Biohazard Cleanup Near North Van Meter Van Meter, IA

Van Meter was laid out as a town in 1869 along the Raccoon River in Dallas County and incorporated on December 29, 1877.

The city is named for Jacob Rhodes Van Meter and his family, Dutch settlers whose name traces back to Meteren in the Netherlands.

Van Meter is the hometown of Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller, who was born on a farm outside town in 1918 and made his major league debut with the Cleveland Indians at age 17, in 1936, while still a student at Van Meter High School.

The Bob Feller Museum opened in Van Meter on June 10, 1995, honoring 'Rapid Robert,' who won 266 games and threw three no-hitters; after Feller's death the building was donated to the city in 2015 and now serves as Van Meter City Hall, with some memorabilia still on display.

Van Meter is famous in folklore for the 'Van Meter Visitor,' a winged, bat-like creature with a horn that reportedly shot beams of light, which residents claimed to see over several nights in 1903 — the legend is still celebrated locally.

Van Meter is one of the fastest-growing small towns in the Des Moines metro: its population jumped 46% in a single decade, from 1,016 in 2010 to 1,484 in the 2020 census.

The 2020 census counted 1,484 Van Meter residents in 513 households, and the city is part of the Des Moines–West Des Moines Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Bob Feller's father built a regulation baseball diamond, called Oakview Park, on the family farm near Van Meter so young Bob could develop his legendary fastball; the Feller farmstead is now listed on the National Register of Historic Places.