Accidentally Historic
27 episodes - English - Latest episode: 10 months ago - ★★★★★ - 11 ratingsCouncil Bluffs’ location has put the town into contact with a lot of history. Lewis and Clark and the Mormon pilgrims came through, as did the westbound pioneers on the Oregon and California Trails. Abraham Lincoln designated the town as milepost zero for the transcontinental railroad. The first coast-to-coast automobile trip passed through and later the first transcontinental highway. Council Bluffs was the birthplace of Omaha and first war-time mobile hospital. It also boasted the state’s first nursing school and FM radio station as well as the largest rotary cell jail ever built. This all created a lot of what we call history-- but at the time it wasn’t intended that way at all. It was just normal people finding innovative ways to solve problems, inventing the future one day at a time. And that has made for some really interesting tales that we intend to explore in this podcast series.
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Episodes
Ruffles to Reubens- Foods From the Metro
June 27, 2023 18:18 - 19 minutes - 17.9 MBQuestions and comments are always welcome. Here’s link: https://www.thehistoricalsociety.org/contact-us.html
A Legacy of Regret
March 29, 2023 20:23 - 20 minutes - 18.9 MBThings 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.
Loess Hills- A Grape Grower's Dream
March 20, 2023 12:17 - 22 minutes - 21 MBThis 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.
The Mobster and the Metro
November 22, 2022 16:34 - 10 minutes - 9.36 MBComments and questions are always welcome. Contact the Historical Society at [email protected]. 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.
It’s History that Makes us Human
October 24, 2022 10:51 - 23 minutes - 21.4 MBKat 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.
Lost Restaurants of Omaha
October 01, 2022 20:32 - 17 minutes - 11.8 MBThe 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 Follow me on Facebook, Twitter and see the pretty pictures on Instagram Let's pin stuff we'll never do! Follow me on Pinterest
Kanesville Kollectibles
August 27, 2022 15:00 - 21 minutes - 14.5 MBKanesville Kollectibles is located at 530 South 4th Street in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Website: kanesvillekollectibles.com
The Fastest Men in the World
August 11, 2022 20:12 - 7 minutes - 7.05 MBIf 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.
Handle Code Three
April 18, 2022 10:16 - 18 minutes - 12.9 MBPatrick 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.
Movie Media from the Metro
April 07, 2022 20:58 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MBIn 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 ite...
Council Bluffs' Tiniest Couple
January 22, 2022 21:06 - 15 minutes - 10.5 MBJohn 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 o...
Some Council Bluffs Mysteries
October 15, 2021 13:19 - 19 minutes - 13.2 MBThis 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 kno...
First Avenue- Where 175 years connect
August 19, 2021 13:26 - 23 minutes - 16.3 MBThis 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 ...
Nishnabotna's Forgotten Tragedy: 1958 Flood Disaster
July 14, 2021 00:01 - 18 minutes - 12.5 MBThose 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 p...
The Black Angel's Secret
July 01, 2021 16:57 - 19 minutes - 18.2 MBWhen 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 f...
Women of the Rails
March 29, 2021 15:48 - 23 minutes - 16.4 MBMen 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 myr...
Council Bluffs and Omaha's First Artist- George Simons
February 26, 2021 21:54 - 16 minutes - 11.4 MBThe 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 ...
Candy From Council Bluffs- Woodward's
February 03, 2021 15:07 - 16 minutes - 11.2 MBSeeking 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 f...
Fright for a Fee- Fifty Years of Omaha Council Bluffs Haunted Houses
October 15, 2020 16:30 - 26 minutes - 18 MBSeasonal 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 possib...
150 Years of CB High: Guns, Tunnels, and Triva
May 31, 2020 23:10 - 29 minutes - 20.2 MBPerched 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 strugg...
Council Bluffs Squirrel Cage Ghosts
March 24, 2020 16:33 - 22 minutes - 15.2 MBThe “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 ...
Council Bluffs and its Train Robbers
January 23, 2020 21:10 - 13 minutes - 9.42 MBAs 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 po...
Council Bluffs' Sweet 98 Rocked the Metro
December 27, 2019 17:54 - 27 minutes - 25.5 MBIt 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 ...
Omaha Council Bluffs' Sweet 98 Rocked the Metro
December 27, 2019 17:54 - 27 minutes - 18.7 MBIt 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 w...
Love at Lake Manawa
September 25, 2019 14:49 - 12 minutes - 8.5 MBYoung 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 a...
What is the "Squirrel Cage" jail?
September 25, 2019 00:51 - 17 minutes - 12.1 MBBuildings 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 r...
Introducing the Accidentally Historic podcast
September 25, 2019 00:08 - 2 minutes - 1.99 MBFind 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 [email protected]. The Society also has a YouTube channel you may enjoy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2BijwKxeirRtL7QLnyfMzg