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Reported phenomena — as catalogued
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1904 Cumberland Plateau Jail Turned Museum
Huntsville, TN 37756
Research updated May 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$
Daytime museum admission is modest; evening paranormal investigations and overnight programs priced separately.
Access
Limited Access
Three-floor historic jail with original stairs and tight cell-block corridors
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1904 · National Register of Historic Places · Cumberland Plateau Law-Enforcement History · 1933 Mob-Lynching Site
Scott County opened a new three-story jail in central Huntsville in 1904. The brick structure followed the period's standard pattern: sheriff's living quarters on the first floor and cell blocks on the upper two floors, separated from the residence by iron-clad partitions. The jail served as the principal Scott County lockup for slightly over a century, closing in 2005 after a new modern detention facility opened elsewhere in the county.
Two killings define the jail's documented history. On August 13, 1925, Sheriff R.D. Ellis was ambushed and shot from behind as he escorted a moonshiner into the jail; the killer was never definitively identified, though local accounts named multiple suspects. The jail's most-remembered episode came in June 1933, when Jerome Boyatt — a Scott County native held in the Huntsville jail in connection with the April 1933 shooting deaths of Pickett County Sheriff George Winningham and Deputy Sheriff Floyd Winningham at Rock Creek — was seized along with another prisoner, Harvey Winchester (awaiting trial on an unrelated charge), by a masked mob that overpowered the jailer around midnight on June 9. Both men were taken from the third-floor cells and shot multiple times in woods near Huntsville; their bodies were discovered the following day. No member of the mob was ever prosecuted; the incident was widely reported in Cumberland Plateau newspapers at the time.
The building sat largely empty between its 2005 closure and the launch of the museum program in 2021. Local volunteers and the Scott County Historical Society opened the jail for daytime tours, archival exhibits, and a regular paranormal-investigation calendar. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
Sources
The Historic Scott County Jail's paranormal reputation aligns directly with its documented history. The third floor, from which the June 1933 lynching mob removed Jerome Boyatt and Harvey Winchester, is described in staff and investigator accounts as the most active area. Reports include footsteps moving along the empty cell corridor, brief shadow figures crossing open cell doors, the impression of voices in conversation, and isolated touches reported during investigations.
The sheriff's quarters on the first floor — where members of multiple sheriffs' families lived through the jail's century of operation — generate quieter reports: doors opening and closing, the impression of a presence near the fireplace, and unsourced footsteps on the staircase between the first and second floors.
Local paranormal-investigation groups, History Highways Haunts, and the Phantom History podcast have documented investigations. The jail museum incorporates the reports openly into its programming and operates on a calendar of public investigations year-round.
Notable Entities
Media Appearances
Walk the three floors of the 1904 jail, including the sheriff's quarters on the first floor and the cell blocks on the upper two floors. Exhibits cover the August 1925 ambush killing of Sheriff R.D. Ellis outside the jail and the June 1933 mob lynching of Jerome Boyatt and Harvey Winchester from the third floor.
After-hours investigations of the cell blocks, with a focus on the third floor where the lynching mob removed prisoners in 1933. Sessions are run by the jail museum and partner paranormal teams.
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