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Accidentally Historic

Accidentally Historic

Historical Society of Pottawattamie County

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 just normal people finding innovative ways to solve problems, inventing the future one day at a time. And that has made for some really interesting tales that we intend to explore in this podcast series.
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Top 10 Accidentally Historic Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Accidentally Historic episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Accidentally Historic for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Accidentally Historic episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Accidentally Historic - First Avenue- Where 175 years connect
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08/19/21 • 23 min

This episode was shared from the On First podcast series, which details the plans and progress of the FIRST AVE project by talking with planners, historians, and civic leaders. Other episodes include information about the Great American Rail Trail and how the corridor will once again be part of a transcontinental route, the railroad history of First Avenue, the planning processes involved, what the corridor will mean to Council Bluffs, and comments from Mayor Walsh. To hear these podcasts search "On First" in your favorite podcast app, go to OnFirstCB.com, or at this link: https://www.councilbluffs-ia.gov/2416/On-FIRST-Podcast

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Accidentally Historic - Council Bluffs' Tiniest Couple

Council Bluffs' Tiniest Couple

Accidentally Historic

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01/22/22 • 15 min

John G. Woodward wasn't the first to use little people in advertising, but may well have contributed to what became a popular trend for the next couple of decades. Buster Brown shoes had adopted a comic strip character as their advertising image a few years earlier and hired little people to play Buster in tours around the country. This came at the time when the trend was to introduce novelty into advertising to attract consumer attention in what was becoming the highly competitive world of marketing. Woodward's approach was different in that the company treated the Bregants with respect. What the company called "the lightest weight and best proportioned couple in the world" were photographed in adult poses and portrayed as sophisticated, unlike Little Oscar the Chef of the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile or Sunshine Bakers promoting "the cutest midgets you ever saw."

The Bregant's custom-made home was restored by Preserve Council Bluffs and is open for tours. Find more information about the house: https://sites.google.com/thehistoricalsociety.org/pcb/home/bregant-house

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Accidentally Historic - It’s History that Makes us Human
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10/24/22 • 23 min

Kat Slaughter is Museums Director for the Historical Society of Pottawattamie County. She studied at the University of Wyoming, graduating in 2016 with a Bachelor's degree of History and Anthropology with an emphasis in museum studies. Troy Stolp holds a BA from Iowa State University in Anthropology and Religious Studies, a BA from Buena Vista University in History, and an MA from UNO in History. Troy is a teacher at Lewis Central.

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Accidentally Historic - A Legacy of Regret

A Legacy of Regret

Accidentally Historic

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03/29/23 • 20 min

Things out of history aren’t always what they appear. Historic figures that seem good or bad were actually every bit as complicated as we are. Even statues and monuments may have been designed to send messages other than what seems apparent. Historic General Dodge House director Tom Emmett tackles these complicated issues head on by using an incident from the Civil War that seemingly plagued General Dodge the rest of his life.
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Accidentally Historic - Women of the Rails

Women of the Rails

Accidentally Historic

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03/29/21 • 23 min

Men may have done the survey work and laid the track, but there's a lot more to a railroad than steel rails and flanged wheels. In this episode, author and western researcher Chris Enss and Union Pacific Railroad Museum curator Patricia LaBounty describe the role women have played in railroading, dating from the industry's earliest times. Women were among the first telegraphers, as well as inventors of game-changing devices like the crossing gate and refrigerator car, plus creators of a myriad of inventions and means to make travel more safe and comfortable. Some worked to create a mystic allure of the West as a destination, building an interest in vacation train travel, even serving as railroad-employed tour guides at the destination. As early as the Civil War the loss of men to the military opened nontraditional railroad jobs to women, but the industry's apprentice and seniority systems made it difficult for most to maintain those positions. Not all women involved with the trains were on the railroad payroll, but the robbers and ladies of negotiable virtue all fit into the story as well. Chris Enss is a New York Times best selling author who has written over fifty books about women of the West, and was the recipient of the Will Rogers Medallion Award for best nonfiction Western for 2015. Chris Enss' book on this subject is called "Iron Women" and is available on Amazon. Patricia LaBounty is curator of the Union Pacific Railroad Museum in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the town that is milepost zero of the transcontinental railroad.

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Accidentally Historic - Council Bluffs' Sweet 98 Rocked the Metro
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12/27/19 • 27 min

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Accidentally Historic - Omaha Council Bluffs' Sweet 98 Rocked the Metro
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12/27/19 • 27 min

It has to be one of the Omaha area’s greatest “rags-to-riches” stories. Radio station Sweet 98 (KQKQ-FM) became hugely popular, for 25 years dominating the Omaha metro ratings as the area’s first personality-driven FM music station, kicking off with “Breakfast Flakes” Mark Evans and Dick Warner in the summer of 1980. Known for its nonstop promotions, high dollar giveaways, and colorful, opulent studio appearing somewhat like a spaceship, its origin was considerably more humble. The station was in poor economic shape when owner John Mitchell came up with a plan to completely reinvent it, switching the progressive, album-oriented format to popular Top 40 music. The transformation was extensive and involved an almost complete staff turnover. Just three people were retained from the old station to become part of the new Sweet 98, which started in a converted apartment building at 36th and West Broadway in Council Bluffs. This podcast brings those three together. Kevin Kassera (“Special K”), Dick Warner, and Bob Warner talk and reminisce about the conditions leading up to the format change and the beginning of Sweet 98.

Excerpts of the podcast can be found in a video on the Historical Society's YouTube channel at

FInd photos at: https://www.facebook.com/pg/Council-Bluffs-Revealed-281093015390863/photos/?tab=album&album_id=1429948487171971

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Accidentally Historic - The Mobster and the Metro

The Mobster and the Metro

Accidentally Historic

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11/22/22 • 10 min

Comments and questions are always welcome. Contact the Historical Society at [email protected]. If you are interested in Council Bluffs history be sure to check our our local history videos. Search for Council Bluffs Revealed in the YouTube search bar. The Society also hosts a Facebook page called Council Bluffs Revealed.

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Accidentally Historic - 150 Years of CB High: Guns, Tunnels, and Triva
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05/31/20 • 29 min

Perched atop one of the highest hills, Council Bluffs' first high school building in 1870 reflected the city’s optimism as much as it did society’s expectations of education. The towering building had a chapel, but no facilities for practical training; there was no sports equipment, yet ample rifles and live ammunition to arm all students. In this episode Historical Society member Michael Winchester explores the city's first high school building and why it quickly fell out of use, the struggle over where to rebuild, how Abraham Lincoln High School’s first principal, Gerald W. Kirn, came to define the school he ruled for over a quarter century plus how changing societal expectations influenced design and remodeling of the new building while along the way creating a new stage in life called adolescence. Intriguing bits of trivia pop up along the way, including a football field that wasn’t quite long or wide enough, why the ROTC drill room was left with a dirt floor, the district's lack of concerned over a fifty percent dropout rate, and a system of secret tunnels discovered by students but unknown to the administration.

Michael Winchester has served as vice-president of the Council Bluffs school board. He and fellow school board member Michael O'Bradovich were subjects of a story on the television program “60 Minutes” in 1976 when host Mike Wallace interviewed them about their status as the youngest elected public officials in the United States and their interest in preserving the city’s old school buildings. A graduate of Creighton University’s law school, Mr. Winchester served nearly thirty years as an Omaha city prosecutor and is now semi-retired. He has been inducted into Abraham Lincoln High School’s Hall of Fame.

A short video except of this podcast can be found on the Historical Society's YouTube Channel at

Comments, questions and suggestions are welcome at [email protected].

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Seasonal haunted houses appeared on the local scene about fifty years ago, initially fund raisers for a variety of groups and causes. Youth For Christ, Campus Life, March of Dimes, the Jaycees, and the Historical Society were early participants. From church basements and abandoned buildings to semi truck trailers in parking lots, haunted houses proliferated by the 1980s. Generally staffed by youthful volunteers intent on making their particular character and their venue as scary as possible, the endeavor brought together imagination, creativity and theatrics to become something of an art form in its own right.

Safety standards imposed following a 1980s tragedy in New Jersey escalated costs, forcing some small players out of the business, to be replaced by commercial operators. The better financial position of the latter allowed for investment in more elaborate displays and equipment. This, coupled with technology developments of the past decade, have made the modern haunted houses in many ways quite different from their predecessors, but some tried-and-true techniques can always be counted on for a scare.

Haunted House historians Doug Kabourek and Brian Corey reminisce about Council Bluffs and Omaha’s early haunted houses, describe what makes a haunted house work, and discuss the allure they have had for young people and why that age demographic is expanding. Doug has used what he has learned over the years to create a haunted house in his basement. Designed to simulate the experience of the houses of the 1980s, it is called “Sunday Bloody Sunday.” Find more information at https://www.facebook.com/sundaybloodysunday.

Doug Kabourek also maintains a website the chronicles the haunted houses of Council Bluffs and Omaha at www.WickedPlaza.com

Brian Corey hosts a horror movie, paranormal, and spooky podcast call Necronomicast at www.necronomicast.com

PLEASE NOTE: DUE TO COVID MANY HAUNTED HOUSE ATTRACTIONS DID NOT OPEN FOR THE 2020 SEASON.

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FAQ

How many episodes does Accidentally Historic have?

Accidentally Historic currently has 30 episodes available.

What topics does Accidentally Historic cover?

The podcast is about History and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Accidentally Historic?

The episode title 'Fright for a Fee- Fifty Years of Omaha Council Bluffs Haunted Houses' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Accidentally Historic?

The average episode length on Accidentally Historic is 19 minutes.

How often are episodes of Accidentally Historic released?

Episodes of Accidentally Historic are typically released every 56 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Accidentally Historic?

The first episode of Accidentally Historic was released on Sep 25, 2019.

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