Carter Lake, Iowa

I was in the lobby of a Days Inn in Council Bluffs (on some prior visit) when i noticed Carter Lake, Iowa. There was a large map of the surrounding area in the lobby and glancing at it- Council Bluffs on one side of the Missouri and Omaha on the other- I noticed a random suburb of what appeared to be Omaha named Carter Lake. Yet the state line spiralled out, west of the Missouri to encompass the town.

I was fascinated. What the hell was up with this? And if there's one thing amongst many in this world that I find fascinating, it's geographic anomalies. It turns out that once upon a time, Carter Lake was on the east side of the Missouri River until a flood in 1877 redirected the course of the river a couple of miles to the southeast. As a result, the bend of the river that Carter Lake nestled under was cut off (or avulsed, if you want the technical term) and became an oxbow lake (named Carter Lake, funnily enough) and stranded Carter Lake on the west side of the river.

This caused a bit of a spat between Iowa and Nebraska (soon to be eclipsed, I would imagine, by the upcoming Farmageddon hitting the gridiron turf in the fall) that had to be wrangled and refereed by the Supreme Court. Traditionally, the rule had been that state boundaries followed the natural borders of any given state- like rivers and the like, but the Supremes ruled that there was an exception when rivers cut chunks of themselves off- like in the case of Carter Lake.

Still technically part of Council Bluffs, they seceded in the 20s intending to become part of Omaha, but Omaha didn't want none of that- so they became their own little town. They became known as the hottest gambling spot between Reno and Chicago for awhile, as gambling was illegal in Nebraska but very much legal in Iowa for awhile there and now exist as a fascinatingly confusing bit of landscape that probably freaks people new to Omaha out, as they have to drive through a bit of Iowa to get to and from the airport.

In town for Easter yesterday, the Missus and I went driving and drove through this lovely little town. I would have liked to get some more pics of the Lake itself, but we forgot to turn and ended up in some truly scary looking neighborhoods in North Omaha- near where Malcolm X was born, strangely enough.

Omaha itself, was a mess. Everything seemed to be getting ripped up and it was a confusing jumble of identities. You could go from scary crackhouses to old rich money to hipster neighborhoods in the space of about five blocks. Though color me impressed: I didn't know President Ford was born in Omaha and in a strange twist of historical weirdness, so was Malcolm X. And thanks to the tour guide we knicked from the Travelodge, it turns out there's a lot more to do in Omaha that previously thought.

(Next bit of geographical Omaha weirdness: The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge- sadly barred to us due to the scary large SuperChurch services going on at the XCel Center for Easter. It's the longest pedestrian bridge connecting two states- 3,000 ft long right over the Missouri RIver.)