Big Skies and Prison Walls 11.11.24

 

We are heading east with the goal of eventually landing in the Chicago area again, to have some last tweaks made to the new electrical system.  What a pleasure it is to drive smooth, dry, and occasionally even flat roads.  We’re still in the mountains, of course, but in between there are stretches with huge ranches on either side of the highway, with the mountains rising in the distance.  And there is that famous Montana sky, stretching impossibly far in every direction, blue and with quickly moving wispy clouds.  Those clouds indicated high winds, which we found out about early the next morning when intense gusts rocked the trailer.  High winds really make me nervous but my spouse pretty much slept through them.

In our daily search for camping spots, we came across a unique arrangement.  The Old Montana Prison and Car Museum allows RVs to park in their parking lot for free.  There are even signs indicating where to park and RV-sized parking spaces, as well as plenty of car parking for other museum visitors.  Visiting the museum is not required to camp there, but we could not resist.

The museum is housed in the buildings of a prison that was in use from 1871 until 1979.  During that time the complex underwent many changes and modernization.  Most of the building was done using convict labor, and convict crews were jobbed out for other work projects including highways. 

The buildings and grounds are crumbling, so visitors have to watch their step.  If I had known so much of the complex was outside or accessed from the outside through doors that were propped open, and was unheated, I would have dressed differently.  An online narrated tour was available using a QR code, but it didn’t work for me, and I actually preferred looking around at my own pace and reading the signs which gave almost as much detailed information as the tour.  Oddly, the narrator of the tour had a British accent. 

LCR wandered around at his own pace.  He didn’t listen to the tour or look at the signs very much, but concentrated on taking pictures as there were so many interesting sights and angles.  I believe he was inspired by this institution and that the photos accompanying this post are some of his best work.

The prison has multiple buildings, not all of which can be entered.  But visitors can see cells, administration offices and a medical office, classrooms, and the old dining hall and recreation room.  There is a very small women’s unit.  No more than 10 women were ever at the prison at a time, but there were sometimes hundreds of men.  There are photos everywhere showing what the prison looked like when it was in use.  Cases of historical objects include examples of inmate-created arts and crafts, not to mention homemade weapons and other contraband.  Entertaining stories tell of colorful characters such as an inmate called Turkey Pete who believed he owned the prison and sold its flock of turkeys, one who thought he was an incarnation of Jesus, and a beloved nurse who kept a cat named Kyle, who did not catch mice because he was so well fed by the inmates, as well as a detailed account of a fatal 1959 uprising. 

The prison was cold, cheerless and creepy, but not more so than some modern institutions I am aware of that are also crumbling.  It is considered to be haunted.  Sometimes the power goes off inexplicably, and odd shadows are seen.  The woman at the desk told us she herself had seen a security dog run through the room (the gift shop at the entrance).  There have also been numerous reports of people being pushed out of cells and told to leave, presumably by inmates who died at the prison.  Some of these incidents happened at the annual Halloween events that are held at the prison.  Most intriguingly, some employees have reported chasing a playful child who, they discover later, was not there.  The little girl is believed to be a member of a family who died tragically in a bad car crash of one of the cars which has been restored and is now in the museum.  There are occasionally paranormal investigation events at the prison.  We did not hear strange sounds, see odd sights or feel unwelcome, but there’s no denying it is a place that gives a chill.

The Car Museum, which is connected to the Prison Museum, is a huge, amazing collection of over 165 autos from the 1900s to the 1970s.  I did not take any photos because I could not choose.  This is a terrific exhibit for motorheads, but eye candy for others like myself as well.  Each of the lovingly restored autos – rooms and rooms of them - is more beautiful than the last, and there is plenty of information to show what was special about each car.  Many are owned by a local businessman, who has been collecting cars since he was 14 years old and is now nearly 80.  Some of my favorites were a 1933 pop-up canvas camper, a gorgeous early model touring car with lovely wooden trim and sides, and the early trucks, which show that even if a vehicle’s main purpose is utilitarian, people still want it to be beautiful.

There were many stories given about these cars.  I enjoyed a series of photos of early campers at Yellowstone.  It looked quite uncomfortable to me – the women in long dresses, cooking over an open fire, with a family of five sleeping in a tent that appeared to be a sheet of canvas draped from the side of their car.  Another that I especially liked was about a custom dune buggy, which was bought and restored and souped up by a retired Air Force colonel.  It was a movie prop, having appeared in a Mad Max movie.  For fun, the colonel put a plastic replica of a machine gun on the front of the car, but he had to remove it.  He kept getting pulled over by the state troopers who were following up on complaints by terrified motorists who assumed the gun was real!

We were exhausted at the end of this museum visit.  Neither of us had walked that long for quite some time.  After taking care of some trailer-related business, we ended up checking into a local campground instead of driving another few hundred miles, and making an early evening of it.

 

Gas prices:  In Montana, gas is under $3!  When was the last time we saw that??

Signage:  See below – sign at Idaho campground where we used the dump station and the owner graciously waived the posted $15 fee.