STATE FILE · IA
Cryptids of Iowa
What cryptids are in Iowa? The best-known are Van Meter Visitor, Okoboji Lake Monster and Bigfoot.
Iowa’s farm country seems an unlikely home for monsters, but its small towns have produced some of the Midwest’s strangest tales. The most famous happened in Van Meter, west of Des Moines, in the autumn of 1903, when several residents – including a doctor and a bank cashier – reported a huge winged creature with a glowing horn on its head, which they said they tracked to an old mine. The Van Meter Visitor faded from memory for decades before being revived by researchers and authors; today the town hosts an annual Van Meter Visitor Festival with monster walking tours.
Cryptids reported in Iowa
FLYING · 1903
Van Meter Visitor
Van Meter, Iowa
A winged creature with a glowing horn said to have terrorized the small town of Van Meter, Iowa, for several nights in the autumn of 1903.
LOCAL LEGEND
LAKE & SEA MONSTER · 1903
Okoboji Lake Monster
Okoboji Lakes, Iowa Great Lakes, Dickinson County, Iowa
Nicknamed Obojoki, a giant serpent or fish said to churn the waters of the Okoboji Lakes in northwest Iowa’s resort country since 1903.
LOCAL LEGEND
HOMINID · 1958
Bigfoot
Pacific Northwest forests, reported across North America
North America’s most famous cryptid: a huge, hairy, upright ape-like being reported from the Pacific Northwest to Florida since the 1958 “Bigfoot” tracks.
WIDELY REPORTEDThe legends of Iowa
In northwest Iowa’s resort country, West and East Okoboji lakes have their own lake monster, said to have been reported since the early 1900s and nicknamed “Obojoki.” Bigfoot sightings come mainly from the wooded river bluffs of the northeast’s Driftless Area and from the Loess Hills along the Missouri River – wind-blown ridges that are rare outside China. Iowa writers and researchers have also collected numerous tales of phantom cats and mystery panthers.
Skeptics point out that the Van Meter reports appeared in local papers during an era fond of humorous hoaxes, and that lake-monster stories are often boosted by resort towns; large fish, otters and waves explain many sightings. Still, Van Meter’s festival is one of the friendliest cryptid events in the region.
Hotspots
The small town where a glowing-horned winged creature was reported in 1903, now celebrated with an annual festival.
Resort lakes in Dickinson County where a lake monster nicknamed Obojoki is said to swim.
Rare wind-built ridges along the Missouri River, cited in western Iowa Bigfoot reports.
Wooded bluffs in the northeast Driftless Area where hikers report strange howls and tracks.
Sightings timeline
- July 3, 1903“Is It a Sea Serpent?” Okoboji Lake Monster
The Estherville Vindicator and Republican reported that Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bartlett, fishing a few days earlier, saw a huge, fast-moving disturbance near the surface. The waves it raised alarmed them, but they could not say what caused it.
- Late September 1903A light over the rooftops Van Meter Visitor
Toolmaker U.G. Griffith reported a strange light moving over the business district at night. Townspeople reportedly did not believe him when he told the story the next day.
- Late September 1903The doctor’s encounter Van Meter Visitor
Dr. A.C. Alcott said a bright light woke him, and that he saw a winged creature with a glowing horn. He fired at it and fled into his office until morning.
- October 4, 1903The story hits the newspapers Van Meter Visitor
The Des Moines Daily News published the first account, naming several townspeople and describing how armed men drove the creature away from an abandoned mine. Other papers soon repeated the story.
- October 6, 1903Residents call it a hoax Van Meter Visitor
The Des Moines Daily Capitol printed a letter and commentary from Van Meter residents disputing the tale, one of whom suggested the newspaper had invented it.
- 1919The last Okoboji paddlefish Okoboji Lake Monster
A 210-pound, roughly six-and-a-half-foot paddlefish – the largest fish ever recorded from the Okoboji Lakes – was caught. It was the last of the species taken there, after a dam cut off the fish’s route from the Missouri River.
- 2013The legend is revived Van Meter Visitor
Chad Lewis, Noah Voss and Kevin Lee Nelson published The Van Meter Visitor. Their talks in town grew into the annual Van Meter Visitor Festival.
Latest from Iowa
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Videos
ARCHIVE.ORG3:07
Patterson–Gimlin film (unedited)
Roger Patterson and Bob GimlinThe original 1967 Bluff Creek footage – the most famous and most debated minute in Bigfoot history. Marked public domain on archive.org.
ARCHIVE.ORG4:59
The Film That Made Bigfoot A Star
Oregon Public BroadcastingOPB’s short documentary on how the Patterson–Gimlin film turned a regional legend into a global icon – and the hoax claims around it.
▶ VIDEO
Sts’ailes Sasquatch Days in Harrison Hot Springs
Tourism Harrison River ValleyShows the festival celebrating the Sts’ailes people’s Sásq’ets, the being behind the word “Sasquatch” (no archive.org equivalent).