Visiting the Old Idaho State Penitentiary

Man oh man! So this last weekend, Jared and I took a trip to one of Boise's historical sites "The Old Idaho Penitentiary." Since we're new to the area, we weren't quite sure what to do for fun on a Saturday...but we "Google-ed" and found this place. The reviews were awesome and many people explained it as historical and creepy. We couldn't wait!!

We arrived at the place and it immediately was nice and warm and weird to say "inviting" (since it was pouring outside and very cold). I told that to the man at the desk and he said..."well it won't be very cozy for very long." Ahh! It was then that I got chills up my spine and my husband and I looked at eachother, thinking "should we really do this?" And we did! In order to enter the jail grounds you have to open this huge bared door. We opened the door and walked into the jail yard. There were many different buildings all around us, a building for men, a building for women, a punishing chamber, solitary confinement, death row, and a drop room for the hangings that happened there. There was even a rose garden, where they hung prisoners before they built a drop room indoors. There weren't too many people taking the tour at the time we were there,which made the whole experience that more freaky.

We made our first stop in the male jail cells and looked through the bars. Many of them drew on the walls, smoked, gave eachother tattoos and played cards. Anything to make the time pass faster I guess. Looking at their toilets in their cells made me want to gag also. Maybe guys are a little stronger when it comes to accepting a dirty toilet, but I'll tell ya one thing, it grossed me out! After that, we walked to the other side of the yard and walked into the jail for the more dangerous criminals. I remember getting up close to take a picture inside one of the jail cells and just getting a sick feeling in my stomach. The place felt a little haunted (if you believe in that kind of stuff). So I took my picture and ran to Jared saying "wait for me!" Haha...I'm such a baby. As we were about to walk out of the building..we noticed that there were stairs that we were able to walk up (since most of the buildings stairs were blocked off). There was a sign "Death row and Drop room." We were curious, so we walked up the steps and looked into the room where they hung people. The walls were stained with something. I didn't really want to find out what it was though. There even was some historic facts on the walls of some of the men that were hung there. I couldn't stand it anymore, so we left that building. Up next was solitary confinement. Oh my! Those guy's cells were un-livable, I don't know how they did it! Those that were sent to solitary confinement were the ones that splashed their toilet buckets on the officers and slit the throats of some of the guards, the real out-of control ones. Just as I was about to take a picture of Jared in one of them...(because there was one that you could walk inside) my camera died! Perfect timing right? Maybe it was a good thing we couldn't take a picture of him in there though, there might have been something or someone "extra" in the picture (if you know what I mean).

The jail was opened and operating from 1870 to 1973. They built a larger facility for the prisoners in the 70's, so they just left this place to be a historical site. It was very interesting, creepy and a cool place to tour. I would suggest it for any of you that ever come and visit this area....but uh..you might want to leave the kids at home (just a suggestion).

Sweet dreams everyone! :)