COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (KMTV) — General Grenville Dodge is considered the greatest railroad builder of all time. He was also a Union Civil War general and put Council Bluffs on the map – which even led to the founding of Omaha.
He lived, died, and was buried in Council Bluffs.
A statue in the city in memory of his wife, Ruth Anne Dodge, holds a legend of its own — in a haunted way.
It’s well known as the Black Angel, but its proper name is the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial.
Mrs. Dodge was on her deathbed in 1916.
“She had a vision — three of them. Each time an angel on a boat would invite her to drink from the water of life,” Tom Emmett, executive director of the Historic General Dodge House, said.
The first two times she refused.
“But ultimately, she drank and felt peace. Soon after she died and her daughters, in memory of that vision that Ruth Anne Dodge had, built this statue in 1919,” Emmett said.
When her daughters were looking for someone to create the sculpture of the angel that stands today, they turned to one of the world’s best - Daniel Chester French.
“If you’ve been to the Lincoln Monument in Washington D.C. you’ve seen his work,” Emmett said. “So, we have a world-class artist and a world-class statue in our own community.”
“But the woman who it is based on, the model for the Black Angel, lived a horrible and tragic life.”
The woman, Audrey Munson, was the country’s first supermodel.
“Probably the most sculpted woman ever,” Emmett said.
A little over a decade after the sculpture was erected, Munson was admitted to a hospital for the insane by her mother after she tried to die by suicide.
“And for 65 years she had no visitors, and she died at the age of 104 in an unmarked grave,” Emmett said. “So, the image, meant to represent the angel, is of a terribly tragic figure and in that way, it is a black angel.”
What does Emmett say about the potential hauntings?
“Some people believe that if you touch it, you may be cursed. Some people believe the space is haunted. I don’t. I see it as a symbol of hope, of life, and of our heritage.”
Now Emmett may not be sold on the ideas of ghosts or paranormal activity at the Black Angel, but when my photographer Bo and I arrived we planned on using the drone.
The phone that operates the drone was charged upon arrival, but once we got it out on scene the phone was dead.
“The legends I’ve heard is the stairs change numbers when you go up and down, and if you try to take pictures you can lose your footage,” Kat Slaughter, Historical Society of Pottawattamie County Director of Museums, said.
Fortunately, we didn’t lose our footage and we did get the phone recharged for the drone.
Haunted or not, that’s for you to go out and decide
“I encourage everyone to visit it at least once,” Emmett said.
The Black Angel is located at 623 N. 2nd Street in Council Bluffs at the Fairview Cemetery.
You can also learn more about the Dodge family by visiting the Historic General Dodge House.
The only National Historic Landmark in Council Bluffs is now a museum and has been kept to look exactly as it did more than a century ago.
The museum will also hold spooky and informational candlelight Halloween tours. To learn more about the tours and the Historic General Dodge House, click here.
