A Hint of Wyoming Territorial Prison by Zina Abbott

 When I say this blog post will be a hint, I mean exactly that. It is the day after Thanksgiving. Although I don’t shop Black Friday sales, I know there are plenty of people who do. Either way, today is not the day for a long post. Instead, I will share a few pictures about a place I enjoyed visiting several years ago.

 

The Wyoming Territorial Prison was a U.S. Penitentiary in 1872 and later Wyoming’s first state penitentiary.  For thirty years it held violent and desperate outlaws.  

 

Federal prisoners from all over the territories were transported there in style.

Perhaps one of its most famous prisoners was Butch Cassidy. The museum has a large display about the incident that resulted in him being one of the prison’s “guests.”

 

Then there was that other infamous visitor that showed up a few years ago. It was not long before she took upon herself a pen name and started writing North American historical romance with several of her stories set in Wyoming Territory.

The Prison Industries Building (broom factory) was used to raise revenue, manage the prison population, and used as a rehabilitative strategy.

Now the prison is a museum where visitors learn about punishment and rehabilitation practices in the last part of the nineteenth century. I have some nice photos I took while touring the prison several years ago. I plan to share a blog post or two with more details highlighting some of the details about this prison. Along with a few of its famous (and infamous) prisoners, there were some staff members you might enjoy learning more about.

 ~o0o~

Although my next book to be published is not about this prison, it does partially take place in Laramie, Wyoming Territory, the same city in which this prison is located. I give the prison an “honorable” mention in the story. Unfortunately, my month was turned up on end which resulted in me rescheduling this book to be the last in the series and not released until December 14, 2021. 

To find the book description and preorder purchase link for Mail Order Letitia, part of the An Impostor for Christmas series, please CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

Sources:

https://wyoparks.wyo.gov/index.php/places-to-go/wyoming-territorial-prison

Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site