Old Pen, Boise: Where Hard Men Did Hard Time for a Century
Taking your kids to jail may sound cruel (though it may also cross your mind sometimes); but if the jail is Old Pen, Boise, the trip will be a “captivating” treat for the whole family. At Old Pen, Boise, a state historic site, more than a century of incarceration is on display.
You can stroll through and read the signs about Old Pen’s history on the walls, but it’s better to join a weekend afternoon guided tour (five bucks extra for adults) to hear a steady stream of facts and stories of life and death in the prison.
Take in the small museum room and 17-minute film at the entrance, then enter the 1870 prison the same way convicts did: through thick steel doors. Buildings that once housed hundreds of horse thieves, cattle rustlers, polygamists and other miscreants are toured one by one.
At several of the multistory cellblocks, built between 1870 and 1955, you can step inside cells, including "the cooler" and "Siberia." The cooler is where up to six prisoners shared each dark, unheated, 8-by-8-foot stone cell, with only a bucket for nature calls. Just as creepy are the even tinier cells nearby in Siberia—3-by-8 feet, no mattress, no heat—where prisoners were kept in solitary for up to two years. These cells were deemed “cruel and unusual” in 1966; Old Pen closed seven years later.
Scattered among the massive sandstone buildings are the prison garden with well-trimmed roses (so prisoners couldn’t hide), prison barbershop (with tattoos displayed inside), and a historical arms exhibit (Bronze Age artifacts to modern automatic weapons). You’ll also see the gallows, where Death Row prisoners were hung below a trap door. The final stop is a 1950s cellblock. These four-man cells are hardly luxurious, but compared to the primitive older cells you’ve seen, they’re worthy of five stars.
Old Pen is only a few minutes’ drive from downtown Boise up Warm Springs Avenue, right next to the Idaho Museum of Mining and Geology (free admission) and Idaho Botanical Garden (Old Pen’s old orchard that’s now used for outdoor summer concerts).
HelloBoise Tip: Don’t overlook the women’s ward, built by male prisoners in 1920 and located right across from the prison entrance. Step inside and you’ll see how up to 200 women prisoners were treated, which was quite a bit better than their male counterparts across the road.
Posted on May 8, 2011 by Bob Cooper
