Tales From The Squirrel Cage Jail

A history of the 1885 "Squirrel Cage" rotary cell jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa, and information about some of the colorful prisoners housed there over the years and their crimes.

From the outside it looks like a stately home. Inside, it's quite different. Just 18 rotary cell jails were ever build. Most were promptly condemned as unsafe and cruel, but the biggest one lasted the longest, its three story 90,000 pound rotating cell block serving as the Pottawattamie County jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa from 1885 until 1969. This book is the second in a series, exploring the conditions of local incarceration before the "squirrel cage" was built, and goes into detail of the crimes of some of those who called it "home" over the years.

The rotary jail was a very unusual architectural design. In response to a need for better control over prisoners, 18 of the revolving, escape-proof structures were erected in the United States from 1882 through 1889. There were problems. There were mechanical difficulties due to the extreme weight of the components. Unwary prisoners lost digits or limbs when carousels were rotated without warning--one lost his life. Because inmates could only be let out of their cells one at a time, some rotary jails were closed as fire hazards. This book describes in detail their construction, operation and eventual demise, as well as some of the colorful inmates that were held in them.

Located in Council Bluffs, Iowa, Pottawattamie Squirrel Cage Jail is a National Register of Historic Places landmark. Erected in 1885, it is one of only three rotary jails still in existence today. In Squirrel Cage Jail, author S. M. Senden relates the history of the iconic Squirrel Cage jail, from its construction and operation to its closing in 1969 and subsequent purchase by the Council Bluffs park board for preservation in 1971. According to Senden, preservation wasn't easy and was ultimately buoyed by a fundraising effort led by the local historical society. Senden also highlights local criminals as well as some of the jail's more infamous prisoners and shares local folklore relating to the jail's reputation for being haunted. She says, "I hope readers will be spellbound by one of the most fascinating and haunting places in Iowa." Squirrel Cage Jail is available for purchase online at Amazon.

Includes Idaho, Iowa, Montana, Oregon, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.

Featuring photos and stories from the world's scariest prisons, discover why prison is to be avoided at all costs! World's Scariest Prisons will explore the most terrifying prisons of all time. From the Roman Coliseum to the Bastille, the Tower of London to Alcatraz, World's Scariest Prisons will captivate young readers! Each prison will receive its own photo-intensive overview as well as a sidebar, a break out fact box, and a quote. Each prison profile will be followed by a feature spread that explores high-interest topics such as prison slang, prison clothes, and prison food, as well as little known details about kids in prison, famous escapees, and ghost stories. World's Scariest Prisons will be equal parts informative and fun. Perfect for reluctant readers, the text will be simple and engaging.

National Book Award Finalist: “This man’s ideas may be the most influential, not to say controversial, of the second half of the twentieth century.”—Columbus Dispatch At the heart of this classic, seminal book is Julian Jaynes's still-controversial thesis that human consciousness did not begin far back in animal evolution but instead is a learned process that came about only three thousand years ago and is still developing. The implications of this revolutionary scientific paradigm extend into virtually every aspect of our psychology, our history and culture, our religion—and indeed our future. “Don’t be put off by the academic title of Julian Jaynes’s The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind. Its prose is always lucid and often lyrical…he unfolds his case with the utmost intellectual rigor.”—The New York Times “When Julian Jaynes . . . speculates that until late in the twentieth millennium BC men had no consciousness but were automatically obeying the voices of the gods, we are astounded but compelled to follow this remarkable thesis.”—John Updike, The New Yorker “He is as startling as Freud was in The Interpretation of Dreams, and Jaynes is equally as adept at forcing a new view of known human behavior.”—American Journal of Psychiatry

For saving the life of one of the green people, Jack is blessed with the love and knowledge of a squirrel-wife.