$15  (member price $8)

Published in 2009.  The "Squirrel Cage" in Council Bluffs welcomed its first prisoners on September 11, 1885, and the last inmates vacated their cells in 1969.  Murderers, moonshiners, the King of the Hobos, burglars, horse and car thieves, con-men, and even an infant had all called the odd structure home.  The building, with its three stories of tiny pie shaped cells in a 90,000 pound revolving cage, is interesting in itself, but the people who lived there make it truly fascinating.   The book tells the tales of many of the jail's prisoners, their crimes, and their life inside "the cage" along with those who took care of them and those forced to maintain a building that was repeatedly condemned.  55 pages

Council Bluffs: Broadway
by Richard Warner
and Ryan Roenfeld

$20  (member price $18)

Published in 2007.  During the 1830s, a path appeared where Indian Creek flowed out of the loess hills at Caldwell's Potawatomi village and led west across the Eight-Mile Prairie. A decade later, that path became Broadway through Mormon Kanesville where California-bound 49ers found anything for sale. Kanesville became Council Bluffs after 1852 as Broadway spread from Mud Hollow and Old Town to the Missouri River. People went to work at World Radio, Woodward's, and Omaha Standard, while teenagers cruised for hamburgers and entertainment.  128 pages, illustrated

Early Days at Council Bluffs
by Charles H. Babbitt

$15  (member price $8)

This 1975 reprint of Babbitt's 1916 overview of the area's 19^th century development covers the sojourn of the Potawatomi, the "Old Blockhouse" that housed Father De Smet's mission, and the establishment of Fort Croghan.  It also summarizes the many changes that resulted following the arrival of the Latter Day Saints in 1846 which then led to the establishment of Pottawattamie County and the present city of Council Bluffs.  103 pages, illustrated

Greetings from Council Bluffs

$25  (member price $18)

First published in 2002, this book showcases a wide-ranging collection of historical images from Council Bluffs history, focusing on 19^th advertising cards and especially postcards.  Churches, hotels, historic homes, Manawa Park, Children's Square, railroad depots, and other images of the city's rich heritage are all represented.  104 pages, illustrated