Lost Souls was a coffee house/ bookstore/ Internet café that opened in Des Moines, Iowa in the spring of 1997. For the few years that it was open, it was the one decent place to hang out in the social black hole of Des Moines. It drew in an interesting mix of students, hippies, and gloom cookie goths. Unfortunately, it was located in a residential area near Drake University, and the neighbors weren’t keen on having people hanging around and having fun after dark. Those opposed to Lost Souls launched a campaign to get them out of the neighborhood, and were ultimately successful when the owners closed the doors in 1999.