Ken's Journal
No. 4 - Summer 2004
More Council Bluffs, Iowa - 07/01 - 07/05/2004
Days 5-9 on the road. Part II.
Also called a Human Rotary Jail, it was an 1800s attempt to build a local jail that required little or no interaction between the jailer and the inmates. The "Squirrel Cage" design promised almost no interaction and would house 30 prisoners in a 30' square.
The core, the actual detention part of the facility, consists of a three story metal drum, 28 feet high, 24 feet in diameter with each level divided into ten pie-shaped cells. This drum revolved inside a fixed metal cage with only one opening on each level. To get a prisoner in or out of a cell, the central drum was rotated until the appropriate cell was opposite the single door - given there were three levels, three cells would be lined up at a time. A series of iron gates would direct a prisoner in or out of a cell. All pretty amazing, and working quite well until the 1950s when the do-gooders intervened, called the facility inhumane and caused changes to the facility that made it no longer cost effective to maintain as a detention facility.
The inside of the facility is just too dark for photography. But here's a shot of the building from the outside.
There are a few interesting venues here. There is a new downtown marketplace, cobblestone streets and all, supposedly designed to be a cornerstone of the "revitalization" of the downtown. Like most revitalization efforts in small towns, it takes more than a strip of overprice "boutique" stores in a somewhat restored warehouse district. On a Sunday afternoon, the marketplace was bustling. The rest of the downtown was dead. If you want to revitalize a small town, you need to attract people downtown to live, not just to shop for high priced goods. You need all the other amenities as well - affordable housing, doctors, grocery stores, pharmacies, parking, transportation and whatever else it takes to live a day-to-day life. Located just SE of I480 before it crosses the Missouri River it is a nice place to visit however. If you are into boutique shopping, this could be a paradise for you with many goods available no where else. If you're in the area, give it a shot.
Is Omaha a small town? Maybe not - maybe it's a medium size town. You visit and make your own decision.
The next place I tried was the Mormon Trail Center west on State Street off US 75 just south of I680. The theme of the place is supposed to be the Mormon Trail - along with the California Trail, one of the trails west for the western pioneers. I'm sure they had a lot to show me, but the obvious attempt to convert you to Mormonism was a put-off. First was a period video introduction to the Mormon Trail depicting the dedication and faith of the Mormon pioneers as they forged their way west. This was a high quality production! Next was to be a guided tour of the grounds showing typical winter quarters, living conditions along the trail, and the many artifacts collected from the trail, restored and displayed. I made it through half of the video before I left - sorry. Perhaps they should try a more subtle means of recruiting new members for the clan.
Next up is the "Strategic Air & Space Museum, just west of Omaha on I80. I'm not really sure what the organizational connection between this museum and the Air Force's Strategic Air Command might be, but the Museum bills themselves as a non-profit, 501(c) organization. Among the historic aircraft on display, all inside by-the-way, is a B-52 in the same room as a B-36 (larger than a B-52 if you can imagine), a B-17, a B-58, an SR-71 Blackbird and a U-2 (like that flown by Francis Gary Powers and shot down over the USSR in 1960). I counted some 42 aircraft and missiles on display!
This Atlas-D Missile is sitting in the courtyard leading to the entrance. This is an example of our first ICBM. The Atlas-D was first tested at Cape Canaveral in 1957.
The first aircraft you see when entering the facility is this SR-71 Blackbird spy plane. The SR-71 holds the world record for speed over a 15 mile course of 2193 MPH and the altitude record of maximum sustained altitude of 85,000 feet or 16 miles - twice that of the highest flying commercial aircraft. This one was given to the museum in 1990. You can see another example at the new National Air and Space Museum adjacent to Dulles National Airport just south of Washington DC in Virginia.
A U2C. The first test flight of this aircraft was in 1955. This was a relatively slow aircraft with a cruising speed of only 460 MPH. But with a working altitude of 85,000 feet, that was adequate protection for the time - at least we thought so until Francis Gary Powers was shot down by the Russians in 1960. This particular aircraft flew with the Air Force's thunderstorm research program and with the CIA before it was flown to the Museum in 1982.
A Douglas A-26 Invader, later reclassified as the B-26 after WWII. This particular one was delivered to the US Army Air Force in 1945 and was transferred to the museum in 1969. (This thing is almost as old as I am!!)
The front end of the B-36 on display. This is one of the interesting
aircraft on display. The B-36, the first transatlantic bomber, was designed
in 1941 to strike Europe from bases in the US. The B-36 is the largest
production aircraft ever built. It sports six pusher type radial prop
engines on the back of the wings and four turbojets on the front of the
wings. This particular one was manufactured by General Dynamics and
delivered to SAC in late 1953. It was flown to the museum in 1959. This is
the first aircraft the Museum received.
A pair of the four turbojets on the B-39.
An FB-111B coming at ya.
The outside display at the entry to the museum -
An Atlas-D, pictured above, and the others I'm not sure. The Museum brochure
is unclear and my notes are obviously lacking.
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