The Creature: Half Human, Half Beast With Great Bat-Like Wings

 

Van Meter, Iowa, USA 1903

I was flitting through the channels on my television the other night and came across a programme that was describing a monster seen in Van Meter, Iowa in the early 1900s. I'd missed most of the details so I did a bit of research this morning. 

I found a report in The Evening News of October 12, 1903 titled Half Human, Half Beast, With Great Bat-Like Wings. 

Here's the report - I always like the way they worded newspapers back then. 

The town of Van Meter, conta1ning, 1000 persons is terribly wrought up by what is described as a horrible monster. Every man, woman and child in the town is in a state of terror, and fully half of them fail to close their eyes in slumber except in broad daylight. 

Friday night while the population was keeping the dreadful vigil every electric light in the city was kept burning to satisfy the most timid. 

The monster put in its appearance Monday night. U.S Griffith, an implement dealer, drove into town at 1 a.m. and saw what seemed to be an electric searchlight on Maher & Grigg's store. While he gazed it sailed across to another building and then disappeared. 

His story was not believed the next day. But the following night Dr. A.C Olcott, who sleeps in his office on the principal street, was awakened by a bright light shining in his face. 

He grabbed a shotgun and ran outside the building where he saw a monster, seemingly half human and half beast, with great bat-like wings. A dazzling light that fairly blinded him came from a blunt, horn-like protuberance in the middle of the animal's forehead and it gave off a stupefying odour that almost overcome him. 

The doctor discharged his weapon and fled into his office, barring doors and windows, and remained there in abject terror until next morning. 

Peter Dunn, cashier in the only bank in town, fearing bank robbers, loaded a repeating shotgun with shells filled with buckshot, and prepared to guard his funds next night. At 2p.m he was blinded by the presence of a light of great intensity. 

Eventually he recovered his senses sufficiently to distinguish the monster and fired through the window. The plate glass and sash were torn out and the monster disappeared. Next morning imprints of great three-toes feet were discernible in the soft earth. 

That night Dr. O.V White saw the monster climbing down a telephone pole, using a beak much in the manner of a parrot. As it struck the ground it seemed to travel in leaps, like a kangaroo, using it's huge featherless wings to assist. It gave off no light. He fired at it and he believed he wounded it. The shot was followed by an overpowering odour. Sidney Gregg attracted by the shot, saw the monster fly away. 

But the climax came Friday night. The whole town was aroused by this time. Professor Martin, principal of the schools, decided that from the description it was an antedeluvian animal. 

Shortly after midnight J.L Platt, foreman of the brick plant, heard a peculiar sound in an abandoned coal mine, and as the men had reported a similar sound before, a body of volunteers started an investigation. Presently the monster emerged from the shaft, accompanied by a smaller one. A score of shots were fired without effect. 

The whole town was aroused and a vigil maintained the rest of the night, but without result until just at dawn, when the two monsters returned and disappeared down the shaft. 

A watch was kept again last night, but without result. The town geniuses are devising various plans to capture the monsters. 

Note: The coal mine is no longer in existence.

Half Human, Half Beast With Great Bat-Like Wings

Van Meter, Iowa, USA 1903

I was flitting through the satellite channels on my television last night and came across a programme that was describing a monster seen in Van Meter, Iowa in the early 1900s. I'd missed most of the details so I did a bit of research this morning. I found a report in The Evening News of October 12, 1903 titled Half Human, Half Beast, With Great Bat-Like Wings.

Here's the report - I always like the way they worded newspapers back then.

The town of Van Meter, containing 1,000 persons is terribly wrought up by what is described as a horrible monster. Every man, woman and child in the town is in a state of terror, and fully half of them fail to close their eyes in slumber except in broad daylight.

Friday night while the population was keeping the dreadful vigil every electric light in the city was kept burning to satisfy the most timid.

The monster put in its appearance Monday night. U.S Griffith, an implement dealer, drove into town at 1 a.m and saw what seemed to be an electric searchlight on Maher & Grigg's store. While he gazed it sailed across to another building and then disappeared.

His story was no believed next day. But the following night Dr. A.C Olcott, who sleeps in his office on the principal street, was awakened by a bright light shining in his face.

He grabbed a shotgun and ran outside the building where he saw a monster, seemingly half human and half beast, with great bat-like wings. A dazzling light that fairly blinded him came from a blunt, horn-like protuberance in the middle of the animal's forehead and it gave off a stupifying odour that almost overcome him.

The doctor discharged his weapon and fled into his office, barring doors and windows, and remained there in abject terror until next morning.

Peter Dunn, cashier in the only bank in town, fearing bank robbers, loaded a repeating shotgun with shells filled with buckshot, and prepared to guard his funds next night. At 2p.m he was blinded by the presense of a light of great intensity.

Eventually he recovered his senses sufficiently to distinguish the monster and fired through the window. The plate glass and sash were torn out and the monster disappeared. Next morning imprints of great three-toes feet were discernible in the soft earth.

That night Dr. O.V White saw the monster climbing down a telephone pole, using a beak much in the manner of a parrot. As it struck the ground it seemed to travel in leaps, like a kngaroo, using it's huge featherless wings to assist. It gave off no light. He fired at it and he believed he wounded it. The shot was followed by an overpowering odour. Sidney Gregg attracted by the shot, saw the monster fly away.

But the climax came Friday night. The whole town was aroused by this time. Professor Martin, principal of the schools, decided that from the description it was an antedeluvian animal.

Shortly after midnight J.L Platt, foreman of the brick plant, heard a peculiar sound in an abandoned coal mine, and as the men had reported a similar sound before, a body of volunteers started an investigation. Presently the monster emerged from the shaft, accompanied by a smaller one. A score of shots were fired without effect.

The whole town was aroused and a vigil maintained the rest of the night, but withot result until just at dawn, when the two monsters returned and disappeared down the shaft.

A watch was kept again last night, but without result. The town geniuses are devising various plans to capture the monsters.

The coal mine is no longer in existence.

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The Mocking Lake Or Pohenegamook Monster

Rev Planter's sketch of the monster her saw.

The Rev. Leopold Planter is a man who claims to have seen a monster at Lake Pohenegamook in Canada. The Lake is also known as Mocking Lake - hopefully this name isn't significant!

Rev Planter was standing near his church when he saw this big thing about 25 to 30 feet long, He feels that the monster, "... needs to come out of the water to get oxygen - just like marine monsters."

Planter said of his sighting, "I was fishing and I saw it long enough to throw my line in the water. After that people were afraid to go on the lake."

He added that he couldn't see the monster's head as it was too far away, but he has drawn a picture of how he thought the monster looks (at top of post).

He says, "It wasn't a fish. You can't see it like a crocodile. A fish never floated that way. In 1960 a man here was having his car repaired at a garage. He saw the beast resting on shore. The thing left fast like a boat with a motor. About 100 people around here have seen it."

Louis Fournier and his wife Lucie also say they have seen the monster. They described it as being black and on top of the water, about 85 feet long and it was 50 feet from the shore.

According to Lucie, "He had three humps, like upside down boats. It's not a legend, It's a reality and isn't a fish."

She continued, "It was terrible. My hair was standing up on my head, as if I had nails on my head. It made my head hurt."

Mr. Fournier continued the story, "It turned round as if it was running after fish - five times, each time it took 250 to 300 feet to circle around. It's tail splashed water 35 feet up in the air. Then it dived."

The once mayor of Estcourt, Gaston Painchaud, saw the monster way back in 1957. He said it was dark, gray and was about 40 feet long. He said at the time, "It dived out of sight and brought waves to shore five inches high. There were two humps. It could have come from the ocean through the St John River. It was too big for a sea sturgeon and not the same shape."

Another sighting back in 1976 was by Marcel and Danielle Denis while in a boat on the lake. They were 50 feet from shore when they saw 'a big fish' 20 to 25 feet from their boat. They supposedly stared at the creature for about five minutes as it dived in and out of the water five or six times. In their description they said, "We saw its back, no head. It was a silky smooth gray."

Marcel Denis said that there is a legend that a priest in St Eleuthere kept small sturgeons in a cage in the 1950s. One night they were supposed to have gotten away in a storm. One of these become the monster.

In Peter Costello's book, In Search of Lake Monsters, he writes Reports of a Monster in Mocking Lake have been seriously investigated by a scientist. There had been occasional sightings over many years. In 1958, the Director of the Quebec Department of Game and Fisheries, Dr. Vadim Vladikov, went out to the lake to make a private investigation.

"I have questioned a great many people in Saint Eleuthre (the local village) and they all tell me the same thing- an animal 12 to 18 feet long, brown or black in colour, with a round back two or three feet wide and a sawtooth fin down the centre. Any time anyone approaches close, the animal slithers away and sinks below the lake’s surface."

As with other lake monsters who knows the truth for sure. but you'd think by now someone glued to their phone or iPad would have got a decent photo ir video.

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Issie The Monster In Lake Ikeda Japan

Issie at Lake Ikeda, Japan

I would think that Nessie the Loch Ness Monster is the best known of all monsters. But I've recently been hearing about Issie.

Issie or Issie-kun is Japan's monster and has supposedly been spotted in Lake Ikeda. He came to prominence in 1978 when Toshiaki Matsubara managed to take a photo of the creature (see below). He is quoted as saying, "Something huge came up from the water and disappeared again in fifteen to twenty seconds. I only managed one shot."

The legend behind the story is that: Once upon a time ...

... there was a beautiful white mare who lived happily by Lake Ikeda along with her foal. One day a Samurai lord came by and took the foal away. Needless to say Issie, for that was the white mare's name, was distraught when she was unable to find her foal. She jumped into the lake, occasionally surfacing again as she searched for her foal. Some say that, in time, her despair turned her into a giant saurian beast and it is this that people still sometimes see today.

The story and sighting of Issie by Mr Matsubara started a whole, local tourist industry. There's even a pop song!

Male hump and female hump

Shining in the sun are

Calling each other

In the romantic lake

I want to see Issie again

And also to let you see ...

Going back to Matsabara's sighting he described Issie as having, "Two big humps each 15 feet long, and a couple of feet high, were swimming for about two minutes."

A local builder Yutaka Kawaji also saw Issie: "There was 15 feet between each hump and the skin was very dark," He reckons he's seen the monster three times, the first being nearly sixty years ago when still at school.

As for the sole photo of Issie, here it is, Toshiaki Matsubara's original 1978 photo.

More Monsters:
The Anagram That Failed To Kill Off The Loch Ness Monster
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The Cornish Mystery Of Morgawr Monster Of The Seas

The Monster Of The Lake Surfaces

Look out Loch Ness and other such monsters there's a new boy in town. This one is called the Bowness Monster, or those a little more familiar call him - or perhaps her - Winnie.

The Bowness Monster - yes, that's Winnie in the photo above - was recently spotted in Lake Windermere in England's Lake District by Tom Pickles and his companion Sarah Harrington. They were kayaking on the lake and up popped the monster. Luckily they had their trusty camera phone to secure the occasion for the world.

Tom said, "I thought it was a dog. Then I realised it was much bigger and moving really quickly. Each hump was moving in a rippling motion and was swimming fast. I could tell it was bigger underneath from the huge shadow around it.

It's skin was like a seal's but it's shape was abnormal - it's not like any animal I've ever seen before, We saw it for about 20 seconds. It was petrifying."

But this isn't the first time the monster has been spotted, there he is again back in 2007 in the picture below.


Linden Adams said, "It just came out of the blue, The water was incredibly peaceful and then this huge thing appeared, diving and thrashing around. It appeared to be 50ft long. I snatched the binoculars from my wife and gasped when I got a better look. I could see this huge dark thing moving in the water. It had a head like a labrador, only much, much bigger."

But then I came across another sighting of the Lake Windermere monster from the 18th of September 2006 as per the YouTube video below. This time it was spotted by a University Professor.

I like to think that there are monsters in the depths of lakes hidden away for thousand of years. I just wish we could get a good clear photo. Of course, as I have written before, there is a monster near where I live in Cornwall - see The Cornish Mystery Of Morgawr Monster Of The Sea. Ours is a bit special though, as he roams the seas off the coast. Not for him the confines of a lake.