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| Guard tower |
The Montana Territorial Museum,
located in Deer Lodge, accepted its first prisoners in 1871, and closed its
doors in 1979 when a new prison was built just four miles away. The Powell
County Museum and Arts Foundation leased the building in 1980 and turned it
into a museum. One end of the museum was turned into another museum, one
housing an outstanding collection of old vehicles.
Montana was a lawless country in the
1860s, so the U.S. Congress appropriated money to build a prison in the Montana
Territory at the request of the territorial legislature. The federal government
funded the prison until Montana became a state in 1889. The new state could not
afford to operate the prison, and so contracted it out to private operators,
according to the website, Legends of America. Deer Lodge residents Thomas
McTague and Frank Conley were awarded the contract, receiving 70 cents per day
per prisoner. The prison began accepting women in 1907.
Montana prison warden made convicts
earn their keep
Conley, who served as warden until
1921, put the convicts to work at such things as constructing additions to the
prison to hold its burgeoning population and establishing a farm to grow food
for the inmates. Convicts replaced a wood fence surrounding the prison with a
4-½-foot thick fence made with stones they made themselves. They also built the
1912 cell house, the maximum security building and the prison theater. Later
prisoners helped construct state government buildings around Montana and paved
500 miles of state roads.
The prison looks pretty much as it
did when the last convicts moved out. The Powell County Museum and Arts
Foundation did only minimal restoration before opening it as a museum. As
visitors walk through the museum grounds, they will find paint peeling from the
ceilings, uneven walkways and dark hallways.
Walking tour covers entire complex
The walking tour includes the dental
and medical clinic, housed in the same room, and seeming very primitive
compared to today’s clinic. They’ll visit the cell blocks and can see the cell
occupied by Pete Eitner who spend 49 years in the prison, and whose cell was
“retired” upon his death. He earned the nickname of Turkey Pete because he
cared for the prison’s flock until he sold them to a man for 25-cents
each! As he slipped away from reality,
he imagined he was running the prison and “issued” checks to pay for prison
expenses, including the salaries of his guards. His funeral was the only one
ever held inside the prison walls.
The museum offers guided tours of
the facility during the summer months as well as provides a booklet for those
doing self-guided tours. It takes about an hour to tour the complete facility.
The
prison is located at 1106 Main Street in Deer Lodge, a small town on Interstate
90 between Missoula and Butte in western Montana. Hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with the last
admission at 3:10 p.m., from March to December.
