The go-ahead to build the three-tiered, rotating caged Pottawattamie County Squirrel Cage Jail, was passed by the Pottawattamie County Board in 1885. Construction of the jail was simultaneous with that of the county’s new courthouse, which was finished in 1888. It was built at a cost of $30,000. The Pottawattamie County Jail was one of 18 such jails that were built in the United States. The rotating jail was designed with respect to a “maximum security with minimum jailer attention, with minimal contact between the prisoners and the jailers.” The rotary-style jail was an architectural design for some prisons in the US Midwest during the late 19th century. Cells in the jails were arranged so that they rotated in a carousel fashion; allowing only one cell at a time to be accessible from the single opening per level. This idea was patented by the Indianapolis firm of William Brown and Benjamin Haugh in 1881. The front part of the jail had offices for the jailer, kitchen, trustee cells, and quarters for women. The rest of the building is made up of pie-shaped cells that revolved inside of a cage. The Pottawattamie County Jail welcomed its first residents on September 11, 1885. The design of the rotary constructed jails had its flaws. Among the flaws was that a prisoner standing at the front of a cell with his hands resting on the bars had a decent chance of getting an arm crushed when the rotary mechanism was engaged. Natural light was poor, ventilation was poor, and mechanical problems could interfere with the operation of a jail.  In the case of a fire, all the prisoners whose cells weren't aligned with the access door would likely be doomed. In light of these problems, many rotary jails had their turntables immobilized during the 1930s. In one instance, in one of the other rotary-styled jails, it was said that in 1960 there was an inmate who died of natural causes, and a malfunction prevented retrieval of his corpse for two days, the rotary mechanism was disabled. Pottawattamie County Jail sent its prisoners away in 1969. 
Four deaths are known to have occurred during the history of the Pottawattamie County Squirrel Cage Jail. One prisoner died of a heart attack, another prisoner was found hanged in his cell. The third death was of a prisoner who tried to climb up the jail cage to try and write his name on the ceiling. He fell from the third level and died. The fourth death was during the Farmer's Holiday Association strike of 1932, eighty-four protestors were arrested and taken to the jail. Out of fear that the angry farmers would storm the jail and set the prisoners free, the police department used machine guns to turn the grounds of the jail and courthouse into a "no-man's land". One officer died during the confusion after he accidentally shot himself inside the jail. If the deaths aren’t enough to justify a haunting, some have pointed to the fact that the building is on the site of the old St. Paul’s Episcopal Church morgue.