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Category:
Cultural Attractions
City:
Laramie
From Interstate 80, exit 311, Snowy Range Road, and travel east towards downtown Laramie. Our entrance is a quarter mile east on Snowy Range Road on the left hand side.
We are located just 2.5 hours north of Denver, Colorado, 1.25 hours north of Fort Collins, Colorado, and 45 minutes west of Cheyenne.
Simply Captivating!
Listed on the National Register, visitors can spend the day touring the beautifully restored Wyoming Territorial Prison. Built in 1872, the prison held some of the most notorious outlaws in the region, including Butch Cassidy. Visitors to the 190-acre facility can also enjoy the newly restored Warden's House and Horse Barn Exhibit Hall featuring rotating displays and a family friendly scavenger hunt. New for 2007: Innocent or Guilty? Women Inmates of the Wyoming Territorial Prison. Those wishing to take a little piece of the prison and Wyoming home with them can stop by the Happy Jack Gift Shop for a splendid array of memorabilia. Large groups and RVs are welcome! Plenty of parking. Bring your lunch and have a picnic on the grounds and let the kids stretch their legs. Lots to see and do.
Wyoming Territorial Prison
Built in 1872 and restored in 1989, the prison is the highlight of the WTPSHS. Pick up a brochure in the gift shop and head toward the prison for a self-guided tour. (Development of an audio tour system is in the works.) Plan to spend at least an hour inside. Stops along the tour include: furnished cells, the prisoners' dining area, guard's quarters, infirmary, women's quarters, laundry room, warden's office, and various exhibit galleries. New exhibit's include: Found During Restoration: Artifacts Uncovered (including items found during the History Channel sponsored, Unlocking Secrets in the Soil project), N. K. Boswell: Warden and Lawman, Innocent or Guilty? Women Inmates of the Wyoming Territorial Prison, and a new exhibit on Butch Cassidy.
Broom Factory
Plans are underway to restore the building in which most of the prison labor was done. When open, the public will be able to view and interact with exhitibts that detail each of the prison industries. From broom production, handcarved furniture, shoes, cigars, taxidermy, and jewelry, our prisoners had many talents!
Homestead Cabins
The history of ranches is a story all to itself. Romanticized by Hollywood, yet oftentimes, stark and full of daily drudgery, the westward bound pioneers carved out their living in meek and meager ways. The Homestead exhibit pays tribute to these pioneers through a display of historic buildings from Albany County. You'll see a furnished log cabin and a schoolhouse, along with an outhouse, barn and livestock pens.
The Boxcar and Warden's House
Peek inside two historic buildings used during the WTPSHS's prison days. The boxcar house was an actual Union Pacific train car and used first as a prison shop, then in 1907, as a residence for the University of Wyoming Stock Farm employees. The Warden's House was built in 1875 using prison labor and over the years, housed the Warden, his family, and prison guards. Efforts are underway to renovate both structures so they can be furnished and open to the public.