Old Idaho State Penitentiary

The Old Idaho Penitentiary State Historic Site, also known as the Idaho Territorial Prison, was constructed in the Territory of Idaho in 1870 and lasted until 1973. The territory was less than ten years old when the prison was built east of Boise, Idaho in the western United States. From its beginnings as a single cell house, the penitentiary grew to a complex of several distinctive buildings surrounded by a high sandstone wall. The stone was quarried from the nearby ridges by the resident convicts, who also completed all the later construction. The Old Pen is operated by the Idaho State Historical Society. Over its one-hundred and one years of operation, the penitentiary received more than 13,000 convicts, with a maximum population of...