Council Bluffs, Iowa. City and Business guide.

Welcome to Council Bluffs, Iowa.

Council Bluffs is an old railroad town in Pottawattamie County, Iowa, across the Missouri River, east of Omaha, Nebraska. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 58,268.

Council Bluffs is also home to the Iowa School for the Deaf, Iowa Western Community College, the Chanticleer Community Theater, and Hamilton College - Council Bluffs.

Fishermen on the Missouri River in Council Bluffs, Iowa (taken Oct. 3, 2004) (c) 2004 Matthew Trump
Council Bluffs is also home to the Pottawattamie County "Squirrel Cage" Jail, in use from 1885 until 1969, which is one of three remaining examples of a "lazy Susan" or rotary jail. A rotary jail contains pie-shaped cells located on a turntable. To access an individual cell, the jailor turned a crank, which rotated the cylinder of cells until the desired cell lined up with a fixed opening located on each floor. According to the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, the Squirrel Cage Jail is the only three-story rotary jail ever built although the rotary mechanism was disabled in 1960.

Council Bluffs is part of a unique topographic region that was originally composed of prairie and savanna in the Loess Hills with extensive wetlands along the Missouri River. Excellent vistas can be had from Fairmont Park, the Lincoln Monument, Kirn Park, and the Lewis and Clark Monument. The main thoroughfare of Broadway was once part of the Lincoln Highway and North Broadway follows Indian Creek for about a mile through the Loess Hills. Lake Manawa State Park is located at the southern edge of the city. The lake was created by a flood in 1881 and was promoted as a resort area by the Omaha & Council Bluffs Streetcar Company during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

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