Tell me more about Council Bluff's ghost.,(in Iowa)..the Ruth Dodge Dark Angel.....?

Question

I have heard stories that if you put things in the offering bowl that she can cause death or other things to occur to you! Also that her eyes "come alive"!

Anybody have a ghost story from that area...and or what about another area... that you live near or in?

thanks!

Answer 1

I have never heard of this particular paranormal "case" but I did look up on a few web sites and got some information for you.

This is the web site that I got the info from:

    http://www.prairieghosts.com/oakland.htm...

From The web-site:

  Far across the state from Iowa City is Council Bluffs, a place steeped in history. Here, at the edge of Fairview Cemetery, is a black angel with connections to the supernatural.

This angel rests at the Ruth Ann Dodge Memorial, which is located just outside of the entrance to Fairview Cemetery. This graveyard, one called the “Old Burying Grounds”, is one of the oldest in the region. It began as a Native American burial ground and then it was taken over by the Mormons for a time. Around 1919, the angel was erected here to mark the grave of Ruth Ann Dodge, the wife of General Grenville M. Doge, a Civil War veteran and the chief engineer of the Transcontinental Railroad.

  Ruth Ann Dodge died in September 1916 at her home in New York but her body was brought to Council Bluffs, where she was buried. Soon after, her daughters, Anne Dodge and Eleanor Pusey, commissioned Daniel Chester French to sculpt the black angel. French is best known for the statue of Abraham Lincoln that he created for the Lincoln Monument in Washington. The young woman had strict criteria for French as to how the angel was supposed to look. They wanted it to be a likeness of an angel that had appeared to their mother during a series of visions that she had before her death.

These supernatural “visitations” were no mere dreams. According to Mrs. Dodge, they were realistic and overwhelming visions about which her daughter Anne stated: “We realized this was no dream, no ordinary occurrence, but an apparition such as appeared to those saints of olden times, who were spiritual seers, holy enough to penetrate the fleshly veil and view spiritual things hidden from the worldly minded.”

Ruth described the visions to her daughters. She stated that she did not close her eyes but was simply transported to the rocks of a seashore that she had never seen before. She had as feeling that she was looking and waiting for something, but she did not know what it was. But she did know that something tremendous was about to occur. Out of the mist, she saw an ancient boat appear that was covered with roses and rare and fragrant flowers. As it approached, she saw that a beautiful young woman was standing in the bow of the ship. As soon as Ruth saw her, she knew that she was a spiritual being and “not of this earth.”

The young woman was clad in a glistening white garment that fell in long folds from her shoulders to her feet. Her hair, which reached to her shoulders, looked like spun gold, forming a halo around her head. Her eyes were bright and seemed to look at Ruth, and yet through her, and were filled with an expression that was beyond description.

The young woman came to her carrying a deep vessel, like a Grecian urn, under her arm. It was filled with water that Ruth described by saying that “it glistened, glittered and sparkled like millions of diamonds.” The woman offered it to her and urged her to drink from it, telling her that it contained a blessing. But as much as Ruth craved the water, she told her daughters, she was not ready to drink it just yet. A few moments later, she “awoke” and the vision was gone.

Ruth had the same vision three times and on the third time, she drank from the water that the angel offered her. A few days later, she died. On her deathbed, she told her daughters that the angel offered her the “wonderful water of life. I drank from it and it gave me immortality.”

Ruth and Eleanor commissioned French to create the black angel to their specifications and he succeeded. The sculpture shows a beautiful angel that holds a vessel of water. While not a deep urn, the statue held a vessel that poured water into a fountain, continually offering the “water of life”. Over time, the fountain had declined and has also been restored to its glory. The water in the fountain was shut off in 1960 but restored to life again in 1985. It continues to draw visitors to the cemetery today.

Answer 2

There are several resources regarding the Council Bluff ghost as well as other areas of Iowa. Instead of attempting to describe each here in detail I am providing a link to the information you have requested below.  Good luck!

Answer 3

no ,haven't  heard  ,but check the link,

Answer 4

Nope.