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The hostages were held
for three days while the riot raged on. After the National Guard was
brought in, the two ringleaders died in a murder-suicide, When Myles shot
Smart and then turned the gun on himself.
Finally, the old and overcrowded prison was closed In 1979, and its
prisoners moved to a
new facility, five miles west of Deer Lodge.
Empty of prisoners and
standing as a silent sentinel to justice, the Powell County Museum and
Arts Foundation obtained the building's lease for use as a museum. After some restoration and the construction of a visitor’s center, the
complex reopened in 1980, providing tours to more than 40,000 visitors
each year.
Listed on the National Registry of Historic
Places, visitors to the museum can take guided or self-guided tours
through several of the prison’s buildings, glimpsing the daily life of
prison routines. As visitors walk through the intimidating cell
houses, Informational signs provide details of prison life where
tourists will continue to see original schedules, rules, prisoner
artwork, and even moldering blankets on many of the iron cots in its
prison cells. More lurid displays show a "Prison Life” photo exhibit,
contraband items and homemade weapons; and guns, shackles and
restraints utilized on the convicts.
Evidence of a 1959 riot can be seen in the shattered bricks of the
west tower, cramped blackout cells can be toured, and the gallows that
once hanged capital offenders remain for those of us with a morbid
curiosity.
Though guards no longer occupy the turrets in each corner of "The
Wall,” nor do the sounds of heavy cell doors sliding shut echo through
the buildings, the tour can make even the most hardened visitor
welcome their "release” into the grassy center yard.
The
Old Montana
Prison Museum is just one of several museums sponsored by the Powell
County Museum and Arts Foundation. In fact, Deer Lodge,
Montana is
home to more museums and historical collections than any other town in the
Northwest. You can also see the Frontier Museum,
Desert John's Saloon Museum and the Powell County Museum, all of which
will transport you back to the era of cowboys and the Old West. The
Montana Auto Museum features over 120 vintage vehicles, and Yesterday's
Playthings is
Montana's foremost doll and toy museum. Cottonwood City displays the
Snowshoe Creek School and the Blood Cabin.
©
Kathy Weiser/Legends
of America, updated May, 2010. |