Day 14:

I first heard of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum quite some time ago. So long ago, that I didn’t remember anything I’d heard / read about it, other than the fact that it’s an official company museum. Not knowing how big or how interesting the place might be, I allotted the whole day for it. Union Pacific has a great reputation for preserving the past, especially in regard to their steam locomotives, a few of which they still operate for occasional railfan excursions. So, I was expecting to see a lot of historic and/or unusual railcars and/or locomotives, probably in a small railyard outside the museum building.

Upon my arrival, I was surprised to find no railyard. Not even a single track. The company museum for the Union Pacific Railroad has no rolling stock at all. But let’s not talk about that yet. First, I’ll mention that the museum is housed in the historic Council Bluffs Carnegie Library building, a two-story building which was built in 1904. And it’s big enough that, railyard or not, I still thought I might be able to spend the whole day there. It’s also located in downtown Council Bluffs. So, of course, you have to pay for parking. But I couldn’t find any public parking other than street parking, which had a limit of two hours, and I did not like the idea of having to leave the museum every two hours to move my rental car. Fortunately, Council Bluffs has a small downtown; so, I parked five or six blocks away (where street parking is free and not time-limited) and put my hooves to work.

OK, back to the museum itself. First off, admission is free, so stop bellyaching about the lack of rolling stock. The entire first floor is devoted to the building of the first trans-continental railroad, which officially began here at Council Bluffs. The second floor has multiple exhibits covering different aspects of railroad history, as well as the current state of railroading in the U.S.A. Overall, I found this to be quite a good museum, and I even learnt me a few things. I ended up spending about four hours here. I don’t know if it was the Parkinson’s or just being old and out of shape, but towards the end of my visit, just standing around reading stuff was exhausting. I was able to find a few places where I could sit and recuperate for a couple minutes at a time. Oddly enough, walking the five or so blocks back to the car didn’t present a problem.

Day 15:

I devoted the next day to the “Squirrel Cage Prison Museum”. Now, you may be asking yourself, “WTF?” and that’s a very intelligent question. First, let me tell you, this one did not come from my master list o’ places I must get to. In fact, I only knew it existed because it’s right next door to the Union Pacific Railroad Museum. So, I had absolutely no expectations going into this one, but at least I already knew where to park.

First things first: This is a nineteenth-century county jail, built in 1885. It was absolutely NOT built for people with mobility issues. There are steep, narrow, rickety stairs and tight spaces in quite a few places. So, not exactly a Parkinson’s-friendly facility. That said, I would encourage those of you who can do OK with a cane to go ahead and give it a try! Why? What does your $10 admission fee get you? It gets you a closeup look at one of the most unusual prison structures ever devised…

Imagine you’re looking down at a cell block in an average prison. Each cell is a rectangle, with the “block” of cells forming a larger rectangle. Now imagine you’re looking down at a banana cream pie that’s been cut into 10 pieces. That’s what the Squirrel Cage is like. Each cell is pie-piece shaped, with the block of cells forming a circle. But why? What’s the significance? Well, here’s where it gets a bit…wacky.

Any time the jailer / guard wanted to put someone into (and/or get someone out of) a specific cell, rather than walk to/from the cell, the jailer / guard would rotate the cell block to bring the desired cell to him. Yes, it was a rotary jail! But wait! It gets wackier! The cell block is three stories high, and each story could be rotated independently by one person manually cranking a handle. With my Adventureland visit still fresh in my mind, I could just imagine myself giving the spiel:

Welcome aboard The Squirrel Cage! For your own safety, please remain seated and keep your arms and legs inside the cell at all times. Thank you, and enjoy your stay here at Pottawattamie County Jail.

Returning to reality, I once again had a hard time just standing around reading. But this time I know it was at least partly Parkinson’s-induced, because the exhaustion was coupled with a familiar loss of balance; there were several times when I had to grab onto something to keep from falling over. Unfortunately, this place has nowhere to sit down. So, the latter part of my visit was rather hurried, but I still think I saw just about everything there was to C. I ended up spending about two hours at the Squirrel Cage. (No actual squirrels were harmed in the making of this blog post.)

I spent the evening packing for my return home. This time, I was focused on getting through the security checkpoint with my Vyalev pump. That’ll be a story for another time…