Est. 1935 · Colorado Prison System · Women's Incarceration History · Capital Punishment History · Frontier Justice · Prison Reform
Cañon City's relationship with incarceration is foundational. The Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility — the state's first prison — opened on January 13, 1871, and has operated without interruption since. The city eventually earned a grim distinction: at one point, the highest per capita prison rate of any jurisdiction in the world. The nickname 'Prison City' was not promotional.
The Museum of Colorado Prisons occupies a cell house built in 1935 specifically for female inmates, part of an expansion of the Territorial Prison complex. It shares a stone perimeter wall and armed guard towers with the still-operational prison directly adjacent — a fact that sharpens the visit considerably. The museum is, in the most literal sense, built into an active correctional facility's footprint.
A group of local residents in the early 1980s conceived of converting the former women's cell house into a public museum. Colorado's legislature approved the project in 1986, and after renovation the museum opened on June 18, 1988. It is operated as a nonprofit and has expanded its collection to cover prison history from 1871 to the present.
The institutional history documented inside is not abstract. The 1929 prison riot — during which inmates set fires whose smoke was visible for days, resulting in the deaths of seven guards and an estimated $300,000 in damage — is represented through artifacts and photographs. The 1947 riot produced a mass escape of 12 inmates, all recaptured or killed within a week during a blizzard. The gas chamber, located just outside the main building, was used in 32 executions. The last man executed by gas at the facility died on June 2, 1967.
Among the facility's most notorious former inmates: Alferd Packer, convicted in 1883 of killing his companions during a winter mountain crossing — the circumstances of which, survival necessity versus premeditation, were disputed in his lifetime and remain unresolved. Anton Woode, who shot an 11-year-old friend in 1892 over a gold watch, served his sentence and became a model prisoner. Both are represented in the museum's exhibits.
Charlotte Van Deventer served as the first matron hired to oversee female inmates, beginning in 1891. Her tenure preceded the 1935 women's cell house by decades, suggesting she worked within earlier structures on the same grounds. Her name is attached to the paranormal reputation of the museum's cell house.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museum_of_Colorado_Prisons
- https://www.uncovercolorado.com/museums/museum-colorado-prisons/
- https://residualwhispers.wordpress.com/2022/11/24/the-colorado-museum-of-prisons-the-territorial-correctional-facility-in-canon-city-colorado/
- https://www.imfromdenver.com/travel/behind-bars-and-beyond-explore-colorados-haunted-prison-museum/
- https://emerginghorizons.com/museum-of-colorado-prisons-haunted-or-haunting/
ApparitionsCold spotsPhantom smellsPhantom footstepsPhantom soundsOrbsResidual hauntingTouching/pushing
The museum's paranormal reputation is not incidental to its programming — Night Shift Paranormal and Ghost Hunts USA both operate regular investigation events inside the building, and the phenomenon reports come from both independent visitors and organized investigation teams.
In the lower level, the old laundry room is specifically associated with cold spots and a persistent phantom smell of tobacco. The phenomenon has been reported by multiple visitors and appears in several accounts without coordination between sources.
Cell 19 on the upper floor is associated with a female prisoner who is believed to have died there. Staff and investigators have reported orb photographs in the cell and sounds of coughing from what should be an empty space.
The most structurally striking account involves a bloodstain on the lower floor, at the location where an inmate was murdered by another inmate. According to staff accounts, the stain reappears on the floor after repeated cleaning. No scientific explanation for this has been published in available sources.
A museum employee, speaking to Emerging Horizons, offered this: 'I'm sure there are some spirits here. I often hear noises, footsteps and sometimes whistling when I'm here alone.' The specificity — footsteps and whistling — distinguishes this from generic unease.
Charlotte Van Deventer, hired as the first matron in 1891, predates the 1935 cell house by over four decades, but her institutional connection to the site is strong enough that she is consistently named as a likely presence by those who have investigated the building. The women's prison she oversaw occupied earlier structures on the same grounds before the 1935 construction.
A separate category of reports involves visitors experiencing physical sensations — chest pressure, breathing difficulties — particularly near the gas chamber and its approach. Eight executions took place in the chamber, though sources give varying totals; the 32-execution figure represents the total for the facility's history across execution methods.
Notable Entities
Charlotte Van Deventer (first matron, 1891)Unnamed female prisoner in Cell 19
Media Appearances
- Ghost Hunts USA (multiple events)
