Accidentally Historic

The tale of the Army’s first functional MASH unit, Council Bluffs’ Mobile 1 (aka Unit K) continues in this episode as writer/researcher Brian Mainwaring delves into the details of how the camps were set up, how they moved from battle to battle near the front lines, and some of the day-to-day challenges they endured including shortages of equipment, manpower, fuel, and safe drinking water.

If you have any questions or comments please email information@TheHistoricalSociety.org

Amelia Bloomer was born in New York but spent most of her adult life in Council Bluffs.  Her name is associated with a garment worn by women and women’s rights, but there’s a lot more to the story than that.  Amelia Bloomer dedicated her life to righting social wrongs, and when she arrived in Council Bluffs in 1855 she found a town that could very definitely benefit from her services.  In this episode Dr. Warner talks with writer and researcher Sara Catterall about Amelia Bloomer’s very significant impact on social issues that included temperance, abolition, equal rights, and the 1...

This episode continues the story of Mobile Hospital No, 1, also known as Unit K or the Council Bluffs Unit in World War I. In this episode writer/researcher Brian Mainwaring recounts events such as an early attempt to break up Unit K, its training and observation period with the British military, the full integration of Unit K’s roster into Mobile No. 1, preparation of the hospital’s personnel and inventory for its first full set-up and deployment there in mid-1918, and an incident in which a quartet of the officers discovered the rest of the group had been transferred ahead with...

Episode two of the “Invisible Excellence” podcast series, which chronicles the WWI service of Council Bluffs “Unit K," recounts events such as these: an early attempt to break up Unit K; its training and observation period with the British military; at one point, a quartet of the officers finding that the rest of the group had been transferred ahead without them (really); in Paris, the full integration of Unit K’s roster into Mobile One; and preparation of the hospital’s personnel and inventory for its first full set-up and deployment there in mid-1918.

“Unit K” was a groundbreaki...

It was one of the deadliest conflicts of all time-- new weaponry resulted in a scale and severity of injuries that was unprecedented.  And the trauma of transporting these severely wounded to base hospitals became the weak link in the treatment chain.  Relief came in the form of a medical unit from over 4,500 miles away; Mobile Hospital #1, aka Unit K, the Council Bluffs Unit, commanded by a former Council Bluffs mayor.  Almost as astonishing as the novel concept of bringing care to the wounded on the battlefield was, the fact this milestone of military medicine pioneered by local doctors, nur...

In this episode podcast host Richard Warner looks at the distribution of Council Bluffs' squirrel population, why they are black, how rare they are, some of the local traditions and laws regarding them, and how the Pottawattamie County jail ended up with that name.  Comments and questions are welcome!  You can reach us via email at Information@TheHistoricalSociety.org.

Questions and comments are always welcome.  Here’s link: https://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/contact-us.html

Things out of history aren’t always what they appear. Historic figures that seem good or bad were actually every bit as complicated as we are. Even statues and monuments may have been designed to send messages other than what seems apparent. Historic General Dodge House director Tom Emmett tackles these complicated issues head on by using an incident from the Civil War that seemingly plagued General Dodge the rest of his life.

This episode was recorded March 5, 2023 at Prairie Crossing Winery https://www.prairiecrossingwine.com.  The winery is located near Treynor, Iowa, just south of state highway 92.

In the episode Mr. Gray makes reference to the Grape Growers Association and its role in making southwest Iowa a strong force in in the grape industry.  You can find some photos of Prairie Crossing Winery and a brief history of the Association at https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/grape-growers/home.

Comments and questions are always welcome.  Contact the Historical Society at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org.  If you are interested in Council Bluffs history be sure to check our our local history videos.  Search for Council Bluffs Revealed in the YouTube search bar.  The Society also hosts a Facebook page called Council Bluffs Revealed.

Kat Slaughter is Museums Director for the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County.  She studied at the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's degree of History and Anthropology with an emphasis in museum studies.   Troy Stolp holds a BA from Iowa State University in Anthropology and Religious Studies, a BA from Buena Vista University in History, and an MA from UNO in History.  Troy is a teacher at Lewis Central.

The book "Lost Restaurants of Omaha" is available at The Bookworm at 2501 S. 90th in Omaha as well as Barnes & Noble at Oak View.

Stay up-to-date on restaurants and things to do in the area by following Kim Reiner:

Founder and owner of Oh My! Omaha - Exploring Omaha & Beyond and Let's Go Iowa
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Kanesville Kollectibles is located at 530 South 4th Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Website: kanesvillekollectibles.com

If getting there is good, getting there faster is even better, right? That seems to be the conventional wisdom, as machines are pushed to and nudged beyond their limits. It takes some brave people to test those machines, and at least on a couple of occasions Council Bluffs men were ready to accept the challenge. This podcast tells the tale of O.J. Mitchell and James Bernard Verdin, two locals that set world speed records, one on land, the other in the air.

Patrick Toscano grew up in Council Bluffs and made law enforcement his career.  In this podcast he explains how things have changed during his decades of police work and shares some of the interesting incidents he encountered.  The podcast title is taken from the open of the old "Adam 12" television show in which the dispatcher informs the officers there is a 2-11 in progress, "handle code 3."  The officers switch on the lights and siren, and race to the scene.

In this episode Kelli Bello, production manager of Council Bluffs' Firehouse Letterpress, explains how Omaha became the center of movie marketing and distribution, how film advertising and the technology used to create it changed over time, and how a good amount of the printing and cinematic archival material found its way to Council Bluffs.  Firehouse Letterpress owner Larry Richling describes the collection and how he got interested in putting it together.

To view some examples of the items mentioned in the podcast and the 1950 documentary about the printing process: https://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/movies.html

Q...

John G. Woodward wasn't the first to use little people in advertising, but may well have contributed to what became a popular trend for the next couple of decades.  Buster Brown shoes had adopted a comic strip character as their advertising image a few years earlier and hired little people to play Buster in tours around the country.  This came at the time when the trend was to introduce novelty into advertising to attract consumer attention in what was becoming the highly competitive world of marketing.  Woodward's approach was different in that the company treated the Bregants with respect.  What...

This episode looks at some Council Bluffs mysteries that have lingered through the years, yet remain unexplained.  Included are the 1977 UFO Crash at Big Lake Park, the gruesome 1926 Keeline murders at the site of today's St. Paul's Lutheran Church, the 1970 Cadillac S&S Medic Mark 1 ambulance in which 495 people died, the librarians' perpetual sitings of Julia Officer at the Carnegie Building and the unsupported staircase, and the legends surrounding the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, better known locally as the Black Angel.

For a comprehensive review of the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial, from its planning and construction to t...

This episode was shared from the On First podcast series, which details the plans and progress of the FIRST AVE project by talking with planners, historians, and civic leaders.  Other episodes include information about the Great American Rail Trail and how the corridor will once again be part of a transcontinental route, the railroad history of First Avenue, the planning processes involved, what the corridor will mean to Council Bluffs, and comments from Mayor Walsh.  To hear these podcasts search "On First" in your favorite podcast app, go to OnFirstCB.com, or at this link: https://www.councilbluffs-ia.gov/2416/On...

Those living near the Missouri River are accustomed to periodic devastating floods, but neighbors to the normally docile Nishnabotna River were caught unawares in 1958.  One woman was swept away in her front yard, but was able to grab onto a tree trunk being swept down with her. She passed to two more trees, and ended up nearly forty miles away from her home. Another group was known as the Lucky 13. Thirteen people clung to an oil tanker truck as they held two children out of the water and pushed away debris with a rake so that it didn't tip t...

When General Grenville Dodge passed away, tens of thousands braved a blustery winter day to turn out and pay their respects.  When Ruth Anne Dodge died a couple of years later the Dodge daughters wanted their mother to be remembered at that same level, so nationally known sculptor Daniel Chester French was commissioned to create a memorial.  The planned dedication was to be grand affair, with prominent dignitaries from around the country and a city-wide celebration.  But when the piece was finally done, there was no public ceremony at all.  The reason for the dramatic change of plans has long...

Men may have done the survey work and laid the track, but there's a lot more to a railroad than steel rails and flanged wheels.  In this episode, author and western researcher Chris Enss and Union Pacific Railroad Museum curator Patricia LaBounty describe the role women have played in railroading, dating from the industry's earliest times. Women were among the first telegraphers, as well as inventors of game-changing devices like the crossing gate and refrigerator car, plus creators of a myriad of inventions and means to make travel more safe and comfortable. Some worked to create a mystic allure o...

The West intrigued many artists.  The challenge for those seeking to use their work as a historical record 150 years later is differentiating between what was artistic license versus reality.  Thanks to the cook hired for the railroad surveying party of Grenville Dodge, Council Bluffs and Omaha are extremely fortunate.  George Simons was a self-taught artist, thus not influenced by the artist methods directed by the art schools of the day.  As a folk artist, his style was to document things as he saw them, remarkably free of embellishments.  Simons provided the earliest pictorial record of Council Bluffs and Omaha, and o...

Seeking a safer occupation following an rail yard accident that cost him the tip of a finger, John G. Woodward began work at a Council Bluffs candy store. He eventually bought it, and grew the company into the largest candy manufacturing operation in the West.  In this podcast, Richard Warner of the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, traces the history of the company, including the claim they were the inventors of the Butter Brickle flavor and that Omaha's Blackstone Hotel was the first to use this to make Butter Brickle ice cream.  The podcast also explores possible reasons such a...

Seasonal haunted houses appeared on the local scene about fifty years ago, initially fund raisers for a variety of groups and causes.  Youth For Christ, Campus Life, March of Dimes, the Jaycees, and the Historical Society were early participants.  From church basements and abandoned buildings to semi truck trailers in parking lots, haunted houses proliferated by the 1980s.  Generally staffed by youthful volunteers intent on making their particular character and their venue as scary as possible, the endeavor brought together imagination, creativity and theatrics to become something of an art form in its own right.

Safety standards imp...

Perched atop one of the highest hills, Council Bluffs' first high school building in 1870 reflected the city’s optimism as much as it did society’s expectations of education. The towering building had a chapel, but no facilities for practical training; there was no sports equipment, yet ample rifles and live ammunition to arm all students. In this episode Historical Society member Michael Winchester explores the city's first high school building and why it quickly fell out of use, the struggle over where to rebuild, how Abraham Lincoln High School’s first principal, Gerald W. Kirn, came to define the sc...

The “squirrel cage” jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa is unique in many ways. The largest of a rare 19th century design that featured a cell block that rotated, the 1885 former Pottawattamie County jail has increasingly come under scrutiny as a site of robust paranormal activity. Occurrences that were difficult to explain date to its early days as a jail.  In modern times, teams of paranormal investigators have conducted tests with positive results.  The building was featured on Travel Channel's Ghost Adventures, Serial Killer Spiritsmini series in 2019.

In this episode, host Richard Warner talks with Historical Society vice-president J.W. Le...

As one of the earliest and largest railroad centers of the Midwest, it’s not surprising Council Bluffs would right at at the forefront of train robberies as well. The first moving train to ever be robbed West of the Mississippi left from Council Bluffs. Another train robbery in a Bluffs rail yard netted over $3,500,000; a tidy sum in 1920, and triggered copycat deeds all across the country. Not all local robbers fared well; another’s bullet-ridden body was put on display, becoming quite a popular public curiosity. This episode, written by historian Ryan Roenfeld, tells the tales of these thre...

It has to be one of the Omaha area’s greatest “rags-to-riches” stories. Radio station Sweet 98 (KQKQ-FM) became hugely popular, for 25 years dominating the Omaha metro ratings as the area’s first personality-driven FM music station, kicking off with “Breakfast Flakes” Mark Evans and Dick Warner in the summer of 1980. Known for its nonstop promotions, high dollar giveaways, and colorful, opulent studio appearing somewhat like a spaceship, its origin was considerably more humble. The station was in poor economic shape when owner John Mitchell came up with a plan to completely reinvent it, switching the progressive, album-oriented format to popular Top...

Young ladies find love at Lake Manawa— an upscale resort with dance pavilions, an amusement park, galas and entertainment.  It's a romantic and beautiful place; but how much of that setting for the Lake Manawa series novels actually ever existed?  Author Lorna Seilstad explains her characters and their adventures may be fiction, but the setting for the adventures is very much real.  Making Waves,  A Great Catch, and The Ride of Her Life take place in the "glory years" of Lake Manawa's days as a resort, the late 1800s and early 20th Century.  

Learn more about the books a...

    Buildings that revolve or that have portions that do have been a dream for centuries, but generally never moved past the design stage.  The rotary cell jail was very real.  Touted as cost effective, modern, and escape-proof the concept spread quickly throughout the Midwest. Mechanization was coming of age; invention of the telephone and building of the transcontinental railroad fostered the notion man could solve any problem with his innovations. 

    Nationally the enthusiasm for the rotary jails waned almost as quickly as it had spread. Decried as inhumane and dangerous, most were rapidly dismantled or converted to more traditi...

Find more information about Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County history on our website at www.TheHistoricalSociety.org and on our Facebook page, Council Bluffs Revealed.

Questions, comments and suggestions for podcast guests or topics are always welcome!  You can contact us at information@TheHistoricalSociety.org.  The Society also has a YouTube channel you may enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BijwKxeirRtL7QLnyfMzg