Accidentally Historic

About Accidentally Historic

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.

Publisher

Historical Society of Pottawattamie County

Category

history

Language

en

Explicit

No

First episode

25 Sept 2019

Latest episode

20 Aug 2026

Latest episodes

38 episodes in the feed.

1. 

   20 Aug 2026

   From the Boxing Ring to the Olympic Rings—Via the “Pitch” and the Turf

   This is part two of a podcast about the athletes who were recognized as inaugural members of the new Council Bluffs Professional Sports Roster. Each honoree is recognized with a banner that will be permanently displayed at the Iowa West Field House in Council Bluffs. Writer and researcher Brian Mainwaring contributed much of the material used during the induction ceremony and now shares those insights and career highlights in the latest episode of our podcast. The episode highlights the Professional Sports Roster inductees whose careers involved sports other than baseball and football; the latter were featured in the previous episode.

2. 

   21 Mar 2026

   From the Bahnsen Burner to the Don Chandler Rule

   The Iowa West Foundation recently launched a program to celebrate some of the athletes from Council Bluffs and Pottawattamie County who have achieved national recognition in various sports. Twenty-four athletes were recognized as inaugural members of the new Council Bluffs Professional Sports Roster. Each honoree is recognized with a banner that will be permanently displayed at the Iowa West Field House in Council Bluffs. Writer and researcher Brian Mainwaring contributed much of the material used during the induction ceremony and now shares those insights and career highlights in the latest episode of our podcast. The episode highlights the sixteen Professional Sports Roster inductees whose careers included baseball and football, with additional sports to be featured in a future installment.

3. 

   17 Jan 2026

   Invisible Excellence- WWI Armistice Signed, Unit K/Mobile One Returns Home

   The sixth and final episode of our “Invisible Excellence” podcast series sees Council Bluffs Unit K’s remarkable wartime experience finally reaching its end. Titled “The WWI Armistice Signed, Unit K/Mobile One Returns Home,” this installment follows the nurses, officers, and enlisted personnel of the first ever battlefield hospital to move along the front lines as they undertake the protracted journey back to the U.S. and to their respective post-war lives.

Reach and audience

Public platform figures. Ratings count people who left a rating, not total listeners.

Apple Podcasts (US)

5.0 / 5

13 ratings

Spotify

4.7 / 5

3 ratings

Podcast Authority Score: 45 / 100

A composite of feed quality, social presence, YouTube performance and engagement. Read the methodology.

Quality

55

Social presence

0

YouTube

0

Engagement

85

Contact Accidentally Historic

Guest appearances

Books guests

Based on episode analysis; this does not confirm that the show is currently accepting guests.