Bigfoot Society - Van Meter Visitor Festival Origins and Uncovering the History of Van Meter, Iowa | Festival Planning Committee Member | Rachel Backstrom

Episode Date: September 21, 2022

Rachel Backstrom moved to Van Meter in 1978 when her parents first bought a house there. Rachel was a trustee on the Van Meter Public Library board when Chad Lewis, Kevin Lee Nelson and Noah Voss researched and released their book on the Van Meter Visitor. Rachel is an original member of the Van Meter Visitor Festival planning committee.Join the only Facebook group for Van Meter Visitor fans - “Van Meter Visitor Believers” - See you there! https://www.facebook.com/groups/vanmetervisitorbelievers/?ref=shareFOR MORE INFO ON THE VAN METER VISITOR FESTIVAL:https://www.facebook.com/vanmetervisitorfestival/_____________________________Join us over on Patreon! Get access to a whole library of extended shows, exclusive merch like a membership card and stickers, watch me interview guests weekly live on video, a Patron-only Discord and more. https://www.patreon.com/thebigfootsocietyPick up a Bigfoot Society shirt to rep the podcast!https://www.etsy.com/shop/BigfootSocietyTune in for new episodes of Bigfoot Society!https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8Qq45W6iaTU8FE9kelxT7QIG: https://www.instagram.com/bigfootsociety/Full links: https://bit.ly/bigfootlinks

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They looked up and in this tree there was a monkey man. And the monkey man jumped down out of the tree and started running away. And suddenly they're right in front of the car. He slams on the brakes and manages to stop and he skidding because it's not quite, you know, and graveling. And literally for about a second and a half, they just stood there because they don't know where to go and you tell them to panic. and you tell them panicking, their face is like switching. Welcome back to Bigfoot Society.

This is your host, Jeremiah Byron. Every week I talk to different people in the cryptozoology field. You never know who's going to be on next week. If you'd like to sponsor the show, head on over to patreon.com forward slash the Bigfoot Society. Less than a week away from Van Meter Visitor Festival 2022, and I've got another VMV-themed episode for you. This time I get to talk to. with Rachel Baxter, original member of the Van Meter Visitor Festival Planning Committee,

tons of great background information, and info about the town that I had not heard before. History-wise, you're really going to love this episode if you enjoy the Van Meter Visitor, and let's face it, if you didn't, you wouldn't be here. So, thanks for listening, and enjoy this interview. All right, Bigfoot Society. I have the privilege of talking to Rachel Baxter today, and I'm going to have Rachel introduce herself. Go ahead, Rachel. Okay, great.

Well, thank you so much, Jeremiah, for inviting me on your podcast. My name is Rachel Baxter. I am a resident of Van Meter, Iowa, and I am one of the original planning committee members for the upcoming Van Meter Visitor Festival. Fantastic. Fantastic. Thanks so much for coming on, Rachel. This, well, I guess I have talked to Portia a while back, but I want to say you're one of the first

interviews I'm able to do with, you know, resident of Van Meter. So this is pretty special. A lot of listeners of the podcast are very interesting. about this particular cryptid. So let's just let's start into it, Rachel. Do you have any thoughts about what do you think personally the visitor is? So I have kind of two thoughts or theories on that. I'm a skeptic, generally speaking.

So I don't know that I. put a lot of stock in the theories about intermentional beings and things like that. Not that I'm completely close-minded to those things, but they do seem a little far-fetched to me. I think that it may have been a creature that is perhaps found in nature, but was maybe a genetic mutant of a creature. So, for instance, if you look up the average height of a male human, it's like 5'10. So I'm thinking there's been a lot of talk about maybe it was a turkey vulture. And typically, you know, like the biggest turkey vulture is probably only like four feet tall.

but is it possible that it was some kind of genetic mutant and so maybe it was six or seven feet tall and then of course when people are confronted with something that they've never seen before the fear kicks in the adrenaline kicks in and i think that may cause people to maybe embellish in their minds what they have actually seen when your senses are that heightened. I think you have a tendency to maybe not process things that you see exactly as they are. So I think that's maybe where you get some of these, oh, no, it was seven or eight feet tall. you know, it becomes bigger in your mind than perhaps it really was, if that makes sense. Oh, yeah, very interesting.

I mean, I definitely agree with, you know, whenever something happens to you, it's pretty easy to take the root of, well, the fish was, you know, 10 feet long. Instead, maybe it was only like two feet long, you know, that kind of thing. But the thing I love about the, you know, going to Van Meter is every year when we have the festival, it seems like you always hear some new theory, you know. Do you have a favorite theory that you've heard from over the years that the festival has been going on? Well, I think the intermensional being theory is definitely interesting. Obviously, that opens up a whole. whole lot of doors to a whole lot of paranormal avenues because if one such creature has managed to

cross over there's possibilities for all sorts of crossovers right that's a good point yeah we could oh man yeah van meter could be the gateway to something something we don't want to mess with it could be a stranger things at iowa or something like that yeah maybe have our own hell mouth Oh, yeah, totally. Oh, man, I haven't thought about it. That's a cool theory right there. I mean, you know, personally, I've heard, let's see, I want to say maybe even last year someone brought up, well, maybe it was an escape creature from a circus train that came through town. And I always think that's kind of an interesting one. Yeah, I haven't heard that one before, but yeah, that's interesting too. there's even one that was going around on Reddit I had read where some person was trying to say that well it's a it's a person it's a thing that has a a light shining from something on its head so maybe it was just a minor that had gotten into town and he was like climbing up one of the the poles and

shining a light and it's kind of like that's I don't know man That's kind of maybe a far reach, but, you know, A for effort on it. But what, you know, the other interesting part of the story is, you know, the climax of the story is, you know, it all goes out to the vine, the mine, rather, and you've got the visitor and the smaller visitor and the posse goes out there to try to take care of them. But then, you know, they disappear. Do you have any theories as what to happen to the visitor after the mine incident? Well, honestly, I think if it went into the mine and then the mine got blown shut, I feel like they probably got trapped down there and probably died. You know, I don't know that the tunnel system under there.

know how extensive it was back in the day, but I feel like they probably couldn't have gotten too far. And then, of course, over the years, even if they had survived for a while, been able to find food source and water source and whatnot, at some point, all of those tunnels flooded. So, yeah, I think if it got trapped in there, eventually one way or the other, it's probably deceased. There's always a chance that, you know, maybe that creature, if it spent enough time under there, maybe it had secondary entrances and exits. So I suppose it could have gotten out. but I feel like it probably got trapped under there. So that is, that's news to me because I, you know, I haven't dug super deep into the history of the town yet.

So about what time period, was there a big flood that went through Van Meter then and flooded out the mines? No, but I think just groundwater and stuff from rains and whatnot over the years. As you know, there was a show that came out and filmed here last summer. Expedition X, yep. Yes. And Chad Lewis and I did some filming for that episode. I got cut out, though, so apparently I wasn't very good. That kills me, Rachel.

Oh, my goodness. I know. I'm going to be, I'm not going to go off on it, but I'm like, Dude, they cut your part. You had a part in that episode? I did. I filmed a whole scene for them at the Van Meter Public Library. Plus, I also did just an audio-only scene, like a voiceover scene.

And neither made it into the episode. The best part was that they didn't tell me that I didn't make it in the episode. So, of course, I told lots of people to watch. Oh, no. Yeah. So I'm not telling anybody I'm on. on this podcast until after you edit it, just in case you edit me out.

Yeah, that's funny. You're not, don't worry, don't worry, I'm not gonna pull an expedition X on you. Oh man, that's frustrating. Because I know that like Chad's part, and I talked to him recently, he said it was like, they talked to him for hours and it got cut down to like half a minute or something.

It was something like that, but hey, TV is TV, you know, but. Yes, but getting back to your question about the flooding of the mine, the reason I brought that episode up is they were allowed to dig out on the property where the old mine shafts run through. And when they were digging, and they didn't dig very far. Unfortunately, the day they planned to do it, it rained. and so it wasn't as safe for them to be digging in those conditions. So they didn't dig as far as we hoped that they would. But yeah, when they were digging, they just ran into water.

So that's why I think that most of the stuff down there is probably flooded at this point. Yeah, that makes sense. Yeah, you know, at the end of the day, you know, maybe some people don't agree. with the verdict that they came out with from that episode. But at the end of the day, it's shining a light on the town of Van Meter and hopefully helping out the economy as more people try to check it out, you know, stuff like that. But it's entertainment.

But Chad has a question. And I don't know if you saw it. So I have the Facebook group. I started Van Meter Visitor Believers. So if you're into this, look it up on Facebook. I'll have the link in the show notes. Join it. We talk about the visitor all the time.

But I ask for questions. And one of the questions was Chad Lewis asked, what do the townsfolk think about the legend? Which is a very interesting question. Well, there are different reactions. I think first it's good to note that when Chad, Kevin Lee Nelson, and Noah Voss came out to research the legend and write their book. It wasn't a really wide-known legend in the Van Meter area, so I would say the majority of citizens didn't even know about it.

I've lived in Van Meter since 1978, so I went to school here, graduated from Van Meter. And when I was growing up, kids being kids would go out to the brick ruins to drink, of course. Okay. And so you would hear stories about strange noises out there, people just kind of feeling an eerie feeling. And once in a while, someone would claim to see, you know, a brick would go flying, but there was nobody. there to throw it type of thing. Wow. But as far as a specific monster or creature, like the visitor, most people had never heard about it.

So when they researched it and, you know, found all those articles from 1903 newspapers. And it was mentioned in Van Meter's centennial handbook. There was a little blurb of a story. So a few people knew about it, but it never really became a widespread story. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP.

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Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. It said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to heightened taste? Hmm, that sound seems to show.

Everything happens for a recess. So a lot of people, I think, are of the mindset, especially if they're of families who have been here for a long time. If this happened, why didn't we ever hear about it? So you've got that group of people. You've got people who have been out to that area and said, yeah, I felt, you know, something spooky out there. Every once in a while somebody, I think Chad mentioned this story when he was on a couple weeks ago that, you know, there was a man that had moved here was out walking his dog in that area and he saw something flying in the sky.

So you've got people who are like, yeah, I think that could have happened because I've had some kind of experience out there. And then you've got the people who just are enjoying and having fun with the legend, whether they fully buy into it or not. They're cool with having, you know, something like that for the town. And it's interesting and it's fun. So that is very interesting. You know, and I'm sure that that probably happens in most towns that have, you know, crypted related to their history where you have those three different factions. But so I find that that so there's a group that likes to have fun with it.

And it's cool with it. Have any examples of ways that, you know, the town is able to have fun or, you know, enjoy that legend that have come up over the years? Well, obviously the festival, right? That's the biggest one. and then I think, you know, when it gets around this time of year and Halloween, people like to bring it up and talk about it. But yeah, the festival is the main thing. Most people in the community have embraced the festival.

You always have that group of people who just completely thinks it's nonsense and, you know, why would they ever go to something like that? But for the most part, yeah, people think it's cool that we have this festival. They think that it's nice that Van Meter is getting some recognition. Of course, if you're a sports fan, you probably already know about Van Meter if you ever heard of Bob Feller. Right, yeah, baseball history, right? Yeah, so we have a little bit of a celebrity there already. So we're known for that as well. But this is just kind of a neat folklore story, legend, whatever you'd like to call it.

And it is nice to have something like that associated with us. And I think I fall in the camp of, I just think it's a good story. I like a good story, whether it's a book or a movie or a play or whatever it is. and this is a good story with kind of an open ending, so you get to use your imagination and kind of fill in the blink for yourself. Yeah, no, that's awesome. Definitely. So one thing I found out when I talked to Chad last time was that Kevin had come up with the term, The Visitor, which that really made me think of a lot of things differently. Did the town refer to the creature?

How did the town refer to the creature then if Kevin was the one that came up with the term VAM meter visitor? Well, again, most people hadn't heard of it. So they weren't referring to it at all, to be quite honest. I believe in the centennial book, it was just called a flying creature. They didn't really name it. but yes i thought that was a very good story for chad to share as well i don't believe that i knew that it was kevin that coined it either or if i did i forgot it so when he told that i was like oh of course because kevin's a pretty brilliant guy and so it doesn't surprise me that he came up with

the name because no it's not surprising at all i mean and he's the guy that made the the original sketch drawing of the visitor, I believe, which now you have as like a big standout. I want to say it's still usually up at the festival. Yes, it's in my basement right now. That's awesome. That's so cool. Are you the guardian of all the cool festival stuff then? I am.

Okay. That's awesome. You're not holding on to the footprint, are you? I have the footprint. You have the footprint? Not the original, of course, if only, but I have the reproduction footprint, yes. Mm-hmm. I wish I had the original.

Yeah, do you think that's, I always ask people if they think it's around. I mean, I already know the answer, but. I think it's been too long. I mean, I don't know what materials they were making casts with back then, but you would assume plaster or something similar. And I'm just not sure that plaster could hold up 120 years later. No, not if it hasn't been preserved or something. Yeah, if it's just was sitting in someone's attic, it's probably dust now.

But you can always hope that you go to some garage sale and van meter and maybe someone will have it one day. Yes. You can always hope for that. Isn't there a thing where the newspaper that was in circulation at that time, no one can find copies of it? Is that an actual, did that a thing? Yes. So we know that there was a newspaper in Van Meter at the time that the visitor was cited. and Jolina Welker, who was the library director when the authors were here researching the book, of course, tried to find traces of it too.

I know the authors tried to find it. I believe they contacted the Iowa Historical Society. So far, no one's come up with a copy of that paper. Wow. Can you imagine, though, like if that was found one day, what's the, do you know the number? name of the newspaper again? I don't know. No problem. Yeah, I mean, that would be such a find if, you know, someday someone finds copies of that

and some weird archive. You never know. Do you have any thought? This is a question from Joe Turrey. Joe, I've, yes. You know Joe. Okay, you know Joe. He's a good, he's a good dude. What are your thoughts on people using the term monster instead of visitor? I don't have a problem with people calling it the van meter monster. I do like the van

meter visitor just because of the alliteration. It sounds, all rolls off the tongue well. I do think monster is a bit of a misnomer, only because when you hear the stories of the encounters with it, it doesn't seem that it was trying to hurt anybody or do anything. The only time it really seemed to react to anyone was after they shot at it, which I think most of us would react to that. And Monster in my mind is something horrible or bad. and I don't get that from the visitor legend. So I prefer to call it the visitor,

but it doesn't bother me if somebody calls it the monster. Yeah, I used to get all like, you know, oh, if it's in the history of the town, why do you call it something else? And now after knowing that Kevin is the one that came up with the visitor name, you know, now I've got to totally rethink that. I mean, I still liked Visitor because of the alliteration thing that you said. You know, it does sound better.

And, you know, it's just, I think it's cooler to say. And, you know, we got it in the festival name, so we may as well keep it, you know. But it is, it's definitely interesting knowing that Kevin came up with it. The next part, I've got a few topics to go over with you. And I'm curious. So I'm going to say the topic. And then what I would like is from you, if there's anything that has to do with that topic that you've ever heard of in Van Meter over the years. Because something, you know, people have brought up over the years at the festival, well, maybe Van Meter is like at the convergence of some laylines.

And maybe there's weird stuff that happens here. And, you know, maybe there's even a hollow earth under Van Meter. meter with the mines. And so all this stuff gets thrown out, right? But I'm just curious, maybe any of these topics have credence to do with things you've heard from Viameter history. So let's go. Have you heard of anything to do with UFOs? I have heard about weird lights in the sky. And then, of course, Josh Hurd was out here filming his documentary 1903 a couple years ago and they definitely had some strange encounters with lights in the sky so nobody's come face to face with any aliens though good that's good um so you were

hearing about strange lights in the sky outside of the josh heard documentary 1903 yes occasionally um And it was actually usually when people were out on the outskirts of town, not necessarily in the exact same spot, but, you know, out by the river. But again, people who are camping and floating down the river and stuff also tend to be doing what? Drinking. It's a lot easier to see strange lights in the sky when you're drinking. That is a valid point. That's a valid point. How about Bigfoot? I haven't heard any firsthand stories of Bigfoot in the area, no. I haven't either. I was just curious if you had, though, because I've been doing a lot of research about Bigfoot in Iowa, especially in the 70s lately.

Any other cryptids besides the visitor? I've not heard any other cryptid stories. There was, though, a few years ago, and it happened, like, actually, the week before the festival. There were a couple people on a rainy, I believe it was a Thursday night, who swore they saw an apparition walking down Grant Street. Really? And a woman in town did get a very blurry picture of it with her cell phone because it was raining so hard. It's not the greatest picture ever, but you can definitely see the outline of something. So I really want to see that picture.

That's interesting. Well, I can show it to you at the festival. I know I have a copy of it. And I know Chad does. Oh, awesome. Yeah, I would appreciate that. That would be amazing. Thank you.

Wow, that's weird. I don't know if I've ever heard that story. Did they say anything about like it was in like period clothing or hard to see or? So one witness said that it looked like someone in a night gown and a nightcap. So like in an old time, you know. know, like, ankle length gown and nightcap. But one of the other witnesses said, yes, it had a hat, but they thought the bottom of whatever they were wearing looked more like billowy pants.

Okay. So, who knows? Man, that is very interesting. Have you heard of anything happening recently that, happening recently that, be related to the visitor in the town area or Dallas County or Madison County or anything like that? I have not, no. Okay. I haven't either. Just checking. You know, I've made a few videos and put them on different forms of social media.

And one weird thing I got, I got someone on, it was on TikTok, and they, it was a really weird comment, but they said that they were, either they were in school at Van Meter or they had gone to elementary school there, something like that. And they said that supposedly there's this legend that goes around in either the elementary or high school, where the visitor can be seen at times in the forest or woods behind the elementary school. Have you ever heard of anything like that? I've never heard that one. You bring up the school, though, and you bring up the school, though, and that does remind me supposedly over the years of the janitors have seen some sort of apparition at the school once in a while.

Really? I don't, I haven't heard any actual descriptions of it, but when I was at school in Van Meter, I know that a lot of it centered around where the plays and stuff are put on the stage area. I never saw anything. I was in the drama department. I did several plays there. I never ran into the ghost, but you never know. That is very interesting as well. I've never heard of a school ghost or apparition.

Did they say it was maybe related to being one of the historical figures or was there a story that went around? If data management is slowing down your business, You need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP.

All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse, being understaffed or being poorly staffed? Well, that's a trick question, because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or, go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer.

less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves. At Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed. It said everything happens for a reason, but maybe everything happens for a recess. Take noise-canceling headphones. Do they block hearing to heighten taste? Hmm. That sound seems to show. Everything happens for a recess. That was crafted about it? No. Nobody seems to know what the origin of the apparition might be. And of course, the custodians were the ones who would be at the school, really, when no one else was around and occasionally, you know, for play practice or something, you might be there

a little bit later than someone would normally be up at the school. No one seemed to really know the origin of that story. Man, that's interesting. That's just another thread to pull on for me. So that's kind of cool. The next question, I want to preface it by saying, you know, not looking for any information that's going to like you know privacy is important right but are there still people that are related to those um town residents that were involved with the 1903 incident in van meter still not to my knowledge no um i think most of uh the witnesses families have moved out of the area, although there are still some Alcott's in the area, so it's possible that they might be distantly related to Dr. Alcott, but I don't believe so.

Okay. Yeah, that would be a cool thing to have in your family history, for sure. And just curious, this is something I'm starting to research on the side. Well, so I'm speaking at the festival this year about this 1970s Bigfoot thing, and you know, you got to come to the festival to hear all about that. But after I've got that out of the way, my next big thing that I'm going to research on is supposedly around 2016 or 2017, there was a college in Iowa that had a musical based on the Van Meter Visitor. as at Cornell College.

Is that something, were you able to see that? I wasn't able to go, but when they were planning or rehearsing their production, again, they contacted the Van Meter Public Library, and Dorothy Knight was the director at that point. And I know they asked her for a little bit of information, you know, background, I think, for what they were doing. Unfortunately, no, I did not go to see that, but I did know about it. Yeah, you know, I found some write-ups, and it sounds like it's, you know, they spent a whole year crafting, you know, characters.

It's about what happened in the town fictually after the sighting and how it affected the town. And, I mean, because that came out, I believe, prior to Chad's book. The play you mean? I think so. No. I want to say Chad's book was either 2012 or 2013. Oh, wow. It has been a while, yeah.

So, yes, because I believe that that college also reached out to Chad. Interesting, interesting. So, yeah, I'm going to see if I can figure out the theater director at that time. My hope is that maybe somewhere there's a recording of the play. That would be really cool. Yes, I would love to see it. I mean, I'll let you know if I ever find anything. But that's a shot in the dark, but I'm going to see if I can find it.

So stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. Going on, have you ever been out to go to the tile factory area yourself? Yes. And, you know, going out in that area, you've already mentioned how people have, you know, maybe experienced weird things. Was there anything that you experienced yourself going out there, or how would you describe the area? Well, I've been out there both in the daytime and at night. I've obviously been on the walking tour that Chad does more than once.

I've also was out there when Expedition X was out there and we had the property owner's permission so we actually could walk right up to the brick tile ruins. So I've been right up next to it as well. I have never had any strange feelings out there, but maybe I'm just not attuned to that sort of stuff. No, I've never felt uncomfortable out there, and there have even been times on the nighttime walking tour. I kind of hang back behind the group. There's a gate that closes over the access road that goes up there. and sometimes I've been the one responsible for locking it up after we're done.

So, you know, I was essentially alone out there. I didn't feel uncomfortable. So I actually think it's peaceful out there. It is. It is cool. I want to definitely point out that field and area is private property. So people listening to this, If you're like, I'm going to go see it.

Well, please don't because it is a private, you know, a field owned by a resident. So we don't want to go out there. Correct. Is that road even a public road? So it is technically a city access road. So you can be on the gravel road itself. But you just don't want to wander off of the road. And like I say, there is a gate that closes.

So sometimes it's open, sometimes it's not. Gotcha. So, you know, you take that information as you will, you know, respect if the gate is closed, all that good stuff. Correct. Yeah, yeah. We definitely, the last thing we want to do is, you know, have the town not like the visitor 100%. Yes, we don't want the city telling us that we can't take our tours out there. That's for sure.

That's one of my favorite parts of the festival is the tour with Chad Lewis, especially the one they've started to do Friday nights. That is just so cool. It's a really, really fun time. And it's a different, it's different going out there at night than it is at the daytime. Yes. So let's see, you know, so let's say someone is, you know, listening to this and they've heard me talk a lot about the van meter visitor. if a person was to go to van meter what are are there any is there anything they can do related to the visitor if they actually go to the town not really the town the town hasn't erected any statues or done anything outwardly for the visitor um so i mean they could go like I say, they could walk out to that access road and get near the property, but there isn't really, there's no museum or display or anything for it. Is that ever a thing that's come up where maybe people have talked about, hey, maybe a statue, maybe a museum, we had one for Bob Feller back in the day? Well, and actually, so the Bobfeller Museum, there is still a Bob Feller exhibit. Oh, sure, yeah.

City Hall moved into the building that was the museum, but they kept a lot of his memorabilia in there. So just in case there are also some sports fans listening to, you can still come and look at Bob Feller's stuff. you know there has been some talk from the festival committee and stuff about it would be cool to get some kind of statue or something and although the city has been very supportive of you know letting us do the walking tours um and prior to this year when the festival was always outside you know they'd let us close off streets and have the festival and that sort of thing. It hasn't really grown into something that they've talked about at a city level, not at this point anyway.

Gotcha. Yeah, well, I mean, I guess at least, you know, it's not a hard, no. Right. You know, there's maybe a little consideration there. And, you know, you look at a town like Point Pleasant, you know, it's totally, totally revitalized their economy over the years. It's just in incredible ways. But yeah, you know, Van Meter could be,

I mean, you've got that big on-ramp being built right now on the highway. You know, who knows what that town could be like it coming up in a few years. It's going to grow some, but I think, you know, we have some boundaries to deal with. So we've got the Raccoon River on one side of town. You can't move the river. So you're not going to be able to have the actual city limits spread that far. And then, you know, we've got West Des Moines right up next to us.

They're not going to let us have any of their land. So in a sense, yes, we've got some new housing developments going in. and the school district, if anything, will probably grow more than the actual city of Van Meter. Yeah, I'd agree with that. What is the mascot for the Van Meter High School? The Bulldogs. Oh, that's right. Yeah, it should be the visitor, though.

They should really get that Bulldog. Maybe they'll change it someday. Yeah, maybe the Hodag will take care of the Bulldog, if you know what I mean. Oh, boy. That's some pretty deep cut crypted humor right there. The hodag guy is cool from Wisconsin. I like Ben. He's a fun dude.

Yeah, it was really neat for them. Yeah. They came to the festival for the first time last year, and they're coming back this year, and they have a really fun booth, so I hope people come out to see him. It's the most fun. I mean, he's got root beer. You can ride a hodag. Good stuff.

I'm going to be talking to him in a bit. Do you have a – speaking of, like, you know, maybe different. themed items. Do you have a favorite Van Meter visitor themed item you've seen from over the years? Well, I really like the t-shirt that Dylan Jacobson did for us this year. It's cool. It's very cool. And, you know, I haven't really sought out a lot of visitor items. We did have a lady hand make like some little paper mache visitors one year that had candy inside for the kids. and those were just kind of a cute little thing that she did. So, yeah, a couple little things like that.

That's a really little interesting piece of history I hadn't ever heard of. So let's talk for a little bit. You know, you said you're on the library board. Was there any other, we talked about that a little bit already, but you know you're on the library board and and maybe you know not a lot happens and then all of a sudden you got these three guys coming into town they're like hey we want to see all the stuff do you remember have any other cool memories from that time period when you first met chad kevin and noah or so originally um i'll mention joelina welker again she was the library director at that point and i was a library board trustee i first heard about them through her because she of course was the one who was actually at the library and who helped them when they came through so i heard about them from joelina first uh the first time

that i actually got to meet all three of them in person was at the book launch that they did um or actually it was a it was a pre-book it was like a preview um that that's that they did um that's they did up at Van Meter High School. So kind of to let the town know that, hey, we've written this book, it's going to be coming out, kind of raise awareness and excitement. And I think they were hoping that maybe somebody in the community would come forward and say, hey, I have a connection to somebody from that story. You know, so they were just kind of making the community aware of what they were doing and then they came back when the book was actually released and we had a release party at the library and that's kind of where the festival was born from okay because for people

who have never been to van meter the public library is only about 1100 square feet it's not a very big building at all. And I believe we had roughly 70 or 75 people come out for that book release party. And so we were kind of like, okay, you know what? This is really cool. There's a lot of interest, it seems like. And maybe we should do this again next year. And because our space is so limited inside the library, maybe we should move it outdoors and invite a few other people to come. And that's really how the festival came to be. That is really interesting. So Angela, Bill U, and I'm sorry, I probably didn't say your last name, right?

I apologize, but her question was that question, how did the visitor festival start? So thank you for answering that as part of that. Yeah, that's pretty cool. So that book launch party, what was that like? Was there like little visitor-themed hors d'oeuvres? Or was there anything cool? Or is it just people chatting around? I do.

We did have like snack food and drinks, but I don't remember it being overtly visitor-themed. Although I'm trying to remember. I think we tried to do like three. towed footprint ice cubes, but I don't remember if that turned out very well, like for the punch. But yeah, and the authors just came out and they gave a talk on it. And I mean, it was a really great evening, like I said, a really good turnout for our small library and just getting people excited about the legend kind of introducing Chad, Kevin and Noah. to the community a little bit more widely.

And really, if those three guys weren't such wonderful people, the festival wouldn't have come about either. Wow. We met those guys and just aside from them having written the book and really done their research and being professional, they're just really nice guys. and they were able to, you know, form a good bond with members of our community. And we wanted to have them back, you know.

So if they had just kind of shown up, wrote their book, wrote their book, and left. Right. And not, you know, ever come back or engaged with the community, then the festival would not be. I think it's, you know, a lesson I take away from that is, you know, it's like they realized, you know, they're respecting the history of the town. You know, treating it with respect. They're not just coming in, getting what they need, cutting whatever, you know, like. Right. And, yeah, the town people could definitely see the legend was treated with respect.

that's really cool how it turned into the festival. That brings up another question. This one's from Jordan Heath from Camp Fire Tales of the Strange and Unsettling podcast, which they have an episode on the Van Meter Visitor. You should check it out. Rachel, it's an amazing audio drama about the visitor. It's very cool. It's a podcast.

The question that Jordan has is, How has the festival affected Van Meter? Do you think that it's become like a rallying point for a sense of community? Has anything like that come out of the festival? I do think it's something that people look forward to. It is very convenient that the visitor decided to show up this time of year, right? Because everybody's ready for fall. They're getting in the mood for Halloween and kind of the spooky season.

So in some ways, the visitor festival kind of feels like a kickoff to the Halloween season. As far as changing the town, I mean, obviously it's brought us more notoriety. More people have now heard of Van Meter, Iowa. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-Native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuit.com slash ERP.

All right, quick quiz for the hiring managers out there. What's worse? Being understaffed or being poorly staffed? Well, that's a trick question, because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spendor less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves. At Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now.

Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed. sponsored jobs. They say everything happens for a reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break, did you need 15 seconds away from music or 15 seconds to eat a Reese's? Perhaps it's true. Everything happens for a Reese's. And there are, there's only one restaurant in town. Yep, that's fifth quarter bar and grill. Yep. And so when the festival's here,

you know, they're a business that's only a couple of years old. But when the festival was here last year, I know that gave them a great boost to their business. For the people who bought tickets for the VIP walking tour this year, that's where we're going to be going for our Survivors' celebration after the walking tour. So they're always really happy to participate. They made a cocktail last year that they call the Van Meter Visitor Drink. And the owner, Crystal, was telling me that even though that drink isn't officially listed on their menu, it never really went away because I guess it was a pretty good drink. And so she has people asking for it even not on Festival Weekend.

That's amazing. So yes, you can, if you do come to Van Meet, you can go to fifth quarter and ask for that drink and they'll make it for you. Okay, so I get, you know, you could come to Van Meter. There's a few cool things you can do. You can walk down the side road just on the outskirts of town. Then you can get a nice little cocktail drink based on the visitor at fifth quarter. Yeah, that's a pretty good time.

There we go. Thinking back over the years of the festival, is there anything that you would have done differently starting the festival based on what you've learned so far oh wow um no i think i think it started really organically and you know has grown a little bit each year uh i would love to have a few more um volunteers in planning committee members um we uh a couple of our committee members um we a couple of our are getting older and having health issues so would obviously love to add some people to the roster but I mean I think for the size town we are and for really the legend not being known before the book came out I think the festival has developed at a good pace.

And yeah, I don't know that I would necessarily do anything different except, yeah, maybe get some more help. Because the thing about this festival is, I mean, it pretty much, it seems to get a little bit bigger every year. And, I mean, Chad and, is Chad and Kevin, they're the ones that that pick the speakers? For the most part, yes. They're the head of, yeah, they're kind of in charge of lining up the speakers. And of course, that's simply because being that they are legend hunters and paranormal researchers, they obviously know a lot of people in that community. Stay tuned for more Bigfoot Society. We'll be right back after these messages. I was not necessarily really into paranormal stuff before this. I mean, I enjoyed a good ghost story or whatever, but I didn't seek out anything like that.

So I wouldn't know who to book for the festival or who to ask. So yes, we definitely let Chad and Kevin take the lead on that. And they've really done a good job over the last few years that I've been there. They get some cool people. I mean, man, we've had everyone. I remember seeing Linda Godfrey there once vending. We usually have Jay Pachochin there, a big footer from Wisconsin. Yep.

And we just, you know, had some solid speakers over the years, you know, Nash Hoover. It's a good dude. All these guys in. And although Nash is not. speaking this year, he is still going to be there with his chasing legends booth. So people will be able to see him. He's been a pretty regular face at the festival for several years now. He's a good dude for sure. Well, as we start to wrap up, I do want to ask the last question, maybe a different spin on it. Let's say there's someone listening to this and they're thinking,

man, we have this town that has this crypted or this Bigfoot, whatever, but we don't have a festival or anything. Do you have any advice for these, you know, people that may want to start a, you know, a festival, a similar festival in their town? What kind of steps do they need to take at the beginning? I think the first thing that you need to have is, a few people who are really passionate about whatever the cryptid or legend is that you're wanting to start something around. You need to build up support from your community. I think that's important. You need to get the people in that community, at least some of them, also excited about it.

because if you do have an event and you have people coming in from out of town, you want those people to feel welcome when they get to your community. If you're trying to start something up and your community isn't behind you at all, I think that just makes things much more difficult. And again, that goes back to what I was saying about, you know, Kevin Chad and no. they took the time to talk to people and to engage the community, which made it much easier to get people to come out for it. The other thing, and you know, it's the root of all evil,

you got to find some way to generate some money to get it off the ground. Like I say, our first couple festivals, they were real bare bones. You know, they were three or four people with tables set up outside the library on the street. And the first couple of years, the Van Meter Fire Department, as a fundraiser, they did the meal. So you could go around the corner and, you know, get like a pulled pork sandwich and a bag of chips in a drink or something. So it was very bare bones. It was a lot of people obviously donating their time. I know several of our committee members donated a lot of their own money those first few years to buy things like banners and whatnot for the festival.

The best thing that we ever did was sell t-shirts, honestly. that's our main moneymaker for the festival. So, yeah, I would say get some kind of merchandising going. And that was something too, you know, when we were first buying t-shirts, somebody on the committee would front their own money, and then you just cross your fingers and hope that you sell enough of them back to recoup. But, yeah, the festival's just gotten bigger every year. So hopefully we'll always make enough to have another festival next year.

And I hope that as well. I want to make sure that listeners that are able to go to the festival realize that it used to be something, what you're going to experience this year is going to be a little different than how it used to be. where like, you know, I mean, I remember a year where we were on bleachers in front of the library, and then we got rained on torrential drown pour, and it's just, you know, a fun experience looking back on it. And then one year we were inside the fire department, and that was cool, I think maybe a few years. But this year, I mean, there's even there's some cooler improvements that are going to happen. Do you mind talking about that for a few minutes?

Yeah, absolutely. So in all the previous years, the festival has been outdoors. It's been located on the street in front of the Van Meter Public Library. But this year, again, this goes back to generating some revenue. We had enough money to actually rent the banquet hall up at the Legion, the Veterans Reception Center here in New. van meter. So we're going to be indoors for the first time. So yes, we don't have to worry about the weather and the elements because the other thing, you know, rain is obviously never fun. But the other thing that we struggled with a lot of years was the wind. Yes. You know, people be outside and their stuff's blowing off their booth. And so that was never fun either. So we don't have, you know, to worry about the weather quite as much. The other great thing, I think everyone in this day and age would agree one of our favorite inventions was indoor plumbing. Right. So we have indoor bathrooms, no more port-a-potdies. Yeah. So yes, guest speakers,

although it was kind of cool to be in the firehouse bay at the firehouse station, It's going to be really nice to be inside. There's a large screen TV for the presenters to do their presentations on. You know, there's a sound system so you'll be able to hear really well, things like that. So that's a definite improvement. Now, having said that, we will have a handful of vendors set up in the parking lot. Okay. Just because indoor space is limited and we will have the food truck.

Snappies Fire Stick Barbecue is going to have their food truck there. They'll be parked out in the parking lot. And then we mentioned the Hodag store earlier. They've got a pretty big setup a little bit too big to be comfortable inside. So they're one of the vendors that will be out there. and you know along with being indoors we do have to pay a rental fee for this facility and so vendor fees were a little bit more than they've been in the past but we gave people options if you didn't want to pay quite as much if you wanted to keep it a little bit more reasonable for yourself then you know they could choose to be outside so we do have a handful that are going to be outside And that also is what prompted us. This is the first year that we are charging admittance to get into the festival.

Again, and that's just because I think we're going to really, really like being inside. Yeah. We'll probably want to do it again next year. So again, that's just a little way of being able to help to be indoors again in the future. but we still tried to keep it really reasonable. It's only $2 per person. So low. It's so low.

For people over 12. Yeah. So, you know, that's always going to be the goal is to try to keep it reasonable. This festival is put on purely by a committee of volunteers. And none of us are making any money off of it. How big is the committee? So there's only like, six official committee members and then you know everybody tries to bring hopefully somebody

for actual festival day so we have a little bit more hands on deck on the day but it's not a big committee so and then the walking tours with Chad they are still going to leave from in front of the van meter public library so cool there are two different locations. Vendors and guest speakers are going to be at the Legion, but the walking tours will still leave from the public library. So, and those are $3 per person. So if you want to do the tour and listen to great speakers and look at all the cool stuff from the vendors, it's going to cost you five bucks a pop. That's pretty good value, I think. That's pretty good. And it's like, You want to get lunch?

I mean, you're still coming out better than if you go to the movies. Like, it's still a really, really fun day. But, I mean, five bucks for, like, the tour and going, you know, hearing different speakers. Still, you're coming out pretty good, guys. Some people might be saying, wow, this sounds great. When can I go to the festival? Well, I am doing this episode strategically because, it's in a few days. Literally, you will hear this on Wednesday. The festival is on a Saturday,

the 24th, correct? Yes, correct. The walking tours will leave from in front of the library. There is one at 1215 and another at 645, and then the vendors and the guest speakers will be at the Veterans Reception Center from 1 p.m. to 6 p.m. So we kind of have the tour's bookending the festival itself. Okay. But yes, it's Saturday the 24th. And the other cool thing is there is a lounge or a bar up at the reception center, and they will have that open during the festival.

So you can also help support our veterans and get a beverage at the bar there. And so, yeah, I think it's going to be. a really great time. It's so much fun. The last thing I want to mention is some people might be thinking, wow, that night tour sounds pretty cool in like the fifth quarter. Now, I do want to point out that's the VIP tour, which is already sold out for the year. It's a thing where Chad started doing that a few years ago. So if you want to get in on that for the next coming year, definitely follow the Van Meter Visitor Festival on Facebook or, you know, join the Van Meter Visitor

Believers Facebook group that I have set up. And then you can get those VIP tickets right when they're listed by Chad. So you can get that right away because that is a sold out experience. It sells out pretty quick. But next year you can get on that. Yeah, on Friday night, that's the VIP Walking Tour. that's the only thing that you have to purchase tickets ahead of time and it's the only thing that there's a ticket limit on so that event's been limited to 25 people last year was the first year that

we did it so otherwise the walking tours on festival day on Saturday there's no limit to how many people can go on one of those tours awesome they are all walking tours this year. So the tour is probably, you know, round trip maybe two and a half miles, I would say. You've been on it before. Yeah, I mean, it's not bad. And this isn't like you're hiking up mountains or anything. You know, this is, this is central Iowa. So it's, it's flat. This isn't, it's not a bad walk. But it is a little bit of length, you know, two and a half miles total, but not too bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's all flat ground. So, yeah, it's not a difficult. cult walk, but yeah, obviously if you do want to go on that tour, be prepared to walk.

Totally. And it's cool because Chad is leading the group. He's telling you the story along the way. I'm not going to spoil any of the surprises, but there are some, you know, cool things from years past that you see along the way. So Rachel, thank you so much for hanging out with me and chatting all about Van Meter and the visitor and the festival. This has been a very very very fun chat. That's been a good time talking to you as well. And I really appreciate you having me on here. Hopefully we'll see a nice crowd next weekend for the festival.

You got it. Thanks so much for coming on, Rachel. All right. Thank you. The views and opinions expressed are those of the guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Bigfoot Society. Any content provided by our guests are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual, or anyone.

Thank you. If you'd like to hear your ad before or after the program, please contact Bigfoot Society at Bigfoot Society at gmail.com. If data management is slowing down your business, you need the Intuit ERP. If one entity is here and one here and one here and one here, you need the Intuit ERP. If scaling your business feels like start starting, starting over, you need the Intuit ERP. Intuit Enterprise Suite is the AI-native ERP solution that consolidates, migrates, and automates, all in one place. Learn more at intuitt.com slash ERP. All right, quick quiz for the hiring

managers out there. What's worse? Being understaffed or being poorly staffed? Well, that's a trick question because both are recipes for chaos. Either way, just say to yourself, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. You'll get matched with candidates that meet the skills, certifications, and everything else you're looking for. Or go a different way and get no traction. Seriously, sponsored jobs posted directly on Indeed are 95% more likely to report a hire than non-sponsored jobs. It really is a no-brainer. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Less stress. less time, more results.

When you need the right person to cut through the chaos, this is a job for Indeed's sponsored jobs. And listeners of this show will get a $75-sponsored job credit to help your job get the premium status it deserves at Indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to Indeed.com slash podcast right now. Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply.

Need to hire? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored jobs. They say everything happens for reason, but I suspect everything happens for a Reese's. Like this commercial break, did you need 15 seconds away for music? Or 15 seconds to eat or Reese's? Perhaps it's true.

Everything happens for a Reese's. This is Matt Rogers from Las Cultureistas with Matt Rogers and Bowen-Yang. This is Bowen-Yang from Las Colter Reuters with Matt Rogers and Bowen-Yang. Spend your balance instantly with the Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back on your favorite bundle of brands when you join Venmo Stash. The more you do with Venmo, the more you get. Earn 2% cash back when you set up auto reloads. Earned 5% cash back with direct deposit. It's great for anyone who doesn't want to transfer funds or weigh days.

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