Council Bluffs, Iowa

From the outside, the museum looks like an average brick building. There is only one peculiarity — bars over the windows.

Built during the 19th century in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the Squirrel Cage Jail housed local criminals in addition to the jailer’s family. Today, the jail is preserved as a museum.

HISTORY AND EXPLANATION OF THE JAIL

In 1884, Cottonwood Jail burned down and the county was forced to house prisoners in a single room in the courthouse basement. The “Squirrel Cage,” as locals know it, is a rotary or “lazy-Susan” style jailhouse, built in 1885.

The rotary design of the jail was chosen for the Pottawattamie County Jail because the facility was designed to hold about 60 prisoners with only one jailer. However, there are accounts of as many as five men being put in each two-man cell. Each cell consisted of two bunks and a small privy, or primitive toilet system, in the inner part of the cell.

In December of 1803, Meriwether Lewis set up camp on the River Dubois in Illinois with many of the men who would later make up the Corps of Discovery.

During their stay at Camp River Dubois, the Corps trained to survive the conditions of the wilderness, hired more men for the journey and gathered supplies. Without the months of preparation at the camp, their campaign would not have been a success. The men’s stories during their time at River Dubois are preserved through the care of the volunteers and manager at Camp River Dubois Lewis and Clark Museum.

Museum Manager Brad Winn works to preserve the stories of the Corps. Winn said his goal is to educate people about what really happened at Camp River Dubois and to rebuke the idea that Lewis and the Corps of Discovery left from St. Louis to begin the campaign.

In one of the museum’s rooms, visitors will find a log cabin, barrels of fake food, beads and cloth. Large audio-visual exhibits talk about the history of the camp as well as display letters that the men wrote in their diaries. Winn said this exhibit provides information about the methods Lewis and Clark used to pick the men they wanted on the journey with them.

Downtown St. Louis is monotonous. Grids of office buildings circle other office buildings. A handful of stadiums and high-class hotels inhabit the blocks unoccupied by businesses. The city is gray, except for two green blocks, appropriately named Citygarden.

The garden sits on what used to be two lots of vacant land between Eighth and Tenth and Market and Chestnut Streets. Twenty-four sculptures from world-renowned artists, including Donald Baechler, Niki de Saint Phalle and George Rickey, are scattered throughout the park and surrounded by plants native to Missouri.

The northeast corner of the park features the Terrace View, an indoor and outdoor restaurant that serves Mediterranean, Italian and French cuisine for lunch and dinner to park visitors.

Urbandale, Iowa

The smells of sweet homemade apple pie, harsh print shop ink and woodsy, smoky campfires greet guests as they take a walking tour through Iowa’s history.

Living History Farms is a 500-acre outdoor museum in Urbandale, Iowa. Visitors progress through four time periods in Iowa’s history, including a 1700 Ioway Indian tribe site, an 1850 pioneer farm, a 1900 farm and an 1875 town.

Former Iowa State University professor William Murray created the living museum in 1970 after two unsuccessful runs for Iowa governor. Jennie Derr, marketing and public relations director, said Murray decided to give back to Iowa in a different way.