A Chilling Look at Old Montana Prison
Located in rural Deer Lodge, Old Montana Prison has a long and gruesome history. Built in 1871, the facility was often overcrowded and prisoners faced harsh living conditions and brutal punishment. After a 1912 attempted escape left Deputy Warden John Robinson dead, two prisoners were inhumanely hung in a hastily constructed “jerk-up gallows”. It took them 11 minutes to die.
Forty-nine years later, Deputy Warden Theodore Rothe was shot and killed in a riot instigated by two inmates. Toss in the dark and dank isolation cells and the horrors of the hole, and it comes as no surprise that numerous ghostly apparitions and supernatural experiences have been reported over the years.
The crumbling old prison closed in 1979, and the Powell County Museum & Arts Foundation (www.pcmaf.org) took over the facility. Today the Old Montana Prison Museum offers visitors a look behind the turreted stone towers and iron gates of this historic institution. Will you encounter a ghost, see strange lights or get an eerie feeling when you visit? Only time will tell; however you most certainly will get an interesting glimpse into prison life of a bygone era.
Self Guided Tour
The Old Prison Museum is pretty hard to miss, as it’s the only building on Main Street with massive stone walls and turrets. There’s a large dirt parking lot near the Prison Cow Ice Cream Stand next door; however there are no accessible parking spaces in the lot. Best bet is to parallel park along Main Street, to avoid being parked-in.
Although some areas of this historic prison have steps and uneven pavement, some areas are ramped and do-able for wheelchair-users and slow walkers. Loaner wheelchairs (manual and power) are available at the front desk.
The self-guided prison tour begins with a look at the foundation from the 1896 Cell House, and the 24-foot high 3-foot thick wall that surrounded the prison. Suffice it to say that nobody every tunneled out. Around the corner there’s level — albeit bumpy — access to Tower 7, which was the main entrance to the prison. Notice the trap door to the underground surveillance tunnels, where guards manned gun ports in key prison locations. And although they’re quite cramped, there’s level access to the isolation cells in East Siberia and West Siberia, just a short walk away.
The 1912 Cell House, which features ramp access, is the highlight of the tour. Here you’ll find 200 cells, including one that belonged to Turkey Pete. Incarcerated for murder, Pete lived in his own world, and tended the prison turkey flock. The downstairs areas — the chapel, the hole, the showers and the mess hall — are not accessible from the cell block area. To reach them, you need to go outside, walk around the building and use the ramp on the other side. These areas are also hotspots for ghostly encounters.
Ghost or Overactive Imagination
The hole — a dark and creepy spot — was a last ditch disciplinary measure at old Montana Prison. Problematic prisoners were initially confined there for 10 days, and if found healthy after a doctor’s exam, their stay was extended another 10 days.
An equally creepy spot — where a lot of paranormal activity has been reported — is just across the hall, in the chapel. There’s level access to this room, and although everything appears normal at first glance, the gun port on the wall is somewhat unnerving. It’s accessed through that surveillance tunnel connected to Tower 7. The inmates were always watched closely — even in church.
The shower area and the mess hall are located down a level walkway at the far end of the building. Both areas are bleak and deserted, but it’s not hard to imagine what they would of been like in days of yore. And both areas also have prominently placed gun ports.
But by for the most unsettling area of the prison is the surveillance tunnel itself. Today it can be accessed via a doorway near the former shower area; however that access point was added in 2002, well after the prison closed. There’s ramp access to the tunnel, but there are a few dips, bumps and ruts along the way.
Although nobody else was near me when I entered the tunnel, I had a definite sense that someone was watching me. As I continued through the tunnel, the hair on my arms stood on end, and I thought I heard a slight clanging sound. Then I had an overwhelming urge to get out — so I did. Ghostly experience or overactive imagination? Who knows? But it seemed a fitting way to end a visit to an allegedly haunted old prison.
