Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site

We spent a portion of an afternoon at the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historical Site which marks the only time we went into Laramie proper during our stay here. We toured the old prison which was in use from the 1870’s to 1903 both as a Federal and State penitentiary, including a display on Butch Cassidy’s stay at the prison.

All through out the prison were pictures of the inmates along with their stories of why they spent time and who they were both before and after prison. Some were quite entertaining, while others were pitiful. What I found interesting in some of those stories was the mild sentencing we had in those days. For instance, attempted murder did not mean you spent a whole lot of time behind bars. Even murdering someone meant you went home within a few short years, and some of those murders went on to be respected locals afterwards. Ah, how times change.