Wyoming Territorial Frontier Prison...Laramie, Wyoming

DATE:  October 6, 2015

HISTORICAL SITE:  Wyoming Territorial Frontier Prison

LOCATION:  975 Snowy Range Rd., Laramie, Albany Co., Wyoming  82070

MARKER #:  78002815

“The National Register of Historic Places   Wyoming Place No. 109   Wyoming Territorial Penitentiary   Prison”

“The National Register of Historic Places   Wyoming Place No. 109   Wyoming Territorial Penitentiary   Warden’s House”

DEDICATED:  March 29, 1978

PERSONAL REFLECTIONS: 

This is one of the sites I was looking forward to. Who doesn’t like to tour prisons? I’ve been to Alcatraz so I was interested to see how this differs. This place seems a lot less depressing than Alcatraz. And a lot less damp, but that probably has more to do with location than anything else. And maybe because this site has been extensively renovated, that mildew smell is much more prevalent at Alcatraz. But what one can’t get around is the fact that bad people were locked up in both places.

When we entered through the visitor’s center, we were given a brochure for a self-guided tour and each were handed a card with the name of a convict on it.

Dirk got George Cassidy, more famously known as Butch Cassidy, convicted for grand larceny. He was released because of good behavior but went on to commit many more crimes.

I got Gertrude “Gertie” Smith, convicted of entering a storehouse to commit a felony. She only served little more than 2 months of a 2 year sentence because it was found that she was in a “delicate condition”…translation: pregnant. She died in childbirth and its unknown what happened to the baby.

The Wyoming territory spent years in the making; with parts of Wyoming lands moving from the Nebraska territory, then to Dakota, Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Montana and back to Dakota territory before finally becoming the Wyoming territory in 1869.

It was quickly realized that this new territory needed someplace to lock up those who couldn’t or wouldn’t function in “civilized” society. The prisoners had been sent to the Detroit House of Correction, but it was a costly venture and the thought was money could be saved by building a federal prison in Wyoming.

In 1870, the governor asked Washington for funds and by the end of the year, taxes were being held for such purpose. It was decided that federal convicts would be held here but territorial prisoners could also be held at a cost to the territory.

 

Nicknamed “The big house across the river” it was situated alone on an open plain and when the cornerstone was laid, it was dedicated to “evil doers of all classes and kinds”.

The prison opened in 1872. It was ran as the territorial prison from 1872 to 1890 and then a state prison from 1891 to 1903.

The first prisoners were brought from Cheyenne in January 1873 to find 3 levels with 14 cells each for a total of only 42 cells measuring 6’X6’X8’

Developed in the 1820’s, this prison, like most of the day, adopted the “auburn system” which required black and white striped uniforms, replaced names with numbers and shaved heads. Convicts had to be silent at all times and movement around the prison was to be in “lockstep”.

This silence was enforced in every part of the prison. For example, convicts filed in to the dining area, got their food, sat next to each other and ate…all in complete silence.

Work was required…growing potatoes, cutting ice blocks for the Union Pacific Railroad, quarrying stone, making bricks, brooms and candles. Some became skilled artisans creating hand carved furniture, horse-hair bridles, taxidermy and hand rolled cigars.

Convicts were to bathe once a week in summer and once every two weeks in winter. They had to do their own laundry, make their own clothes, cook, keep the place clean and learn a useful skill…wow, in other words, be productive.

The cells were heated by the fireplaces at either end of the cell block. Cells were about 10° warmer than outside…miserably cold in winter, hot as hell in summer. Wyoming winters average 35° and can dip to as low as -20°. I bet it was better to be on the first floor, near the ends of the cell block during the winter since that’s where the fireplaces were.

Convicted of crimes ranging from stealing to manslaughter; no one was sent here convicted of a capital offense and so there were no executions here. Those criminals were sent to a prison in Cheyenne to await their fate.

Because the most harden criminals were kept out and the policies were liberal for the time, they had very little violence and rarely had “difficult” prisoners.

The prison, while still a prison, was quite progressive for the time. No convict ever died from rough treatment of any guards, other convicts or from poor care. Doctors were on contract to take care of the sick inmates. Terminally ill patients, even if they were "lifers," were always pardoned and sent home to be with their families and die there. The state didn't want to pay for the burial costs.

In 1874, the first major prison break occurred when 2 men overpowered an elderly guard and locked him in a cell before freeing a convicted murderer. Those 3 released 5 others and they all escaped on stolen horses, never to be recaptured.

Of the 44 convicts accepted in the first 2 years, 11 escaped. Constant escapes were of concern in Laramie and in Washington. The prison got a reputation of being something less than maximum security.

More often it would be one, maybe two men who wouldn’t return from work groups. When the Laramie Journal interviewed the warden, his response was “Well, they will slip away from us, even with the utmost vigilance. You see we only have a wooden fence around the jail.”

Originally built to house 45 prisoners, 2 to a cell, by 1877, the prison had over 80 people with ¼ of the cells holding 3 prisoners.

It cost the federal government about $1.00 a day for the upkeep and education of each prisoner. Because this was considered pretty expensive, this prison stayed small with most convicts being sent to other territorial or state prisons. Sending them to Nebraska cost only 40¢ in the 1870’s and not much more to Illinois in the 1880’s.

When the Feds had heard enough about overcrowding and the expense, they came to inspect the prison in 1884 and found there were less than 10 inmates. The decision had to be made…close it or expand it to hold more and keep Wyoming convicts in Wyoming.

Decision made, the prison was expanded in 1889 to hold 150 prisoners. The new cells were even smaller. There are 2 cells for solitary confinement and an additional one called the “dark cell”. Convicts found to breaking any rules could find themselves handcuffed to the floor, door or ceiling in an empty cell with no light for up to 3 weeks getting only bread and water to eat.

The prison held both men and women. The women were confined to 12 cells and were locked up every minute of the day to keep them safe.

 

The most famous prisoner was Robert Leroy Parker alias George Cassidy alias Butch Cassidy. He had been convicted of grand larceny and sentenced to 2 years. From 1894 to 1896, “Butch” was a model prisoner. After serving only 18 months, the Governor pardoned him. 

Forget the minor crimes committed before, now Butch formed his own gang and over the years stole approximately $234,000.00 from trains and banks. Finally, with the law on his tail, he sailed to South America. His ultimate fate is unknown. Some say he died in a shootout with the law there while others say he returned to the U.S. under a different name and died here.

Since part of the allure of these old prisons is the belief that they are haunted, it wouldn’t be right for me not to mention Julius Greenwelch from Provo, Utah. In 1897, Julius was traveling around Wyoming selling handmade cigars. He was much more successful selling outside of Utah since the Mormons looked down on tobacco products and forbade their use by their members. 

Julius stopped in Evanston, Wyoming to visit his favorite bordello, a stop he often made. He found his wife there…working…and shot her dead. He was charged with second degree murder and it earned him a life sentence. He died within a couple years by heart attack. Some feel his ghost haunts the place saying they can sometimes smell cigar smoke in the area where his cell used to be and it’s been reported that his ghost has appeared near the area of his cell.

Of note is the chaplain who arrived in 1899, Dr. May Preston Slosson; the first female chaplain to work in the U.S. prison system and was the first female to obtain her doctorate in philosophy in the U.S.

With statehood, it had been decided that the State Penitentiary would be placed in Rawlins. Once it was built, prisoners were transferred shackled and under guard. The last of the prisoners to be transferred was in 1903.

Once the prisoners were gone, the place fell in disrepair until the Board of Charities and Reform signed it over to the University of Wyoming and appropriated $5,000 for repairs.

The university used it as the “Agricultural Experiment Station” until 1989.

In total, 1,063 men and women were incarcerated here. Only 3 inmates died on the premises. The first was a ringleader in one of the escape attempts and a guard shot him. The second, died of pneumonia complicated by leprosy and finally Mr. Greenwelch, who died of a heart attack.

After years of use by the University; them changing things as they needed for their use, the site was given back to the State and was renovated in the 1990’s. The Wyoming Territorial Prison is only 1 of 3 federally constructed territorial penitentiaries in the western U.S. and the only one in which the original structure is preserved.

I have to say, I found the tour to be very interesting but now that I’ve read more about the State Penitentiary in Rawlins, I really wish we could have toured that one.