...
[Phil] What is that?
[Josh] ...to the world's most extraordinary mysteries.
This is Expedition X.
When I say the name Van Meter, Iowa, what do you think of?
I have nothing.
- Nothing. - [Josh] What?
Not even you, with your encyclopedic knowledge of weirdness,
knows about this story?
This is, like, one of the most vivid
and corroborated crypted sightings of all time.
First of all, Josh, Jess and I
clearly studied very different encyclopedias.
But secondly, what are we talking about?
We're talking about a flying creature,
and the origin story for this is a doozy.
It started with this mass sighting
when practically the entire town of Van Meter
had a very close encounter with something that they couldn't explain.
Something that has become known as the Van Meter monster.
1903, Van Meter, Iowa.
Sitting along the idyllic Raccoon River,
this small coal mining town becomes the battleground for a war
between its residents and something that to this day remains unexplained.
Local newspapers report that Van Meter
becomes besieged for nearly a week
by a giant flying bat-like creature.
Night after night, it is said to terrorize the town folk
with its deafening screech.
[screeching]
The community rallies together to bring the monster down...
but their bullets seemed to have no effect on the beast.
In the days that follow,
several of the town's most prominent citizens,
including a banker, a doctor and several business owners,
all put their reputations on the line by going on record
with their extraordinary experiences.
On the final night of the ordeal,
the creature reportedly retreats
into a nearby abandoned coal mine.
The posse quickly seals the entrance, trapping it inside.
Despite the story becoming national news,
in time, it fades to legend.
Now, nearly 120 years after that week of terror,
recent sightings in and around Van Meter
are terrifying a new generation of witnesses,
who all describe seeing something large and black with bat-like wings...
triggering a groundswell of interest in the original case.
What really happened in 1903?
And are the recent sightings the key to solving the mystery
of the Van Meter monster?
This is so up your alley.
- Jess. - I can't believe I've never heard of this.
- It's amazing. - [Jess] It's pretty cool.
I mean, the fact that this whole town saw this thing,
I mean, mass sightings are incredibly rare.
And now that we're getting more reports in modern day
that match up with the previous reports,
that's kind of next level.
Phil...
- I just... It's odd for me. - Come on.
It's night time. Something like a bat flies at you,
- you get scared-- - A bat?
Phil, did you zone out during the package that I just prepared?
[Jess chuckles]
The bottom line is we need to focus
on what real animal, people could have been seeing and still seeing today
from the known natural world?
Exactly. The known natural world.
It expands all the time.
Biologists are constantly finding new animals out there.
Not ten-foot-tall ones.
Okay, all right. I don't want this to come to blows.
We're not going to settle this here.
Your mission is to go to Iowa, talk to these eye witnesses,
figure out what they actually saw.
Is this some sort of misidentification? Phil.
Or is this some sort of unknown species? Jess.
That's what you've got to figure out.
And I think you have to investigate the original 1903 sighting.
Separate fact from fiction.
If you could do that, you might just be able to solve the entire case.
- Okay. - All right.
All right?
- I've even got a cab waiting to take you to the airport. - Really?
- Yeah. - Right now?
Right now. Yeah. The Van Meter is running.
- Oh, my God! - What! I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
There's no cab.
Wait, you didn't get us a cab?
No, it just for the joke.
Have a good trip.
[Josh] Phil and Jess fly from New York City
to Iowa's capitol Des Moines.
Then they drive east toward Iowa City.
[screeching]
All right, so what you know about Iowa?
That for every person, there are eight pigs.
What? Eight to one ratio of pig to people?
It's the pig and corn capital of the United States.
There you go. I hope you like bacon.
- I do like bacon. - I love bacon.
Iowa's got a lot going for it, in my opinion.
Well, we got a farm to the right, farm to left,
- but I'm not seeing... - What?
any the giants, winged creatures flying around.
[Jess] Well, we're about to meet some people who have.
We arrive at Terry Trueblood Park,
where Josh has arranged for us to meet Joey Perales and Tia Stauffer.
They say they would have never believed in something like the Van Meter monster
until their terrifying encounter with a large winged creature.
We saw it right here, but the grass was a lot taller.
- And how close were you to where it was standing? - Right on the path.
- You guys were close. - [both] Very close.
[Joey] We were coming down to watch the stars on a clear night.
We're walking down this path. There's no one out here.
We heard rustling in the grass...
[Tia] Then it got progressively louder.
And that's when we thought...
- bat-like but gigantic. - [Joey] Bat-like wings.
It looked directly at us, so we started running.
It was parallel with us.
We made it to the car.
We look back, and the second time, and it was gone.
I know you guys were ready to ditch,
but were you able to glean any kind of details from it?
It was tall, like, seven...
Significantly taller than him.
Significantly. Like, we were looking up at it.
It had, like, tucked in wings.
Aside from the rustling around in the grass,
- did it make any other noises? - [Joey] Besides the grass, no.
[Phil] Any color?
Black. The head was almost like a bird head,
like, a longer beak-snout kinda thing.
I have to say, if you see a beak-snout,
birdlike head... wasn't a bird?
Biggest bird I've ever seen.
I don't think I know a bird with a head that size.
I mean, I worked at a zoo, I've done a lot of, like, biology research, too.
And there's no--
I can't think of an animal this thing looks like.
- You said you worked at a zoo? - Mmm-hmm.
- So you've been around all sorts of exotic animals. - All sorts.
I did lots of animal observation.
I've had to create all sorts of fact sheets on, like, animal biology.
And it just... I can't say I've ever seen
anything that's even close to what I saw.
- I'm just trying to picture this thing... - You could show him.
- I have the tattoo. - You got a tattoo?
I got a tattoo of it.
[Phil] So bird-like head, big, pointy shoulders.
- They were that pointy, that tall? - [Joey] Yeah.
[Jess] And did the wings look leathery like a bat like that?
Yeah. I just wanted to, like, recount my experience.
Never forget it.
[Joey] Never forget it. Never forget.
[Jess] Whatever Tia and Joey saw,
it made a lasting impression on both of them.
And their encounter was not far from Van Meter,
the birthplace of the legend.
- Look at this place! - Oh, it's so quaint and small and awesome.
It's like we've just gone back in time.
[Josh] The town of Van Meter
dates back to 1869,
and not much has changed.
There's one main street,
and nearby lie the remnants of Van Meter's
coal mining and brick manufacturing past.
I've arranged for Phil and Jess to meet Chad Lewis.
Chad is a researcher who studies the relationship
between people's fears and beliefs.
- Hi. - Chad.
Good to see you.
[Josh Gates] He's written several books including an in-depth examination
of what happened here in the fall of 1903.
[Phil Torres] So, Chad, what got you interested in this mystery?
I had done several books on odd newspaper stories from the 18-1900s.
Came down here
and, originally, I thought it was going to be very quick stop.
Had to be a hoax.
And the beauty of this town is
it hasn't changed in 100 and some years.
This, right here, is the spot of the week of terror.
First night, a local implement dealer was coming back about 1:00 a.m.
Something flew across the street.
And then disappears.
[Phil] And what happened night two?
A local doctor was sleeping behind his office.
Something or someone woke him up.
So he grabs his weapon
then he starts looking out the window
and he sees this great form
of some monster-creature
but he can't make out the details but it's huge.
He actually fires at the creature.
[gun fires]
But it has no effect.
[Phil] According to newspaper reports,
two nights later, the town's hardware store owner
also shoots at the beast.
[gun fires]
But it doesn't seem to make any impact.
[Chad Lewis] Well, now the town's on high alert.
And out at the brick and tile factory
right next to the abandoned coal mine,
the plant manager's been hearing weird noises for several nights.
He finally gets the courage to walk over
about 200 yards to the old abandoned coal mine
and he sees this creature
descending into the old abandoned coal mine.
And the town quickly boarded it up.
That's where the story ends.
Nobody's ever gone out there to try and dig it up?
It's been boarded up since the last sighting.
Nobody's touched it.
The coal mine today you wouldn't know you were on top of it.
[Jessica Chobot] If the 1903 story is true
and the townspeople trapped whatever this thing was inside that mine
by blocking the entrance,
then it's possible there are physical remains left behind.
And what about the recent sightings?
Chad tells us that just like back in 1903
there have been several reported encounters
around the abandoned brick factory.
Well, I'll tell you what, we would love to
be able to check out the old brick factory.
Yeah, I know the owner.
[Jessica] You mind giving your friend a call?
[Chad] Yeah, I'll do that right now.
[Jessica] As the sun begins to set,
we get word the property owner has given us permission
to check out the old factory.
This abandoned complex next to a thick forest and a stream
would make a great hidden shelter for a large creature.
[Phil] Most of the alleged sightings happened at night
so this is the best time to investigate.
[Jessica] This whole thing's collapsed.
I can't really tell if we're on the outside of the building
or on the old inside of the building.
Perfect place to hide
and nobody would see you.
[Phil] First, we wanna search the old factory's main office building
or at least what's left of it.
[Jessica] Well, check this out.
That's where in 1903,
the manager of the brickyard said he heard strange noises
coming from the nearby coal mine.
- Here we go. - [Phil] Oh, God.
[suspenseful music playing]
[birds chirping]
[Phil] This is full of barn swallows.
[chirping]
- [Jessica] Oh, Jesus! - [Phil] Oh!
[Phil] This is full of barn swallows.
[chirping]
- [Jessica] Oh, Jesus! - [Phil] Oh!
A bat.
He's the calmest one out of all of 'em.
[whispering] Definitely is.
[Jessica] Oh, hey, look. There's an upstairs.
Looks like the floor's somewhat intact.
It's all covered in hay so I can't really tell
if there's holes in the wood or not.
[Phil] Oh, yeah. Look at that right there.
[whispering] Careful where you're stepping.
Yeah.
Oh, what is that pile back there?
Look we got bone here.
Another bone there.
So what do you think that this, whatever's living up here
is using this as like a nest home.
Something like that.
It's clearly eating up here
and dropping up here.
There's tens of pounds of feces up here.
[Jessica] Yeah. This doesn't look like bird poo to me.
This is big scat. That's gotta be a big animal.
[Jessica] Could it be coyote?
[Phil] This doesn't really look like coyote poop.
It's usually a little more tapered.
And I just don't see how a coyote
could take the stairs every single day to get up here.
Let's keep going, I'm gonna take some photos.
[camera shutter clicking]
Oh, dead animal.
This... Why are so many dead things up here?
[Jessica] Dead animals. Something was eating up here.
[Phil] We can definitely know this thing's getting used
heavily by some things.
Whatever is using this space is
is big enough to carry prey the size of
- rabbits and possums. - Yeah.
Why don't we bust out the trail cam?
Do you wanna try putting it right there
so that it covers the stairs
and kind of just anything that might come up here?
That's a good idea. If there's something crawling up here
it has to take the stairs.
If something's flying in here
- we'll be able to catch it flying in one of these ways. - Yeah.
All right, Jess, let's get out of here.
[Jessica] The factory building,
I think that thing was huge.
There's just so many walls that fell down.
It's all crumbled.
[Phil] We also set up multiple cameras around the perimeter of the brickyard.
You wanna put one right here so it's facing the main entrance?
[Phil] All right.
If something crosses we'll get a notification on my phone.
[Phil] We decide to cover more ground by splitting up.
Any animal out here is going to need water to drink
so I head toward the large stream at the edge of the lot.
I hear water.
[whispering] Right here it gets pretty thick forest.
So I'm gonna get out the FLIR camera.
So it'll pick up any heat signatures of anything moving in here.
[rustling]
[suspenseful music playing]
Look at this.
There's something in the tree up there.
Oh, we definitely have a hotspot right there.
Seems like it's moving.
That is not a small animal.
I lost it. I don't see it.
Whatever it picked up up here has definitely moved on.
Let me try to set up a camera trap.
I think we have a really high chance of picking up
of the wildlife coming up this tree.
[Jessica] While Phil checks out the stream,
I focus on the area around the abandoned buildings.
I'm searching for any evidence
that might help identify what creature is living here.
Whoa. It's just wires, storage, some more nests.
Let's check the back.
Oh, look at this. Come here. Come here. Come here.
[whispering] Look you can tell it got ripped out
because all the hairs on the bottom half,
like the roots still attached to it.
Could be anything. Cow, coyote, monster.
Let me take a picture of this for Phil.
[camera shutter clicks]
And then, I'll also collect a sample so we can test any DNA.
[Phil speaking]
Witnesses have described a bat-like creature
so I brought along some bat-tech that would even impress Bruce Wayne.
Bat's navigate by echolocation
which means they vocalize a high-pitched noise,
then pick up the sound waves as they bounce back
off objects in the environment.
Those sounds are beyond the range of the human ear.
But the Echo Meter Touch 2 PRO
is designed to record those bat sounds
and identify the specific species
all in real time.
[echo meter chirping]
I just got my first bat hit. It was a hoary bat.
We're getting hits on the bats but
the wingspan's probably only about this big.
The only action I'm getting here are relatively small bats.
I'm not entirely ruling out bats
but I'm also thinking there could be large raptors in this spot
like vultures, eagles or owls.
But eagles and vultures aren't nocturnal
and owls have round flat faces that don't match
the descriptions we've heard of the creature.
So far, nothing really adds up.
[Jessica] Let's see if I can zoom in a little bit more.
[gasps] I just got a hit on one of the cams.
[over radio] It's the cam by the brickyard.
-[Phil over radio] Meet you over there. -Let's go.
[dramatic music playing]
-[Phil] What you got there? -[Jessica] Check it out. Check it out.
Look at this.
Look at that. See it's dropping and it's kinda flying away?
- What the hell is that? - Look at all the bricks.
So that's that camera over there, that first building that we went to.
- [Phil] All right, let's go. - [Jessica] Let's go.
- [Phil] You see the camera? - [Jessica] That camera's right there. It looks okay.
We got cameras set up here
- in the barn, down by the river-- - [shushes]
Did you hear all that rustling?
Right over there.
[Phil] It sounds like it's on the other side of this wall.
[grunts]
[Jessica] Be careful 'cause that's all loose.
[Phil] Oh, God.
What? What? What?
-[Phil] Dead animal. Another one. -Another one?
[Phil] Maybe two. Looks like a dead fox or something.
Like something's been eating up here.
All right. I'm gonna try to get a closer look.
[grunting]
[Jessica yells] Careful. Careful! Careful!
[thuds]
[Phil] Looks like something's been eating up here.
All right. I'm gonna try to get a closer look.
-[grunting] -[Jessica] Careful. Careful! Careful!
[thuds]
- Crazy. - [Phil] Holy [bleep]!
[Jessica] While climbing over the crumbling wall,
our cameraman, Ryan, falls onto his shoulder.
[Ryan groans]
[man speaking]
- A little bit. - Let me see.
All right. I feel it. Look at that.
[Jessica] You popped your shoulder?
[Ryan groans]
Oh, [bleep].
- Oh. - Seems like it's a little dislocated right now.
You want to try to pull it back?
- [Jessica] What? - Push it back in?
- Yeah. - Have you done that for somebody before?
I've seen it done for somebody before.
Well, I've seen it done, too, on Karate Kid,
but I'm not gonna [bleep] do it to somebody.
I'll just lay down and you keep our light on.
[Phil] Lay down.
- Okay, you ready? - Yeah.
One, two, three.
[Jessica] No!
[shoulder pops]
[Ryan] There it went.
[groans]
[Phil] How's it feeling?
[Ryan] I feel better.
[grunts]
I'm good.
[Jessica] Ryan says he's okay, but he shouldn't lug around
that heavy camera rig on his shoulder.
Plus, all this commotion has likely scared off
any wildlife in the area.
It's time to call it a night.
There's definitely something preying on animals here.
We'll leave our trail cams running
so we can capture a shot of whatever it is.
According to historical records,
the brick factory is just
a stone's throw away from the old coal mine
where, back in 1903,
the townsfolk supposedly trapped
and then buried the Van Meter monster.
Now, the current landowner has given us permission
to be the first to access the mine.
If we can find it hidden under more than a century of dirt,
we're going to need some help.
- Hey, guys! - Oh, hey, Josh.
Hey, Josh. How you doing?
I'm good. Have you figured out
what's terrorizing the skies over Iowa?
Not yet, but, oh, my God.
The story of the Van Meter monster is next level.
Yeah, that 1903 encounter is
an insane story.
So what's happening there now?
Well, we did investigate the old brick factory,
and we actually found a lot of stuff.
- We found scat. - Found dead animals everywhere.
- Chunks of fur. - [Jessica] And then we ended up
setting up some trail cams.
And we actually got a hit.
It looks kind of like, I don't know,
- like a wing. - Wing-ish.
Wow. Okay, well, send it all to me.
The fur. The [bleep]. All of it.
I'll make sure it gets analyzed.
In the meantime, what's going on with that mine?
Any luck with getting in there?
[Jessica] Yes. We got permission from the owner
to come on his property and look for it.
The problem is, we don't know where it is,
and it's probably all covered up
according to the history, and who knows what's in there.
- Yeah. - [Josh] All right.
It sounds like the first challenge is just finding this place,
and then excavating old mines is no joke.
I mean, real risks of cave ins,
collapses, toxic gases, you name it.
So, I know a geologist in Des Moines.
Let me call him. Maybe he can help you pinpoint this place
and then, hopefully, help you explore it safely.
- Cool. Works for me. - Amazing.
Oh, and I've got another new lead for you as well.
I was able to track down a recent eyewitness
who had an experience in a place called Colfax, Iowa,
which is less than 40 miles from Van Meter.
Awesome. Okay. Well, I'll go talk to him.
All right. Good luck.
And don't get eaten by a flying monster.
- See you, Josh. - Bye!
[Phil] While Jess heads out to talk with our new eyewitness,
I meet up with John Jungman,
the third generation owner of the property
that housed a coal mining operation in the late 1800s.
That mine is now supposedly
the unmarked grave of the Van Meter monster.
For the first time ever,
he's allowing an excavation operation
to search for the entrance to the mine.
I would say it's in this area right here.
[Phil] Hopefully, we can find it.
There he is right now.
Josh's geologist contact is Ryan Clark.
He works with the Iowa Geological Survey
and has spent years studying the state's coal mining past.
- Thanks for coming out. - All right, thanks for having me.
[Phil] He can help us pinpoint where to dig
so we don't make Swiss cheese out of John's land.
Do you have an idea of how wide
the entrance would have been?
[Ryan Clark] Probably ten feet by ten feet.
[exhales] So that doesn't exactly narrow it down in this area.
[Ryan] Yeah, but, you know, luckily, I brought along some maps
that we can take a look at.
[Phil] What you got for us?
What we've got here is, this is a map
that shows you really high resolution
land surface elevation.
- Okay. - Your property sits right in this area here.
And these green symbols are mine locations.
[Phil] So this structure here,
that's the abandoned brick factory?
[Ryan] Yep. The hills right
kind of back behind us there.
[Phil] Ryan's maps indicate that the mine opening
is close to where we're standing,
but there's no sign of it from the surface.
So, we're going to need some heavy duty equipment to locate it.
John, are you sure
we can make a giant hole on your property?
- You're okay with this? - Let's give it a go.
- Let's give it a go! - [Ryan laughs] All right.
[Jessica] While Phil digs in,
I'm driving to the nearby town of Colfax.
- Hey, Mike. - Hey. How are you?
[Jessica] Local minister and avid bird watcher, Mike Evans,
grew up in Iowa.
He says what he saw in the sky a few weeks ago
was unlike any wildlife he's ever seen here.
I'm hoping this new sighting will give us
a clue about where the creature is now.
Tell me what happened that night.
[Mike Evans] I was driving down the road
and looked off into the distance
and I could see the top of the hill was flying.
[Jessica] What did this thing look like?
[Mike] It had a real strange, long body
with a tail and a face that looked more like a reptile.
Like more pointed in the...
Yeah, more pointed with the snout.
- Okay. - It was probably six to eight foot
and bat-like wings.
I grew up doing bird watching, hunting.
You know what to look for around here versus
what is something that is out of place.
Yes, I grew up here.
This wasn't something normal.
So what direction was it flying in?
Uh, it was flying southeast, maybe towards, like, Red Rock.
It's a river with some bluffs.
- Mmm-hmm. - There's a lot of marshy area
that something like this could hide in.
Okay, well, thank you so much
- for sharing your story with me. - Oh, yeah.
This was super informative.
[Phil] A little bit more! A little more!
Let's get digging!
[dramatic music playing]
Look who it is.
[Jessica] What are you doing?
We're digging a hole.
- Do you want to go gear up? - [Jessica] Yeah, I will.
[radio chatter] Okay hold right there.
[Phil] Hey, Ryan!
You mind taking a look at this?
[Ryan] What you got?
[Jessica] So why is this dirt
so much darker than everything else?
Is that coal mixed in?
Yeah, this looks like it could be coal.
- We found coal? - Already.
Yeah. I mean, if you think about it,
mining coal is kind of a dirty business.
And they didn't grab every single little grain and gram of it,
so there would've been coal scattered all over the place.
We got this brick layer on top,
which happened after the coal mine.
This is evidence that they're filling this in
with whatever they had laying around.
One of the pieces of evidence that we're looking for
if this is a mine shaft that's been filled in
is we don't want to see normal soil.
We want to see evidence of junk
that shouldn't naturally be there.
- [Jessica] Yeah. - So we're on to something.
Let's keep digging.
[dramatic music playing]
We're getting deep now.
[Jessica] Did you hear that scrape?
- Oh! - Oh, boy. Look at that.
[Jessica gasps] Get the cameras in!
- [Jessica gasps] Holy crap! - [Phil] Oh!
[Jessica] Look at that plank!
[Phil] Holy [bleep].
[Jessica grunts]
Look at that right angle.
[exhales] That is absolutely cut.
[Phil] The beam is intact but soft and crumbling,
meaning it has likely been
deteriorating underground for a long time.
Could have been part of the framework
that supported the mine.
[Ryan] So that timber came out of there.
[Phil] This could have been the entrance right on this side.
[Ryan] That's what it looks like to me.
And then he's been pulling up
- really big slabs. - [Jessica] Oh, yeah.
[Phil] Big slabs. Yeah.
That tells me they really didn't want
somebody going through there.
[Jessica] Or coming out.
Mmm, or coming out.
That's an awful lot of work
just to cover up a hole.
Let's keep digging.
I'll admit that what we're finding is compelling.
But I'm not seeing any evidence
of a creature buried here.
We're still getting brick down here.
[Ryan] That looks like a lot of fill.
Who knows how far we'd have to dig to get anywhere here.
[Phil] It's true. Probably not going to see much more.
Judging by the moisture in the soil
and the deterioration of the wood beams,
it's possible that after 100 plus years
any physical remains like animal bones
would have completely disintegrated,
leaving nothing but a questionable legend behind.
[Ryan] This is all still just junk fill that was dumped in here.
[Jessica] We now know that at least one part
of the Van Meter monster origin story is true.
There was an old mine shaft next to the brick factory,
and it was closed up.
As for the rest of the legend,
we've hit a historical dead end.
But there are still recent sightings to be investigated.
So we say goodbye to Ryan and John.
- [John Jungman] Thank you. - [Phil] See ya.
[Jessica] And while there's still daylight,
we head towards Lake Red Rock,
in the direction that our new witness said the creature flew.
This lake is not only the largest in all of Iowa,
it's a massive wildlife habitat.
Looking at a map,
it sits in between the recent sightings
and the town of Van Meter.
[Phil] I'm thinking my original instinct
about this case is correct.
That the eye witnesses are misidentifying flying wildlife.
Look at the size of this lake.
[Jessica] This is where we're going.
[Phil] This is where we're going
but first, we got a little stop to make, Jess.
I've been hung up on trying to figure out
who our prime suspects are around here
as far as native wildlife.
So, I got a guy.
- You got a guy? - I got a guy.
- Who's your guy? - Let's just say he's slightly obsessed with bats.
Oh. So he's a batman.
He's batman. We're going to meet Batman, Jess.
[mimicking Batman] Does he talk like this?
[laughs]
Oh, yeah. Look at that license plate.
- [Jessica] BATSRUS. - I think we found him.
Russ Benedict is a biologist
with more than 25 years of experience
exploring the prairies and woods of the Midwest.
So we're looking for the Van Meter monster,
and essentially what people were reporting
is this seven-eight foot creature
with leathery bat-like wings.
So the biggest bat that we have around here
has a wingspan of about 18 inches.
So, small, but yet play a huge role in the eco-systems.
[Phil] I'd love to see one up close, is that possible?
We have 40 to 60 bats up in the roof up above us.
- Right up here? - [Russ] They're there now.
They're hidden within the spaces up above us.
So what we're gonna do is we'll string up a couple of what are called 'mist nets',
and once it gets dark, they'll start flying around 'em
and we'll see if we can catch some.
[Phil] We set up these soft nylon nets in front of the window.
We don't have long to wait until dusk
when the bats wake up and start flying in search of their bug breakfast.
[Jessica] I got one.
[Phil] They're all over the place up there.
Bats. [imitates whooshing]
[Jessica] There's one there! There's one!
[Phil] Oh.
- [Russ] Look at how pretty she is. - [Phil] Beautiful.
Look at that fur.
[Russ] That's a big, brown bat,
the second biggest bat in Iowa.
[Jessica] I don't see how anyone could confuse this with a flying monster.
The wingspan is impressive, but that body is so tiny.
-[Russ] Right, right. -[Jessica] So tiny. Oh, my gosh.
So when you light her up...
That shadow is huge. Wow!
The shadow of the bat cast against the wall of the barn
makes me think that maybe back in 1903,
this is what people saw.
[Jessica] That looks like it could
potentially be a seven-foot creature with bat wings.
During that time, they had just
brought electricity and streetlamps into the town.
- Okay. - So, potentially,
they weren't used to seeing shadows that strong.
[Jessica] It would also explain why the bullets the townspeople fired...
- [gunshot] - ...had no effect on the monster.
They were firing at a shadow.
[Phil] But I don't think witnesses today would be confused by a bat shadow.
I think they're seeing a bigger winged animal, a large species of bird.
Well, I'll tell you what, I think we can,
thanks to you, cross bats off the suspect list.
- [Jessica] Yeah. - Excellent.
[Jessica] Now that it's night, we continue on our mission
to check out Lake Red Rock.
It seems like a perfect home for a giant flying monster
with plenty of water, shelter and prey.
- [Phil] Goin' in. - [Jessica] All right.
Woohoo!
[Phil] This lake is a massive habitat.
Several large predatory birds nest here,
like eagles, herons, and even cranes that migrate through the area.
Do you see how close the forest gets to the rock formations here?
[Jessica] Yeah.
[Phil] So that's the type of place where
the bird that feeds on the lake by day
would roost at night.
I think we need to get up there, Jess.
- Okay, grab the gear. - Thank you.
Now everybody has to be real careful on this edge.
[Jessica] Oh, whoa, you're not kidding.
[Russ] Oh, no.
[Jessica] Oh, check this out.
- Jaw bone. - [Phil] Ooh.
Teeth are flat, like an herbivore.
Maybe a deer.
Oh, [bleep], another one right here.
So a lot of birds of prey will have an area that they take their food to
and then eat it perched up high,
so that they can keep an eye on anything else coming to steal their food.
[Jessica] Their feeding grounds.
Is that another bone?
[Phil] This is a graveyard out here.
This is the most bones I think I've ever found
in a single place on the planet.
Another skull.
So we've got beaver, deer, fox.
It would have to be a big bird
to be able to carry something the size of these
all the way up here to feed.
Why don't you take the Foxpro,
see what you can blast out
and then I'll go take the FLIR
over in that area and I'll scan to see what you might bring in?
- Okay. - [Jessica] Cool?
[Phil] You got it.
While Jess searches the tree line along the cliff,
I'm going to try drawing out whatever
may have been snacking on parts of some big animals.
The Foxpro mimics the mating calls of wildlife.
Let's just hope whatever the Van Meter Monster really is,
it's feeling a little frisky tonight.
[whispering] Got some of the birds loaded up on here
All right, Jess, I'm about to call out the great blue heron.
Great blue herons are huge birds,
up to four and a half feet tall,
with wingspans up to six and a half feet.
They eat fish and sometimes small mammals as well.
Ready?
Yeah, I'm ready, I think we're in a good spot.
All right, standby.
[great blue heron call playing]
[Jessica] I'm not getting anything.
You wanna try again?
All right, Jess, next up is turkey vulture.
[turkey vulture call playing]
[Jessica gasps]
It's going this way.
[Phil on walkie-talkie] Jess, you hear that?
- [Jessica] Yeah, I hear that. - [Phil] Can you pick it up on your flashlight?
[Jessica] I'm looking but it's flying by.
Whatever flew by, 'cause that thing scared the crap out of me.
- At night, if you wanna... [gasps] - [wings flapping]
You may have noticed the descriptions
of the Van Meter Monster are eerily similar
to a pre-historic pterodactyl.
But since they went extinct about 66 million years ago,
they probably aren't making a comeback.
Or are they?
Present day birds are living descendants of dinosaurs.
And some scientists believe it may be possible
to manipulate poultry DNA
to turn back the evolutionary clock.
Inside an egg, an unborn chick
could theoretically be engineered to
grow teeth a long tail and a pre-historic beak.
Such a creature could give us a greater understanding
of evolution.
Or it might break out of its cage and kill us all.
So even if the Van Meter Monster turns out to be a legend,
keep your eye on the skies for chickenasaurus.
That thing scared the crap out of me.
- At night, if you wanna... [gasps] - [wings flapping]
[Phil on walkie-talkie] Jess, you okay?
[Jessica] Something's flapping around over here.
[bleep]
I definitely had something going berserk over on this side.
Was it big?
[Jessica] Can't tell what it was.
Hey, I'm gonna climb a little further into the woods
just to see if I can scare out whatever it was that was freaking out in the bushes.
Why don't you hit that call one more time?
All right, let me know what you find.
I'm gonna call out some other birds.
[Jessica] Gotcha.
Next up is sandhill crane.
Sandhill cranes are big,
with wingspans of over seven feet.
[sandhill crane call playing]
[Phil] Jess, you getting anything on the FLIR?
Nothing.
Look at this.
I just found something.
[Phil] Okay, on my way.
[Jessica] Check this out.
- [Phil] What? - [Jessica] Right here.
That's...
That's gotta be turkey vulture. That is huge.
- [Jessica] Okay, um... - [Phil] Huge animal.
[Jessica] Yeah, look at this.
[Phil] Another bone.
[Jessica] So they just come here with their takeout
and then take off.
[Phil] Turkey vultures don't usually fly at night.
So even a witness who is familiar with the bird
might misidentify one in the dark
if they stumble across it and startle it into flight.
So when you think of witnesses in modern times seeing things,
I just can't help but think of birds.
When it's this quiet and still out,
and something flies by, I mean,
if you're not expecting it, you jump.
And brains will see things as bigger
when you're terrified.
[Josh] It's hard to put too much stock
in the original news report of the Van Meter Monster.
A flying, screeching beast
that's allegedly impervious to bullets,
living in a local coal mine.
It's a wild tale that just doesn't really seem to fly.
Phil and Jess did dig up what could be
a terrified town's attempt
to eradicate something threatening.
This could have been the entrance right on this side.
[man] That's what it looks like to me.
[Josh] As for the modern-day sightings of this flying horror,
the cameras my team left running in the old brick factory
captured several more images of what look like wings.
- We got tons of scat up here. - [camera clicks]
[Josh] The droppings Phil found there
were identified as raccoon.
The hair that Jess collected, domestic cattle.
So what animal is the most likely culprit
when it comes to the Van Meter Monster?
While the largest bat in Iowa only has an 18-inch wingspan,
its eerie shadow stretching across a wall
could definitely bring a monster to mind.
[Jessica] That looks like it could potentially be
a seven-foot creature with bat wings.
[Josh] Five-foot-tall sandhill cranes
were once rare in Iowa,
but their numbers have increased in recent years,
right along with new sightings of the Van Meter Monster.
Turkey vultures are big, black, have featherless faces,
a six-foot wingspan,
and they'll scavenge carcasses as big as a deer.
Put it all together on a dark, quiet night,
add a dash of imagination and a pinch of panic,
and the result could seem monstrous.
For more information on Expedition X,
head to... [reading]