This issue of The Superior Express contains a public notice advising the City of Superior has scheduled a public hearing with regard to the possible closing of the jail .

The current jail is located in the Public Safety Building. Is has seen little use compared to some of the previous Superior jails. It is a costly facility to maintain to current Nebraska jail standards.

The city has had several jails since its founding in 1875. After browsing back issues of he newspaper it appears some were busy places.

Local historians apparently have not found the city’s jails to be a topic of interest. Our research this week into the topic this week raised more questions than answers.

We have been unable to determine when Superior opened the first city jail. We learned an old wood box car, with its wheels removed, served as the city jail for several years. Perhaps the wheels should have remained. The car was moved about the community as lots were sold and developed. In 1900 it was located at 132 W. Third Street.

The box car jail was not a plush accommodation. It housed a small stove to provide heat in the winter. There is no mention of bunks for prisoners though we might assume it did have. It is likely it had a chamber pot as a bathroom option. Security was probably not of the highest quality. Being wood, a determined inmate could have smuggled in termites.

The city approved construction of a city hall building in 1904. It was completed in 1907. It was located where the city administration building is now. It was likely to have contained a jail when it was constructed. In 1950, the building housed three city departments, those being the police, fire and street departments. The police station was a small room on the west side of the building. At that time the jail was probably located on the fourth floor of the City Auditorium.

In the mid 1950s the street department was moved to its current location at the south end of Central Avenue and the city building was remodeled.

The western portion housed the firemen’s meeting room which was also available for community functions. The center stall housed the fire department’s first responder truck and the eastern portion housed both the police station and the city jail.

With the construction of the Superior Auditorium, many of the city offices were relocated there. As previously mentioned, the jail was on the fourth floor with the city council chamber and the city record storage vault located on the second floor along with the water commissioner’s office. The utility office was on the first floor until the construction of the current administration building.

We are uncertain of the time frame but the police department and jail were, at one time, situated in a portion of the building at 411 Central Avenue which is now home to Scott’s Laundromat.

The police department shared space with a frozen food company, Perhaps the term cooler, which is sometimes used to describe a jail, was coined in Superior for the building contained both the walk-in cooler for the frozen food store and the jail. The jail appears to have been a popular place and perhaps the overflow was sent to cool off in their walk-in cooler. Not a bad place on 100 degree days.

The following stories about Superior’s jails were found in back issues of The Superior Express.

One story is related that the night policeman placed a prisoner on the fourth floor and neglected to inform the day officer of his presence. The prisoner languished without food for a considerable period of time before the omission was discovered.

John Crook, a retired policeman, recounted the problems of escorting an intoxicated individual up the narrow staircase to the fourth floor.

On July 31, 1919, The Superior Express reported two young men accused of burglarizing the Golden Rule Store were housed in the city jail. Entry to the store was gained by tearing off a screen. The loot included a number of suits, men’s shoes and suitcases. The safe was opened and $50 taken. July and no air conditioning was punishment enough.

In 1934, a suspect living in Wymore, and thought to have been involved with the “Ghost Gang” robbery of Superior’s Security National Bank, was taken into custody at Wymore and taken to Superior where he was housed in the city jail.

On April 1, 1935, Police Chief F. P. Gubser reported that, in the prior two weeks, the Superior jail had housed 130 people. Many were transients who had come to Superior hoping to find work with the construction of the Champlin Refinery Company pipeline. As many as 12 men had been housed in the jail at one time.

The March 25,1935, edition of The Superior Express ran the following story about the opening of the new jail.

The honor of being the first guest in the new Superior city jail is one that Chief of Police Gubser is not considering lightly. He wants it to go to someone worthy of the distinction and who will be duly appreciative. While the chief and his assistants lock up on an average of about five bums daily, they have all been quartered in the old hoosegow, which is not the latest world in modern convenience, but good enough for the ordinary run of customers. The new jail on the fourth level of the new auditorium’s south tower, its pretty view of the city’s residential section, hot and cold running water and other modern conveniences is being reserved for more refined and genteel folk, the only disadvantage of the place being that there are no elevator facilities and it is a long climb from the street. Anyway Superior is well supplied with jails and is ready to accommodate all comers.

The present jail is on the first floor of the Public Safety Building and has running water but no windows.

The closure will leave Nuckolls County with no detention facilities. The county jail was razed last year. Prisoners from Superior are transferred to out of county holding facilities.