- Hi, I'm Mickey.

- And I'm Ryan.

- [Mickey And Ryan] And this is "Hiseerie".

(ominous music) - All throughout history, different cultures have believed in the paranormal.

Divine gods, spirits, aliens, shaman and witchcraft, just to name a few.

Supernatural occurrences are reported all over the world and have become ingrained into pop culture.

Since the beginning of humanity, people have been questioning the bigger picture of existence.

What's really out there, aliens, ghosts, Bigfoot?

Well, we wanna try it ourselves in our own backyard.

So, come with us and explore the paranormal and macabre side of the Great Midwest.

Tonight, we're in a pillow fort to tell each other some spooky, scary and weird stories.

(Mickey laughs) - We'd like to be outdoors, but we can't.

Mother Nature's a little bit relentless this time of year and unpredictable, so we brought ourselves indoors for you.

(eerie upbeat music) (Ryan sighs) Things may get spooky again, people, or people just might be crazy.

It's up for you to decide.

Have you ever heard of the town Vergas?

- No.

- In Vergas, Minnesota, a town of just over 350, lurks a giant hairy man.

- That's not Bigfoot?

- That's not Bigfoot.

- That's not Bigfoot, okay.

(Mickey laughs) - It is different.

Again- - Okay.

(Mickey laughs) - You're gonna have to decide.

I really don't know how to feel about this one- - This is an opinion-based one.

- Until after I read it.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, technically, they all should be with cryptids.

The Hibbing one that I just- - That's just people- - Apparently that one actually happened, so I don't know.

During the 1960s, rumors started to spread that there was an eight-foot tall humanoid creature that was stalking through the woods.

It was said to have long hair, which makes sense given the name.

It has- - What if it was just a bald, like a bald cat and they were like, "Hairy man, haha," like when like people get the nicknames, like, oh, like Tiny?

- Tiny.

- 'Cause it's, (Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) it's like hairy man.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - But he is said to have reddish brown and blackish hair in color.

I think it's more of a dark brown.

- So Bigfoot.

- Possibly.

- Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay, okay.

(Mickey chuckles) - Again, in the end, it's totally up for you to decide.

- Okay, I'll share my opinions when we're done, I guess.

- But this next sentence won't help my case on telling you it's not Bigfoot.

Because he smells musty like mildew and he is also seen barefoot.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) So, again- - The next line, "And he has really big feet."

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) Okay, hairy bipedal.

- [Ryan] Yes, yes.

- Using my vocab word of the day, bipedal and big or, and no, sorry, it's not big feet and barefooted in the woods.

- And the musty smell.

- Sounds like Bigfoot, okay, let's keep going.

(Mickey giggles) - The cryptid got a lot of traction during the 1970s and eventually the sightings dwindled by the late eighties.

During the time in the spotlight however, many unexplained animal and human deaths would attribute to the violent nature.

- Okay.

- Unlike Bigfoot and Sasquatch beliefs, the hairy man is distinctly human-like with beast qualities.

- I don't know if that makes it better or worse, but okay.

I mean, it makes it less Bigfoot, 'cause Bigfoot like he doesn't, his face is- - I would say he's more beast-like with some human-like qualities.

But it has also said he's very malevolent towards humans, unlike Bigfoot.

- Oh, yeah, I guess Bigfoot's not really known for like attacking people.

- No, but there is a story back in the day where a family of Bigfoots like kidnapped a guy, the hairless baby needed help and that's what they saw.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - That's so- (Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - Sorry.

- I wonder if they think of humans like that.

They're just like, "Dang, they're so naked and-" - They're so helpless and small!

That's all I'm gonna picture, is like a nine-foot Sasquatch holding a six-foot man.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) The hairy man is not the only legend from the area.

- Okay.

- The land is known to be a paranormal hotspot with haunted locations like Lake Seven and the Lost Highway.

- I've heard the Lost Highway.

- Cheryl Hanson claims to have seen the beast as a kid while snowmobiling, stating, "We were snowmobiling around and around this old cabin we found.

All of a sudden, a beast-like creature popped out of the cabin, holding a huge stick.

(Ryan giggles) It had very broad shoulders and I was trying to rationalize what it was.

But what really stood out to me, it was barefoot in the snow."

That's one of the things that makes me think it could be just- - [Mickey] A dude?

- A dude.

- Who just never shaved.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

It could be done.

- Okay.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) I could make myself Bigfoot.

- But here's where things get a little confusing.

- Okay.

- Because I don't know the speed at which they were traveling.

- Okay.

- But the hairy man was able to chase and keep up with the group, even with them riding on snowmobiles.

- Oh, heck no.

- He's also recorded jumping on cars, smashing windows and throwing heavy rocks at passing vehicles.

- Okay, were the cars that he was jumping on moving?

- It does not say.

- Okay, 'cause if they were moving, then I'm like, then I'm leaning towards not human.

But like otherwise, I think I could jump on top of a car if I had enough adrenaline and if I was like taller- - [Ryan] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- I think I could do that.

- It is doable.

Well, and if you're throwing like big rocks at passerbys, like how has no one reported?

Like, well, why isn't there more reports?

Does it just look like some dude throwing a rock?

- Yeah.

- [Ryan] Does it look like a beast, do you not see it?

- I would report, if someone threw- - Is it coming from the trees?

- If a man is throwing a boulder at my car, while I'm driving by, I'm calling the police.

- That's what I mean.

Like during the seventies, the area saw disappearances of transient and homeless people that locals believed could even be connected to the legend.

- Oh, okay, sorry, continue.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - A local also found a human-like skull in the woods near the sightings, but never turned it into authorities.

- Oh.

- So, you really have to go by someone else's hearsay.

- It's what human-like.

Does he think it's the creature, or does he think it's a person?

Well, if you turn it to the authorities, they would know.

This is why if you find a weird body part in the woods, people, turn it in.

- [Ryan] If there's any question- - Don't touch it actually.

- Yeah.

- First of all, don't touch it.

- If there's any question, just don't risk it.

Turn it in.

- Call the non-emergency number.

(Ryan laughs) Yeah, I think there's like a humanish skull in the woods.

- [Ryan] Yeah.

- They will come out, I promise you.

(Mickey laughs) They're not gonna ignore it.

- Speaking from experience or- - No.

- Oh, okay.

- I've not found a body yet.

I feel like one day I will, time will tell.

(Ryan giggles) Next season, we're both like, "We found a dead body," which I shouldn't joke about, 'cause we go in the woods for this show, so- - I was thinking, "Next on our true crime segment, it's us!"

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - Don't grab human remains with your hands, please.

- [Ryan] Please.

- First of all, for your own safety.

Second of all, because then you just ruined any evidence.

- Well, that, and just have some, have respect for the dead, people.

- Have some decorum.

- Seriously.

- Human remain or possible human remains, disappearances and they're like meh.

- It sounds like it could be related.

Who needs to check it out?

They're gone.

(Ryan giggles) - It was a different time.

- It was, it was the seventies.

- Yes.

Many people believe that the hairy man was in fact real.

But instead a character from folklore, he was just an old hermit, who wanted to keep people and kids off his land.

- Yeah, I'm kinda, okay because there's so much like, "It's not Bigfoot," I feel like it is just- - It kind of feels like Bigfoot.

- Like I feel like- (Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - I'm gonna be honest.

- I think it's like a murderer, like- - Eight feet?

That's the one thing that gets me.

And you can keep up with a snowmobile in the snow.

- Okay, that one that- - Because you're running through the- - But she was a kid, so she could have just been like exaggerating it in her mind.

The eight feet though was- - And I guess it doesn't say how long they ran.

Because back in the day, not anymore, back in the day, I probably could have run 15 to 18 miles an hour for a 100-yard dash, maybe a 200-yard dash.

But after that, there's no way I could keep it.

- But like more than the kids said that it was eight feet and like- - But would they have understood size reference too?

If you see something coming at you, you're just like, "Oh, it was big!

I don't know, it was big!"

- Yeah.

It's like the fact that, but like, okay, even if it wasn't, like I feel like when people start dying and disappearing, I would start being like, "Maybe we should think about this more."

- [Ryan] Yes.

- Maybe we should investigate this.

But maybe I'm crazy for that.

Yeah, I feel like they should have investigated.

- Oh, they totally should have investigated, a hundred percent.

- And again, if you find a skull, just- - And I'm really curious- - Just tell someone!

- Was it just one?

- I feel like it could have been a whole body, but they were like, "No."

But also animals.

Just like when someone dies in the woods, there are animals scavenge obviously.

- Yeah and it goes fast.

- So, it could have been a skull just by itself I guess.

But then again, we'll never know.

Because some person picked it up and took it and didn't tell people!

- Well, just says he found it, it doesn't say he took it.

- [Mickey] I feel like- - And it just says near the sightings- - I bet they just took it.

- But if it's some old guy, who's living in a cabin and is just like having a heart attack and trying to get out- - Oh, yeah.

- And dies in the yard, why couldn't it be that?

(Mickey laughs) - Yeah, I guess- - Which is like- - It's not mutually exclusive like- - Yeah, there's, I don't know.

- I don't know either.

I guess, we have to go to Vergas.

(ominous music) Okay, okay.

(Mickey laughs) So, technically, this is two separate stories.

But I think it's just one and that'll explain itself later.

But I am gonna say, it's a debate.

So, what's the first thing you think of when you think of Iowa?

- Corn, pigs, farms.

(Ryan laughs) (Mickey laughs) - Corn, pig, farm.

Exactly and I think of the Hawkeyes and the Villisca, 'cause we were there.

- Oh, yeah.

- So, you know.

- Villisca and Malvern.

- That's what I consider in Iowa.

But for cryptozoologists, Iowa is a hotspot for dragons.

- Like?

- Like "Game of Thrones" dragons.

- [Ryan] Like fantasy.

- Yeah.

- What we would see in like fantasy movies or fictional stories.

- I guess that's kind of part of it, is it like depends on like why this is technically two stories, but it's like dragon sightings in Iowa are not localized to one place and one type, which is crazy to me.

'Cause like Iowa's pretty close to us.

So, I'm like, "Where are our dragons?"

Like- - Maybe we're too cold.

- All right, so there's a town called Burlington and it's like where the dragons are like most reported, is within Burlington.

- Like currently or past?

- [Mickey] Both.

- Oh, okay.

- So, a number of Burlington, Iowa residents, have reported seeing several Iowa dragons- - At once or just different times?

- Both.

- So, there's more than one, okay.

- Yes, that's very important actually, there is definitely more than one.

- Good.

- And this is like within recent years and also historically, which I think gives it more credibility is the fact that like they aren't reported just in like the 1890s or the 1950s or 2000s, like it's been consistent-ish.

- Okay.

(Mickey clears throat) - So, according to two eyewitness reports, the dragons had a snake-like body with brown skin and a wingspan of around 30 feet.

Yeah, not small.

- Oh my gosh!

(Mickey giggles) - So, and the dragon's head looked like that of a seahorse and it had a really skinny tail.

Freaky.

- So, no arms or legs, just slender body.

- Yeah, I mean it didn't specify that, but I feel like dragons normally have tiny little arms.

I don't know, I've never seen one.

But in another recent case, a witness named Megan, don't know her last name, said that while driving, this was like 2005, so 20 years ago, which is recent for cryptid sightings, I feel like.

Anyway, sorry, so, Megan, in 2005, she and her husband witnessed a flying dragon on the streets of Burlington in the middle of the night.

So, they were just like driving through the town and were like, "Do you see that?"

Like is that, they said that they watched it slither through the sky, until it flew a little bit higher and then out of sight eventually.

- Slithered through the sky?

- Yeah.

So, it's the same idea of like a snake, like- - [Ryan] Snake, okay.

- Like both of these, there's more sightings than these.

These are the ones I picked out.

- [Ryan] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- So, it's like consistently seen as, which is- - [Ryan] Serpent-like.

- Nasty as heck, don't wanna see that.

- Interesting.

- She described the dragon as being 10 feet long, or 10-foot long snake-like creature with bat-like wings and a head similar to that of a seahorse.

So, same- - [Ryan] There's the seahorse reference.

- Yeah, which at first I was like, "Okay, like she just heard the other one, because seahorse is not a common animal."

But then I thought about it and I was like, "But seahorse have a very distinct face."

- [Ryan] Very, yep.

- So, I was like, "Okay, nevermind, I'll shut up."

And so, these were far from the only or first dragon sightings in the state.

And they go back all the way to the 1800s.

There's been reports and newspaper articles about dragons like consistently throughout Iowa's history, which is really funny.

I'd be like opening the morning paper and it's like, "Oh, another dragon over town today."

What the fuck to do with that?

- Not front page, it's just a little article on the side.

- It really is though, like it's not like the, like when I was going through newspapers.com and it would be like little like, (Mickey gasps) oh my God!

(Mickey laughs) How did that even, okay, sorry, that was actually- - [Ryan] That was perfect timing.

- Wait, how did that happen?

Okay, dragons.

No, about flying animals.

- Seahorses.

- Seahorses in the sky!

Mass hysteria!

(Ryan giggles) Okay, so the "Bedford Times-Independent", which is from Bedford, Iowa, fun fact, covered Lee Corder's encounter with a flying serpent, a flying serpent, on August 11th, 1887.

And I would like to preface that this was not front page, like this is as you were saying, it was like on like a classified type of little thing.

- [Ryan] That's crazy.

- So, it was a big enough deal where it's in the paper, but it's not a big enough deal where it's like- - Right, breaking news.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- And it's a smaller paper, so it's not like they have that big of a news going on, (Ryan giggles) (Mickey giggles) like new general store.

Oh, by the way, flying serpent.

- You might get chased on way here (Mickey laughs) (Ryan laughs) by a flying serpent seahorse.

- So, in his statement, Mr.

Lee said, "Withering and twisting with protruding eyes and a forked tongue, great scales, which glistened in the sunlight," which also this is during the day, which is- - [Ryan] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- Like more, anyway.

"Covered its huge body, which appeared to be flat and nearly a foot in width."

Mr.

Lee had reported that the dragon had crashed into his cornfield and he watched in astonishment, until the dragon eventually regained its senses and flew back into the sky.

So, like- - He definitely would've been close enough to get a very good look.

- Yeah, yeah and it was the 1890s or 1880s.

So, there wasn't like photos or I guess.

- Right.

- Then a few years later in 1890, there were several reports made in Independence, Iowa of a creature with wings, a monstrous head with horns and a mouth like an alligators.

And that one was described being green and scaled.

- So, we have brown, gray and green.

- Green, yeah.

- Okay.

(eerie music) - Now that we've gotten the historical references of dragons in Iowa, the biggest cryptid in Iowa is the Van Meter Visitor.

And I don't understand why they're kept separately.

But like people do not equate the Van Meter Visitor with a dragon.

But we'll get into it.

But I'm like, it's like the whole Bigfoot hairy man situation.

Like are we really pulling these apart?

- Hmm.

- And I think it adds, if like you count the Van Meter Visitor within the realm of dragons, I feel like it adds more credibility to that.

So, the Van Meter Visitor is a beast with large bat-like wings.

- Okay.

- Which I'm like, "So dragon."

(Mickey laughs) - All the depictions I've seen of a dragon, yes.

- [Mickey] Yeah.

- Yeah.

- Regardless, Van Meter is a small town outside of Des Moines.

In 1903, so also the same rough time period.

- [Ryan] Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- Many highly respected residents, which is crucial to understand, reported seeing the same creature in their town over the course of five nights in September and October.

So, this creature was described as a nine-foot tall.

So, also the same relative size.

- [Ryan] Right.

- Like, it's like, that's why I'm like, guys, come on, like put two and two together, whatever.

Nine feet tall with bat wings and a horrendous stench.

Gross.

Most notably in my opinion, is that it could shoot bolts of light from its forehead, or from its horns depending on your report.

So, on the first night, the creature was seen flying over building tops.

The second night, a doctor and a bank cashier, I don't know if that's even the right name, a bank attendant- - Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- Came forward with their sightings.

So, like we're getting to like respectable individuals in the community.

The third night, the Visitor was spotted sitting atop a telephone pole.

And then another witness said that it was hopping like a kangaroo across structures.

- Like- - Like from a house to- - Building to building?

- Yeah.

- Oh my gosh.

And this thing must not be that heavy if a telephone pole can hold its weight.

- Yeah, I mean, if it's- - I would think anyways- - 10 feet and skinny.

- And if it's like a bird hollow bone.

- Yeah, I would, I mean if it flies, right?

Oh, and okay, so that same night, the third night, a school teacher also reported seeing it and they described the Visitor as the devil, like they thought, "Oh my gosh, the devil is here."

Well, now, you have a bank, oh, teller, that's the word.

Now, you have a bank teller, a teacher and a doctor- - Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- As like all eyewitnesses, which I mean all towns have people in them that it's like, "Oh, they just say stuff sometimes."

But like these are people that- - Have something to lose.

- Yeah, they would lose stuff if their credibility was questioned.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- So, it's like, I feel like there's more to it.

Three nights of mild panic, people started to get fed up with it and they were like, "We need to deal with this creature," which is like, "Okay, hairy man killed people, we're not dealing with that!"

But this poor bird thing is just in our sky!

- There's only 350 people there.

There's three cities involved here.

- But regardless, the town was like fed up.

They were like, "The panic is annoying, we're done with this creature."

So, a mob of townspeople stalked it, like they, so one person spot, they had like people graphing the town.

Someone saw it, they were like, "Everyone, get over here."

So, then the mob found the creature and then they followed it back to an abandoned coal mine.

And then I'm confused at this point.

'Cause I think that it, this is like definitely a situation where it was just different reporters, saying the same event but differently.

So, the timeline kind of got messed up.

- [Ryan] Okay.

- But so, townsfolk reported noises and the quote from the "Des Moines Register" or daily news, is that "Presently, the noise opened up again as though Satan and a regiment of Imps were coming forth for battle from the coal mine."

So, they followed the creature back and then they heard noise opening up again as though Satan and a regiment of Imps were coming forth for battle.

- Oh my gosh!

- Which is like what, first of all, back to the Devil conversation, second of all- - How do you know what that sounds like?

- Yeah, it's like what are we- - Who are these people and why do they have that knowledge?

(Mickey laughs) (Ryan laughs) - And this is what I'm confused about.

So, like that happened, so they were at this coal mine, they heard that.

And then at some point, the creature came out.

So, the Visitor came out that everyone had seen, but it came out with another smaller version of it.

So, there was multiple, okay?

And then there was like a flash of light.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And my as assumption, is it was from one of their foreheads, like I don't know.

And then they just flew away, okay?

And then the mob stayed overnight, which like, okay, makes sense, like you stalked something back.

So, they stayed overnight with weapons- - [Ryan] Okay.

- Until the creatures returned.

And like, I guess, they just let the creatures go back in the cave.

And the creature, like they just went, like I'm like confused why they would've left and came back, or like what is that?

But one way or another, creatures in the cave, townspeople, weapons, they were like, "You know what we gotta do?

Blockade them."

So, they took all of these like supplies.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And barricaded the creature into the cave and- - Have they ever opened it up?

- Yes.

So, honestly, I just, I feel kind of bad for it, like I just, like that- - [Ryan] Well, I mean, it didn't bother anyone.

- Well, exactly, it was like, it wasn't like it was hurting anything, it just minded its own business.

- [Ryan] Right.

- And they were like "Get in the cave and die in there."

I was like, "Whoa, whoa, whoa!

It's like a poor animal, it's an animal!"

Like, I don't know and that's just, okay.

And at some point, people were shooting at it and like I'm not exactly sure when that was, but it was reported that bullets just like kind of annoyed it.

Like if they shot at it, it just kind of like they like hit it and then fell off like it was too thick which- - Or ricocheted.

- Yeah, like scales like that.

So, it'd be like annoyed, but then it didn't attack them.

So, I'm like, so even provoked, this thing didn't hurt you.

- Just wants to avoid you.

- Yeah.

- Yeah.

- So, like what is your problem?

I kind of think it's probably a pterodactyl that just didn't die with the dinosaurs.

From the reference like drawings that they have of it, it does look like a pterodactyl with horns.

- Yeah, the only thing I would question would be the horns.

Like I know they typically had a protrusion off the back.

- Yeah, they had like a back one.

- [Ryan] Yep.

- But normally, it's like this, it's like two of those, which I'm like, okay.

Most people, I think everyone saw it at night, so maybe it was just too dark.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- But then the light from the forehead.

- And the guy who saw it on his field.

- That's a different town.

- Oh, you're talking just Van Meter.

- Just Van Meter.

- Okay.

- Because people think that Van Meter's not a dragon.

And I'm like, "Well, yes it is."

I don't know what classifies as dragon though, like I don't know the guidelines to follow.

- I don't think we have one.

(Mickey laughs) (Ryan laughs) - [Mickey] I don't know.

- Unless maybe you find like a cryptozoologist, who has done their fair share of research and put something together, I really don't think you'd find anything.

- There's so much we don't understand about the world.

Who am I to say if there's dragons or not in Iowa.

- There's too much history that's got no written record.

- I do think the Van Meter Visitor happened.

I don't know what it was.

I kind of think it was just a species that was either going extinct or I don't know, just something like, I'm not gonna say it's dragon, it's because how many people over multiple days saw it.

- Mm-hmm (affirmative).

- And like a mob of people.

That's a lot of commitment.

Oh, but so yes, sorry, they did dig up, I forgot about that.

They did dig up the cave and they never found anything in it.

But they also like say, they kind of, thing is they've done excavations and they didn't find anything in the cave, but also like it was an old coal mine.

So, a lot of it was damaged at the point that they only opened it like a decade or two ago.

- Okay.

- Like it was recent.

And then the other issue was like it's a cave system, so you can get through the cave.

- There's more than likely, yeah.

- Yeah, so, what do I know?

I don't know.

- See if we gotta go explore.

- I'm not going into- - Put me in that cave.

- No, I'm not going.

You can go into the coal mine.

Thank you for joining us around the fire for some spooky and weird stories.

- If you liked this episode, like, comment and subscribe down below.

- If you wanna support "Hiseerie" and our PBS station, you can find behind-the-scenes content and full-length investigations on our Patreon at patreon.com/Hiseerie.

(eerie music) (eerie upbeat music)