Even Mo Montana!

With Reggie's Bucket-O-Dirt safely in my Challenger's trunk, I headed back west. I had nothing planned before my next "scheduled" stop in Idaho, so I just cruised along, wondering if I should attempt to beat my previous 150 mph sprint in Montana while listening to some tunes on the satellite radio. Boy, that device is certainly handy out in the middle of the boonies. I can remember listening to farm reports, Country & Western music, and the occasional news blurb when I had to scan the AM/FM radio, back in the old days. Even the old music cassettes got old after the second or third listening. For some reason, Wang Chung's Points on the Curve still reminds me of Eastern Oregon, since my last road trip in 1985.

I didn't have much luck finding a motel in Butte, Montana. Then again, I didn't look very hard. For some unknown reason, something was pushing me to go beyond. So, I kept driving. I decided to use my car's navigation system for a motel, and one was found up the road a ways in a town called Deer Lodge.

Well, the listed motel wasn't in Deer Lodge, after all. I guess I should spend the $199 to get the 2009 database updated. So, I looked around and first passed on a corporate chain place and found a small Mom & Pop joint. Unfortunately, they didn't have a room suitable for my needs. I was not about to chase Aleksandra out from under the bed at check-out time. But, in my search for lodging I did find an unexpected treasure. In the darkness I found the old Montana State Prison museum. That meant I HAD to find a place to stay, because my next day was instantly planned. I ended up getting a room at a corporate joint.

Now let me explain something first. I had read about the Old Prison Museum in a tourist pamphlet I had picked up in the vestibule of a Perkin's restaurant somewhere along the way. It looked like a cool place to visit, but a glance told me it was in some obscure place, probably not worth tracking down. Well, that wasn't true. It's actually just a stone's throw from the interstate. How I got the idea it was off in the boonies, I can't explain. Perhaps I was too hungry to read it carefully. Then again it could merely be the result of cranial flatulence. In any event, fate had drawn me to this spot, and I wasn't disappointed.


Now I know some of you won't click on the link provided, so I'll post a brief blurb of its history from their site:

"Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the Old Montana Prison was built by inmate labor, this turn-of-the-century fortress was home to at least one member of Butch Cassidy's "Wild Bunch"...Stout iron bars slammed shut and locked for the first time on July 2, 1871. On that day, Montana's Territorial Prison in Deer Lodge incarcerated its first occupant...Emptied of prisoners in the late 1970s, the buildings stand now as silent sentinels to justice, a museum complex dedicated to law enforcement..."

Now I have visited prisons and jails before (DUH), but this was the first time to see one from the "Good Old Days". It was obvious that this place was built with no thought to "rehabilitation". It was strictly HARD TIME HOTEL.



It doesn't look very inviting, does it? The first inside the wall photo, is from the closest spot where a prisoner could approach the administration building without permission. One more step forward, and he could be shot by the guards.

The interior, cell block photo is on the sunny side. That's as bright as the prison gets. This was at about noon on a bright summer day.














A typical cell. (Yes, they did wear Stripes at one time).




And a women's cell.

































"The Yard" ...







and "The Hole".

The "Hole" was just a small, bare room in the lowest level. The only furnishings were two buckets: a water bucket and a "Honey Pot". Bread and water everyday except for a regular meal once a week.