Accidentally Historic

Some Council Bluffs Mysteries

Episode Summary

There are times not everything can be explained by facts and data. Some things have long eluded logical explanation, yet they really happened. It's difficult to explain how 2500 degree molten metal wound up in the middle of a city park, but it was there. Or why odd things started happening in a garage when a former ambulance that once transported the criminally insane arrived, or how so many librarians-- logical people that live in a world of facts-- routinely accepted the appearance of a regular patron in Victorian garb that had died fifty years earlier. This podcast dives into these Council Bluffs mysteries.

Episode Notes

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 the scandal that led to the aborted dedication ceremony we recommend the podcast "The Black Angel's Secret" https://accidentally-historic.simplecast.com/episodes/the-black-angels-secret

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