Oddity

While searching for some animal stories, I came across this article – which made no sense to me when I first read it.

Sixty of the city's most prominent citizens will receive notices this week that they are to be assessed fines of $250 each to help cover operating and maintenance costs of the Historic Pottawattamie County Squirrel Cage Jail and preservation of historic artifacts therein, officials have announced.

"The people we're targeting are well-known in the community and have an interest in history," said Michele Stephens, executive director of the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County, which operates the museum.

These outstanding individuals will be expected to exercise their influence to raise monetary donations for said cause by June 1, Stephens said.

"They have the opportunity to either raise the money to pay the fine or sell enough memberships to equal that amount," she said.

In the event that a sufficient sum of money has not been submitted by the stated deadline, offenders may be subject to arrest and incarceration in above facility during the week of June 4, Stephens said. Prisoners will be given a tip sheet on how to sell memberships.

Having never heard of a squirrel cage jail, I went looking for some explanation of what that term meant. And it turns out to be a real oddity. The Pottawattamie County Squirrel Cage Jail is one of three that still exist (seventeen were built in total in different cities) and the only one with three full levels. The cells in the jail are mounted on a lazy susan arrangement. The only way to get out of the jail cell is when the cage is rotated to the only doorway on each level. By a hand crank.

Built at a cost of about $30,000,  our unique jail has three floors of revolving pie-shaped cells inside a cage.  The front part of the building had offices for the jailer, kitchen, trustee cells, and quarters for women.

The design was the invention of William H. Brown and Benjamin F. Haugh, both of Indianapolis, Indiana.  A patent issued to them on July 12, 1881, declared, "The object of our invention is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer."  It was to provide "maximum security with minimum jailer attention."  As one deputy put it, "If a jailer could count … and he had a trusty he could trust … he could control the jail".

The jail was in continuous operation from 1885 until 1969.

You learn something new every day.