Wyoming Prison Museums

The Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum contains elements you would expect and what you would not expect. Perhaps the most unexpected part of any visit is listening to volunteers happily describing the punishments that would get used on inmates who misbehaved. One part of the museum tour includes a description of the punishment pole.

The punishment pole is a concrete pillar that goes from the top to the bottom. When an inmate was caught misbehaving, guards would take them into the room and chain them to the pole. Guards would use rubber whips and hoses on the inmates. The screams of the inmates in this room were used as a warning about breaking prison rules.

Prison museums are not for everyone. Some people do not want to see the inside of a former prison because it is sad and depressing. While the Wyoming Frontier Prison museum does not try to depress visitors, it does point out that visits to the place are both creepy and educational.

The tour includes the solitary confinement cells and gives visitors the chance to stand inside one. Prisoners might be kept in the cells naked for up to six weeks at a time. Other parts of the tour include the license plate factory, murals, and gritty details of life inside the prison.

During its 80 years of operation, the Wyoming Frontier Prison museum housed up to 13,500 inmates. Today, it stands as a reminder of the past. Like Alcatraz Prison in California, it has become a tourist attraction. The gas chamber is popular with children, oddly enough.