Est. 1901 · National Register of Historic Places · First Wyoming State Penitentiary · Historic Gas Chamber
Construction on the Wyoming State Penitentiary began in 1888, but the prison did not receive its first inmates until December 12, 1901. Built from locally quarried sandstone, the facility was the state's primary correctional institution for the next eighty years.
During its operational lifetime the prison housed roughly 13,500 inmates. Fourteen men were executed on the grounds: nine by hanging using a Julian-design gallows that drew the condemned's weight to trigger its own drop, and five by lethal gas after a new chamber was installed in 1936. The Death House remains intact and is included on the modern tour route.
The penitentiary operated through significant overcrowding and several recorded riots before closure on December 11, 1981, when a new facility was opened south of Rawlins. After standing empty for seven years, the property was transferred in 1988 to a joint-powers board, which reopened the building as the Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum.
The site is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It now welcomes between 15,000 and 17,000 visitors annually for guided historic tours, school programs, and seasonal Halloween and paranormal events.
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyoming_State_Penitentiary
- https://www.wyomingfrontierprison.org/
- https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/wyoming-frontier-prison-museum
- https://savingplaces.org/places/wyoming-frontier-prison
- https://www.wyomingcarboncounty.com/things-to-do/museums/wyoming-frontier-prison
ApparitionsCold spotsPhantom voicesPhantom footstepsShadow figures
Paranormal lore at the Wyoming Frontier Prison clusters around four areas: the shower block, Death Row, the gas chamber, and the isolation cells known as the Hold. Tour groups have reported hearing voices and conversation from cells they could see were empty, witnessing figures move around corners that led nowhere, and experiencing localized cold spots even on summer afternoons when the rest of the building was uncomfortably warm.
Museum director Tina Hill has stated publicly that the prison hosts frequent paranormal-investigation groups and that nearly every visit produces some form of recorded anomaly, telling Travel Wyoming that "we are officially haunted." The site features prominently in the state tourism office's Halloween coverage.
The shower area, where institutional records document assaults during the prison's operational years, is frequently cited by visitors as the most uncomfortable section of the tour. Reports include unexplained drops in temperature and a sense of being watched. Staff have also reported sounds of footsteps and door movements in cell blocks closed off from public access.
A specific cell on the tour route is preserved with the original artwork of a former inmate still applied to the walls; investigators and tour participants frequently single it out as a focal point for unusual readings.
