maximum security with minimum personal contact between the prisoner and the jailer. The jail was placed on the National Register of Historical Places in 1972 and is now operated as a small museum. Interested visitors are permitted to "spend some time behind bars".

Avoca is the judicial seat of eastern Pottawattamie County. This town of 1,500 residents was founded in 1869. It was originally known as Pacific, and then Botna. It was finally named Avoca in reference to a Thomas Moore poem entitled "The Meeting of the Waters".

The Loess Hills (pronounced "luss"), which span the western part of the county, were once home to many prehistoric species. Mammoths, mastodons, camels, bison, musk ox, ground sloth, three-toed horses, dire wolf, stag moose, and stilt-legged deer were among the animal fossils discovered in the Loess Hills. Today the Loess Hills are home to many different species of birds, reptiles and amphibians.
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General Grenville Mellen Dodge, is an important historical figure in Pottawattamie County. General Dodge organized the Fourth Iowa Volunteers and the 2nd Iowa Battery to serve in the Civil War. In 1864, the general lead a campaign to rid Missouri of guerillas who were terrorizing residents of the state. In 1866, he became Chief Engineer for the Union Pacific Railroad's westward movement. He also became a United States Congressman that same year. On May 10, 1869 the Union and Central Pacific Railroads met in Promontory Summit, Utah. General Dodge's crew had laid 1086 miles of track. In 1869, General Dodge and his wife, Ruth Anne Dodge, started construction of their home in Council Bluffs. The house is located at 605 Third Street. The General Dodge House is a National Historic Landmark. The house is now a museum that is open to the public. General Dodge died January 3, 1916, from cancer. He was 84 years old.