Tour an Old Wyoming Prison
The lure of historic prisons is irresistible to travelers, and visitors to the Yellowstone Park region won’t be disappointed.
In Laramie, Wyoming, the old Territorial Prison was built in 1872 and housed prisoners for a total of 31 years. Notable among the prison’s inmates were Butch Cassidy, “Big Nose George” Parrott, and Clark “The Kid” Pelton—a member of the Bevins and Blackburn gang who made a living holding up the Cheyenne to Deadwood Stagecoach.
By 1902 a new, much larger prison was taking shape in Rawlins, and the Territorial Prison closed the following year. The University of Wyoming then began using the stone building, not for unruly students, but for livestock, housing UW’s experimental stock farm. In the mid-1970s, the livestock moved out and, a decade later, restoration work finally began.