Susan Cronk

Human Squirrel Cage Susan Cronk

America's rotary jails were patented in 1881 by Haugh, Brown, and Ketcham of Indianapolis, Indiana. They were promoted as one of the safest, securest of jail designs and claimed that their interiors of steel and iron were both "saw-proof and file-proof." The design ultimately failed on all accounts. There were multiple escapes, recorded incidents of injury and death, and at least one instance where the prisoners inside were shocked when a bolt of lightning struck nearby. That was at the Nodaway County jail. This book not only details the long and interesting history of the Nodaway County rotary jail, which I and my family lived in during my father's term as sheriff between 1977 and 1980, but it encapsulates the history of all five jails, to date, that Nodaway County has built and used. The Human Squirrel Cage, or rotary jail, located in Nodaway County, Missouri was the third jail of its kind constructed in the United States. There were only eighteen built, in total. The first completed was at Crawfordsville, Indiana, in January of 1882. The second was finished in July of 1882 in Paducah, Kentucky. The Nodaway County rotary jail aka Lazy-Susan jail or merry-go-round jail was finished in December of 1882. Missouri is the only state to have constructed three rotary jails. The rotary jail built in the Nodaway County seat of Maryville, was the first of its kind in the state, and the largest of those three. It was the last rotary jail in use as a jail in the country, standing for over 102 years and 1 month, even though its rotary cages stopped revolving and was fixed in place in 1932. Only three "human squirrel cages," as they became known, remain standing today. All three are museums. The first is located in Crawfordsville, Indiana. The second is located in Gallatin, Missouri. The third is located in Council Bluffs, Iowa. The Nodaway County rotary jail was razed in 1985 to make way for the jail in use today. I hope you enjoy reading the Human Squirrel Cage - Nodaway County's Rotary Jail as much as I have enjoyed working on this project.