Oldest Continually Operating Prison West of the Mississippi (1839-2015)
3 John Bennett Drive, Fort Madison, IA 52627
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages (exterior viewing); tours when scheduled
Cost
Free
Free exterior viewing; future ghost-tour programming planned
Access
Limited Access
Historic prison grounds
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1839 · Iowa Territorial Legislature establishment, 1839 · Longest continually operating prison west of the Mississippi · Auburn-style architectural prototype in the Midwest
On January 25, 1839 the Iowa Territorial Legislature, then seated in Burlington, passed a law establishing a Territorial prison in Lee County near Fort Madison, patterned on the Auburn Penitentiary in New York. Construction began the same year, just one year after Iowa became a territory and seven years before statehood in 1846. The Auburn-style design featured cell blocks forming a shell with two rows of three to five tiers of cells set back-to-back inside a fortress-like exterior wall. By the turn of the 20th century the prison housed a maximum of 550 inmates. The Fort Madison facility operated as the Iowa State Penitentiary for 176 years and oversaw 40 executions during its history; it was also the site of a serious 1981 riot and standoff. The historic prison closed in 2015 when its inmates were transferred to the new Iowa State Penitentiary nearby. The historic facility is now managed by the Historic Iowa State Penitentiary Inc. nonprofit in partnership with the City of Fort Madison, with plans to develop museum programming, ghost tours, a dog park, and a community center.
Sources
The Historic Iowa State Penitentiary has accumulated extensive folklore through its 176-year operating history. Former corrections staff and inmates reported a corridor in the solitary confinement area that overnight guards declined to enter, citing cold spots, moaning, and chains clanking. Reports of apparitions, choking sensations, and physical attacks while alone in 8x5-foot cells have circulated through prison oral history. Tourists and visitors to subsequent open events have described feelings of heaviness, sounds of movement on the empty cell blocks, and other phenomena. The combination of decades of executions and violent incidents within the facility forms the historical anchor for these accounts. The site has been featured in regional Iowa haunted-history coverage and is planned as a future ghost-tour destination once programming is established.
Media Appearances
View the fortress-style exterior of the Historic Iowa State Penitentiary, which closed in 2015. The city of Fort Madison and the Historic ISP nonprofit are developing museum and ghost-tour programming.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
Florence, AZ
Arizona State Prison Complex - Florence is Arizona's oldest operational state prison, established in 1910. The death house, located in Housing Unit 9, contains the execution chamber. Arizona has carried out approximately 100 death sentences since 1910, using hanging (until 1934), gas chamber, and lethal injection methods. The original execution method was hanging with a trap-door system; gas chamber replaced hanging in 1934 following a botched execution in 1930.
Phoenix, AZ
Arizona State Prison Complex - Phoenix, specifically the Flamenco Unit, opened in 1985 as a 105-bed psychiatric hospital for adult males. The facility's primary function is housing inmates with mental health issues and those in protective or maximum security custody. The Flamenco Unit represents a contemporary correctional mental health facility rather than a historical institutional site.
Leavenworth, KS
Established in 1875, the United States Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth served as the U.S. Army's military prison for 127 years. The original structure — an eight-winged stone fortress known informally as 'the Castle' — held military offenders, conscientious objectors, and German POWs during World War II. It was the site of the last military execution by hanging in American history: Private John A. Bennett was hanged on April 13, 1961, for the rape and attempted murder of an 11-year-old Austrian girl.