Shadowed By A Maximum Security Prison: Fort Madison, Iowa 4K.

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  • Опубліковано 4 лют 2025

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  • @ChrisHarden
    @ChrisHarden  4 роки тому +1

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    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 4 роки тому

      Wow they tore down the old pen Sheffers.old building dang I havent been in fort madison for along time since they put in that bypass cause the ppl there wanted less traffic going through there which is why fort Madison is dying..

    • @toddguzman788
      @toddguzman788 Рік тому

      @@gaylenewood7707 The Sheaffer Pen building has not been torn down. Nothing going on in the building though.

  • @elayna3312
    @elayna3312 Рік тому +2

    I grew up in this town, left when I was 18. I had never been on that road behind the prison. Thank you lol

  • @TechDaddyK
    @TechDaddyK 4 роки тому +15

    I enjoyed your video, thanks for making it!
    I've lived in Fort Madison my whole life (46 years and counting!). As you noted, it's definitely seen better days. Economic woes have plagued the town for decades. Still, I love living here. It's relatively quiet and safe (even though your statistics may indicate otherwise), and it certainly has lots of friendly folks.
    I know you can't drive down every street in a video like this, but if you would have continued along Business 61 (continued straight at 10:35), you would have seen the other three-quarters of our town. There's also plenty of history to the buildings downtown, of course, and a lot of the character of the town is within those four blocks or so.
    Also of note is the old factory on the right at 15:55. That's the original Sheaffer Pen home office and manufacturing plant. It contributed quite a bit to our economy and provided jobs for thousands of citizens over the decades it was in operation. This is also the location where the original fort was found while digging for a new parking lot. That fort, the first permanent U.S. military fortification on the Upper Mississippi, protected a trading post in the early 1800s.
    You can learn more about Fort Madison at en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fort_Madison,_Iowa. Thanks again for stopping by our town and taking the time to share it. Take care!

    • @marykratzer1211
      @marykratzer1211 4 роки тому

      Oh, I did not drive around. That drive through was by a guy showing old & new prisons. I moved from Warsaw, IL to Ft Madison in early 1959. Finally moved to Arizona cause of better winter weather & available jobs (my job was closed out in 1986) Here in Phoenix I could go to job agencies & get temp jobs which most frequently landed me a permanent job. I have several relatives there. My last name is Kratzer & anyone living there is a relative. I also have a daughter there, but I will not release her name. I moved to Wickenburg, AZ in 2016.

    • @drdwgmd14
      @drdwgmd14 3 роки тому +1

      I LOVE FT. MADISON so MUCH

    • @Mario_Gillette
      @Mario_Gillette 3 роки тому +1

      I lived there in 1999 and worked at what is now a Shell station on the other end of town from what this video showed. Back when it was a Texaco, my girlfriend at the time worked at the restaurant next door. (To the right across that lot) and at the Parthenon. I believe the apartments we lived in was The Chateau Apartments on Ave. A next to a hight school.

    • @cybernetennis
      @cybernetennis 3 роки тому

      @@Mario_Gillette At that time it was called Aquinas High school

  • @JillBrewerVideos
    @JillBrewerVideos 2 роки тому +10

    Omg, you drove right past the house I used to live in as a child (on Ave. F) during the 60s when my dad worked at DuPont. Haven’t been back since I was six years old, so this video was very nostalgic for me. Thanks for posting.
    Oh, and that cinema you passed is where I saw my first movie ever. It was Snow White. Fond memories of 4th of July fireworks on the river, skateboarding in Central Park, and lots of fun with the neighborhood kids. I dare say that Fort Madison was an idyllic and innocent place to be a young child.

  • @marykratzer1211
    @marykratzer1211 4 роки тому +15

    Lived in this town for 27 years. It has gone downhill considerably. My two youngest was born here. You did not mention the bridge is the oldest yet operating drawspan bridge in the World. I worked at the old prison site for 16 years. I moved to Arizon in 1986 after they discontinued my job. The prison population has even dropped considerably from when I worked there.

    • @lynsixty
      @lynsixty Рік тому

      I moved from Ft. Madison to Arizona in 1978.

    • @RobertDetert
      @RobertDetert Рік тому

      Yep..there's more prisons in Iowa now like in most states

  • @brutaldomcom
    @brutaldomcom 2 роки тому +5

    Fort Madison is the only place in Iowa where you can hop a train to LA (via Amtrak’s Southwest Chief.) There are four other Amtrak stops but they’re all part of the California Zephyr route that goes to the Bay Area.

  • @josesalazar7378
    @josesalazar7378 Рік тому +1

    I was in the max prison for a little over 5yrs in the late 90s early 2000ths its only through this video that i see what the town looks like

  • @Theodorej1960
    @Theodorej1960 4 роки тому +9

    My Grandmother raised my mother, aunt and uncle in Niota, Ill., by herself during the Great Depression. Grandma's house was right behind the Wye Not tavern, on the corner lot. It's gone now, lost in the great flood of 1993, but was built by my great grandfather around the turn of the century, in 1900. Grandma lived in that house in Niota until she died in 1979. As kids, we spent a lot of time at Grandma's house, where we didn't have indoor plumbing or air conditioning (until nearly 1973). There wasn't much to do in Niota, so we'd go over to Ft. Madison and go shopping. My first pair of Levi's jeans was bought at Hesse's, on Main St. My mother, in her later years, moved to Nauvoo, where my Uncle always lived and raised his family (my cousins). Mom passed away in 2016, at the age of 94, and she's now buried in the Nauvoo City Cemetery. I'll always remember and love Niota, Nauvoo, Ft. Madison and Keokuk and all the memories I have from that area and years of my life spent there. I still have cousins there, and some of their kids, and now grandkids, and my sister lives in Nauvoo now, in Mom's old house. The last time I was back to visit, it literally shocked me to see how much both Ft. Madison and Keokuk had declined.....particularly Keokuk!! Mom always called Ft. Madison and Keokuk "roughshod little river towns" and she was right. Seems like they're even rougher these days than they were when Mom was alive. Still, the memories are in my heart and always will be.

    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 4 роки тому +1

      The great flood of 93 wasnt very thrilling it changed alot of things and we find some ppl's true colors as well during it..

    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 4 роки тому +1

      Keokuk iowa the mall there is on life support its slowly dying and ppl keep blaming walmart but its not walmart it's the ppl who live there they dont want to support local businesses and even not give new ideas and new businesses to start there they just chase it away soon as those kids in keokuk iowa graduate they are gone and not coming back unless it's for funerals or something else..

  • @TonyInIowa
    @TonyInIowa 2 роки тому +3

    Yup, I lived there too. Kinda hard to capture the total essence of a pace in 18 minutes. Nice vid, got a bit homesick seeing the old stomping grounds. Thanx!

    • @ChrisHarden
      @ChrisHarden  2 роки тому +1

      Yeah it’s a tough balance trying to decide on the length of a video for each place. Still trying to figure that one out.
      Glad you enjoyed it!

  • @Bodyweightlifestyle
    @Bodyweightlifestyle 4 роки тому +4

    This is great! I love seeing these old towns and cities and the comments from viewers on various history are great as well!

    • @emmaberry06
      @emmaberry06 3 роки тому

      Its not so great, It's fairly boring not fun living here

  • @wildbill9919
    @wildbill9919 4 роки тому +11

    Ft Madison is a great place for railfans. About 70 freight trains a day go through.

    • @dally8399
      @dally8399 4 роки тому +2

      70?

    • @wildbill9919
      @wildbill9919 4 роки тому +5

      @@dally8399 Yes. Virtual Railfan has a live cam in Ft Madison on UA-cam. Check it out.

    • @dally8399
      @dally8399 4 роки тому

      @@wildbill9919 thought that might have been a typo

    • @leaphillips6670
      @leaphillips6670 4 роки тому +1

      The historical society told me that it was 90 trains per day.

    • @mpgarr
      @mpgarr 3 роки тому +3

      There are videos of modern day "hobos" either hopping on a train out of Ft. Madison to either head east or west, or they come in from either direction heading east or west. It is definitely a popular train fan town.

  • @rickspring3870
    @rickspring3870 Рік тому +2

    It was a great town to grow up in truely small town USA proud to call Ft madison Iowa my birth place

  • @johnnyboy55
    @johnnyboy55 Рік тому +2

    Your pronunciation of penitentiary is hilarious! How did you manage to mangle it that badly?

    • @ChrisHarden
      @ChrisHarden  Рік тому

      To get comments like yours. Thanks! It helps the video.

  • @chadbailey8490
    @chadbailey8490 4 роки тому +8

    The bridge is owned by BNSF, which is a railroad bridge that they own, you don't have to pay going into Iowa, you have to pay going into Illinois.

    • @TechDaddyK
      @TechDaddyK 4 роки тому +4

      We like to joke, "It's free to get in, but you gotta pay to leave!" --Fort Madisonian of 46 years

    • @conartistap8831
      @conartistap8831 3 роки тому +3

      @@TechDaddyK great joke

    • @bcdarling3488
      @bcdarling3488 2 роки тому

      Free both ways now

    • @steveengelbrecht7271
      @steveengelbrecht7271 Рік тому

      Thought the bridge was sold to the Chase Manhattan Bank.

  • @leaphillips6670
    @leaphillips6670 4 роки тому +5

    The bridge is one of the longest double decker swing span bridges.

    • @cybernetennis
      @cybernetennis 3 роки тому +1

      One of the largest swingspan bridges in the world

  • @timothystevenhoward
    @timothystevenhoward 2 роки тому +2

    dont forget the wind turbine blade factory, the railroad depot which just got rebuilt, main street rebuilt etc. its actually looking like the town is on the upswing. marina is also being dredged and rebuilt.

  • @coreyfreeman4053
    @coreyfreeman4053 2 роки тому +2

    I use to live there. It use to be a decent town with jobs but has since declined. Still love the nostalgia of the place and most of the ppl are great there. Stop at the fort diner and grab a wally burger you won't be disappointed

  • @maewebster9377
    @maewebster9377 Рік тому +1

    my father's family technically started out in a smaller town 14 miles and moved to the booming town of Fort Madison. My siblings and I used to laughed at the creative street names; Avenue L, P, D lol. A lot of history that will never be found in books occurred in these old river towns. During prohibition gangsters found it easy to high tail it out of Chicago and escape coming through Ft Madison, Keokuk, Burlington. Prisoners in the old pen were known to hit balls over the fence so you had to be cautious driving by

  • @BartSimpson-td6jl
    @BartSimpson-td6jl 4 роки тому +4

    Hey fellow Ft. Madisonians.

  • @chrisescobar4199
    @chrisescobar4199 2 місяці тому

    I was born in Fort Madison in 1980. Moved to TX in 2014, but FM will always be home. It suprises me that FM is above average for violent crime. There was not much violent crime at all that I can remember. Unless maybe that stat is including incidents at the prison? I dunno. Can't wait to go back and visit some time.

  • @cybernetennis
    @cybernetennis 3 роки тому +1

    My freaking hometown; love it always :)

  • @alexharriott1180
    @alexharriott1180 10 місяців тому +2

    After growing up in the sketchy side of rockford Illinois.. living here is incredibly peaceful. I would disagree with the crime stats. Hell, two people get into a fight outside hyvee and it makes the news, in rockford someone could get stabbed in a Walmart parking lot and it'll be just a rolling text at the bottom of the weather channel. This town is quiet, has its charms, and rich in history. I like this little river town 😊

  • @moontainbew5018
    @moontainbew5018 2 роки тому +1

    Why didnt mentioned there is a Old Fort Madison Fort and train etc? that has to be the highlight we are gonna see it in June.

  • @claudemartinez6589
    @claudemartinez6589 3 роки тому +6

    That prison is only 20 minutes from where i live i use to deliver stuff there.Had to have a prison guard escort everywhere you went in there.One section is blocked off because of supposedly being haunted guards would not even set foot in there themselves.

    • @jimlane2961
      @jimlane2961 3 роки тому +1

      THE HANGING SECTION OF PRISON !!!!

  • @sarge3ad
    @sarge3ad 4 роки тому +7

    You go too fast thru these towns to see anything. Slow it down please.

  • @jackmortimer8906
    @jackmortimer8906 9 місяців тому

    Me and a friend wanted to walk through there. I was wondering who we would need to get ahold of ??

  • @tedcruz6059
    @tedcruz6059 2 роки тому +2

    The abandon house at the end of 16 street was Gene McCoy's house he was a Radio DJ for the local radio station KBKB in the late 70's, dj "Rob Hunter" and a man of many talents after that. Gene died in 2001 at the age of 40 and now is popping up daisy's like his patented song says. RIP Geno and party on my friend.

  • @danr1920
    @danr1920 3 роки тому +2

    The bridge is a lot like the old one in Keokuk.

    • @RobertDetert
      @RobertDetert Рік тому

      Yep.
      Cousins lived in Keokuk.
      Used to go there every year for Christmas.
      They still use the old Keokuk bridge for trains .
      One goes over the bridge every once in a while..and they leave it open now when there's no train

  • @maewebster9377
    @maewebster9377 Рік тому +2

    These towns had industry at one time; Schaefer pen company was located in Ft Madison. Wrong presidential vote by the town and Schaefer left and took the majority of jobs with them

    • @supperhey
      @supperhey 10 місяців тому

      Can you elaborate?

  • @garyplastek8101
    @garyplastek8101 Рік тому +2

    I counted ar least 4 stop signs rgat you did not stop for.

  • @randyn923nichols4
    @randyn923nichols4 Рік тому +1

    If you would have gone up the other road on top of the hill overlooking the river there are mansions up including the old brick mansion once owned by the Bailey family of Barnum & Bailey circus fame.

  • @RobertDetert
    @RobertDetert Рік тому +1

    You obviously don't know anything about Ft.. Madison basically.
    There's a lot of history there .
    You didn't show or talk about any of it except for the prison

  • @snakeluccisnakehousetv5676
    @snakeluccisnakehousetv5676 3 роки тому

    I did time there. I was there when they took us from the old one to the new one.

  • @johnsmallberries3476
    @johnsmallberries3476 3 роки тому +4

    The Tri-State rodeo is a lot of fun 👍🐎

  • @stevenleek1254
    @stevenleek1254 3 роки тому +6

    1927? There's a placard on the bridge that says 1917, also, it isn't "rickety" at all. No mention of the Shafer (sp) Pen Factory (you drove right past it) which was world famous and home to the pen of that name. It's practically a poster child for abandoned industry in the U.S. Otherwise, thanks for the tour. Here's a little treasure I like to share: That bridge is also a "swing bridge" making it more that just another bridge you might see in a big city. When barges get close an alarm goes off and a gate drops. You're caught on the bridge for around 15 to 25 min. On a nice Spring or Summer evening, people get out of their cars to watch the proceedings. It's like a low key 4th of July!

    • @Mario_Gillette
      @Mario_Gillette 3 роки тому

      When I lived there in 1999, I applied to work at Shaffer Pen.... never got a call back lol. So I worked at the Texaco which is now a Shell Station on the other end of town.

  • @Mario_Gillette
    @Mario_Gillette 3 роки тому

    I lived there in 1999 and worked at what is now a Shell station on the other end of town from what this video showed. Back when it was a Texaco, my girlfriend at the time worked at the restaurant next door. (To the right across that lot) and at the Parthenon. I believe the apartments we lived in was The Chateau Apartments on Ave. A next to a hight school.

  • @Sidebranches
    @Sidebranches 2 роки тому +2

    I used to live in the big White House that had the 4 white pillars across from the prison. I also always left my keys in the car. I don’t want them coming in when they break out the prison.

  • @08andylee
    @08andylee 3 роки тому

    I grew up in Ft Madison, but I haven't been back since 2003. Couldn't find work so I had to leave.

  • @flexjay87
    @flexjay87 2 роки тому

    I was born in Fort Madison Iowa, 1959, left in 1964.

  • @cbmike6244
    @cbmike6244 Рік тому +1

    My dude Jason is locked up there

  • @noemad5391
    @noemad5391 3 роки тому

    They passed my sister emeralds house. This place looks like it's gone even more downhill then when I left.

  • @janicereeser916
    @janicereeser916 2 роки тому +2

    Did not see anything about the old Fort Madison.

  • @oldengineer1519
    @oldengineer1519 5 місяців тому

    When I lived in Fort Madison as a child in the 60's the closer you got to the river the poorer the neighborhoods became. To be honest the drive on Ave L isn't that much different than I remember. The more money folks had the closer to Central Park you lived or you had a place up on the bluffs.

  • @timgerling6060
    @timgerling6060 Рік тому +1

    You dont have to pay a toll coming into Iowa just into Illinois

  • @MonaHIATTSOMMERFELD
    @MonaHIATTSOMMERFELD 2 роки тому +3

    I live in fort madison iowa and u didn't even show half of ur town this video so it does not even give fort madison a benefit at all

    • @evawexlie8762
      @evawexlie8762 Рік тому +1

      Omlouvám se, ale anglicky bych to nevyjádřila přesně - úplně souhlasím. Mám z nějakého důvodu pro vaše město slabost, i když žiji na jiném kontinentu, asi je to tím, že sleduji ty vlaky ...Ale zajímá mě kromě života lidí i historie a příroda, a všechno zde ve videu uplynulo tak nějak fofrem. Jako když jedete kolem Paříže nebo Prahy po okruhu. Neviděli jsme pevnost, nádraží a vlastně ani věznici. Aspoň tu je kousek mostu, který je součástí světových dějin a je úžasný. A to ptactvo na řece... Krize je teď všude, je to těžké, ale třeba mně se vaše městečko fakt líbí. Aspoň se zdá, že je tu klid.

  • @joyamongstforeverspark5422
    @joyamongstforeverspark5422 2 роки тому +2

    You didnot show the New Prison. Just a driveway. Built in 2015.

    • @ChrisHarden
      @ChrisHarden  2 роки тому

      Well I wasn’t about to go inside the prison…

  • @kickerkirby6918
    @kickerkirby6918 3 роки тому +3

    I used to live where the new prison was built they had to demolish it i miss being a baby back 2006

    • @ChrisHarden
      @ChrisHarden  3 роки тому +2

      So the house that you used to live in is on the land that the new prison now sits on?
      That’s wild.

  • @billbye2427
    @billbye2427 2 роки тому +1

    Remember a fountain pen company on

    • @billbye2427
      @billbye2427 2 роки тому

      south side of .the hwy, and train tracks

    • @chadjohnson1692
      @chadjohnson1692 2 роки тому +1

      @@billbye2427 Sheffer Pen, about five minutes from the end you see a building with a big silver ball on top, that would be it.

    • @billbye2427
      @billbye2427 2 роки тому

      @@chadjohnson1692 thank you, i first saw the bldg about1956, been a long time, the bridge on the old Santa fe looks the same.

  • @troynossmarvel6866
    @troynossmarvel6866 3 роки тому +2

    The WALL

  • @steveengelbrecht7271
    @steveengelbrecht7271 Рік тому

    The oldest prison west of the Mississippi.

  • @johnmeadows5645
    @johnmeadows5645 3 роки тому

    This a depressing looking place. It reminds me of the nearly abandoned coal mining towns in WVa.

  • @mrlaw711
    @mrlaw711 Рік тому

    Crappy place to live regardless of the prison. Bad weather, educated people moved away, bad food, what else?

  • @todddoetken2594
    @todddoetken2594 4 роки тому +4

    Visit this river city and have Officer Corey Brown trample on your 1st Amendment Rights.

  • @gaylenewood7707
    @gaylenewood7707 4 роки тому +2

    For keokuk iowa it's their own doing they chase out any new businesses and young kids who recently graduated from the high school law enforcement they bother kids even if kids are in their own yard talking cops will drive up and tell them to stop and go and its usually around 7pm the curfew is about 9pm..

    • @BoratWanksta
      @BoratWanksta 3 роки тому +1

      Sheesh, really? 7pm is WAAAAAY the heck too early to harass any teenager(never mind I'm a good while past that age!), about the 9pm curfew. Never mind the one time I ever visited Keokuk briefly in the 2000s, I got the sense it had declined from how it probably once was more like as a town.
      On a side note, I do wonder if Nostalgia Tours has ever visited Dubuque and/or Burlington? Which to me, would be decent places for NT to film, for future videos. I remember when I visited Dubuque and Burlington in the past, that I liked both those towns. Also, the older Ft. Madison prison wall and towers, reminds me of the one in Joliet, IL a little bit. Which you can see briefly, in the original Blues Brothers movie.
      ETA: I see NT has visited both places. Also I suspect NT would like Decorah, IA, if he wanted to explore slightly more sizable towns in northeast Iowa.

    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 3 роки тому +1

      @@BoratWanksta He has done videos on burlington iowa and dubuque but he also did quincy Illinois which was very cool..

    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 3 роки тому +1

      @@BoratWanksta And yes keokuk iowa has gone to hell they just tore down two buildings on main street a few months ago cause they were dangerous one in fact was collapsing into the street which to me I would sit and watch cause that would be fun to watch and keokuk ppl have been chasing out anyone who wants to buy and fix up places..

    • @gaylenewood7707
      @gaylenewood7707 3 роки тому +1

      @@BoratWanksta Oh if you ever go back to keokuk iowa try the new mexican restaurant it's called Santana mexican restaurant it's very good and the ppl there would be very thrilled to see ya and the food in 20 times better than taco exlax-bell..

  • @troynossmarvel6866
    @troynossmarvel6866 3 роки тому +3

    You should have taken dead man's curve

  • @DivineFellowship
    @DivineFellowship Рік тому +1

    Boring. Poor video quality. Annoying robot-voice. Driving footage forever. I couldn't watch this for long.