Hi, you have reached the Atlas Obscura Podcast Line.

Leave me a message about a strange, unusual, or surprising place that happens to be

near where you grew up or where you live now.

Hi there, my name is Kenneth Rusk.

I grew up in West Central Indiana near a smaller city called Crawfordsville.

Carordsville has a number of things that it's famous for,

but I think that one of the more unique things

in Crawfordsville is that it is the location

of the only remaining operating rotary jail.

Now these jails were found all across the Midwest

and the idea was that the jail cells were situated sort of like a cylinder

which could be spun within the interior of the jail.

That way guards would only have to interact with one cell at a time.

To this day, most of them have been torn down.

Only four of them remain standing and the one in

Crawfordville is the only one that still spins. To this day you can go there and

the apparatus that actually spins the cells, the crank, that all still works.

I think it's a unique thing for a small city like Carusville to have,

something that really is truly one of a kind.

Thank you for the call, Kenneth.

I do have to say that the idea of a rotating jail

it feels distinctly wrong.

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