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Council 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 ju…
A little red lantern outside a wartime hospital gives you more to hold onto than a battlefield timeline.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Council Bluffs banner program becomes a grounded look at local pride and regional sports history.
Accidentally Historic turns a Council Bluffs banner program into a tidy piece of local sports history, following how athletes from Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County made their way to national stages.
A red lantern anchors Mobile One's dangerous work near the European front.
Accidentally Historic stays close to the people and gear around Council Bluffs' Unit K, also known as Mobile Hospital No. 1, during its World War I service on the European front.
Council Bluffs mysteries get a steady local frame, even as the fireball, ghosts, and library stairs keep their secrets.
Council Bluffs turns into a compact atlas of local mysteries here, moving from the 1977 fireball of molten metal in Big Lake Park to questions around Carla Keyline's spirit, the Black Angel, and Julia's apparent watch over a library staircase.
A regional history of haunted houses, from club fundraisers to laser-lit fog and old-school thunder scares.
Accidentally Historic frames Omaha and Council Bluffs haunted houses as a piece of local history with a useful origin story: Halloween scares grew from seasonal fundraisers for clubs and nonprofits into a 50-year metro tradition.
Cold tents, air raids, stove safety, and blood donations frame a wartime medical unit's resourceful service.
Council Bluffs Unit K, also known as Mobile One, is shaped here by the plain physical problems of wartime surgery: winter cold, damp weather, bombing raids, and tents forced to function as operating rooms.
Miller Beach chaos, served breakfast-style.
Pennsylvania by county, landmark, and stone.
Nebraska culture, live and close to home.
Brian Mainwaring walks through the Iowa West Foundation's inaugural Council Bluffs professional roster, whose honorees get permanent banners at Iowa West Fieldhouse.
Richard Warner and writer-researcher Brian Mainwaring close Accidentally Historic's Invisible Excellence series by following Council Bluffs Unit K from the November 11, 1918 armistice through Varennes, Jouinville, and the final rail trip home.
A historical society podcast explores a mysterious UFO-like event in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1977.
Accidentally Historic's "Fright for a Fee- Fifty Years of Omaha Council Bluffs Haunted Houses" follows haunted-house history in Omaha and Council Bluffs from the early 1970s to the present.
Accidentally Historic's "Invisible Excellence" episode follows Council Bluffs Unit K, or Mobile One, through La Clerche, Fremereville, and a rushed move to N during the closing weeks of World War I.
This episode explores the history of grape growing and winemaking in Council Bluffs, Iowa, featuring an interview with a local vineyard owner.
This episode explores what it means to be human through the lens of local history, featuring anthropologists discussing the diverse stories of ancestors in Council Bluffs.
This episode explores the history of Council Bluffs' first high school, from its grand opening to its abandonment and the controversies surrounding it.
This episode explores the history and haunted reputation of the Squirrel Cage Jail in Council Bluffs, Iowa, a rare rotating jail built in 1885.
The episode recounts the rise of radio station KQKQ from a dilapidated building to a top-rated station in Council Bluffs.