Ghost Adventures: Old Wyoming Penitentiary

Walkthrough Part 1

Ghost Adventures Title sequence

My name is Zak Bagans. I've never believed in ghosts until I came face to face with one. So I set out on a quest to capture what I once saw onto video....
With no big camera crews following us around, I am joined only by my fellow investigator Nick Groff and our equipment tech Aaron Goodwin. The three of us will travel to some of the most highly active paranormal locations, where we will spend an entire night, being locked down from dusk until dawn....
Raw...
Extreme...
These are our Ghost Adventures.
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Old Wyoming Penitentiary, WY

Walkthrough Part 1

While Zak got ready to introduce our lockdown site, I watched Aaron and Nick set up their cameras to film him.

"Within the town of Rawlins, Wyoming lays the notorious Old Wyoming Penitentiary. Known to the locals as "Old Pen", it was the former home to 13,500 of the worst inmates that the state had to offer. In it's eighty year history, this castle-like fortress has seen it's fair share of executions, suicides and murders."

From 1901 to 1981, the prison stood in operation. Hoping to conform the criminals to abide to society's rules. Those inside either died from the hands of other inmates, succumbed to the poor conditions of their cells, or suffered executions gone array.

Employees, tour patrons and other Paranormal Investigators report hearing strange voices, seeing apparitions and feeling a presence with no one around.

"As we investigate these reports, we plan to put ourselves in their place and look to contact those are bound within the walls of this facility."

With the shot captured, we headed to another part of the building to interview "Old Pen's own Historian, Mark Criswell.

I reunited with the guys the day before, and was ready to attend the walkthrough.

We stood near the entrance as Zak spoke with Mark, Aaron circled around them while Nick steadied his shoulder camera.

"So Mark, how did the inmates live inside this prison?"

"Well, this Penitentiary itself didn't have enough room to house so many inmates and overcrowding became an issue, Also due to funding issues by the state, the conditions inside the cells weren't very good either."

"How so?"

"Most of the cells were dark, cramped with no electricity or running water, and an inadequate heating system. Hot water wasn't available in the cells until 1978."

"The whole building was like this?" Zak asked in disbelief,

"Yes, but additions were eventually made to assist these problems. More cells were built to relieve overcrowding and in 1909, all the women were transferred out of the prison so it would only house the men."

"Hold on," Zak paused him for a second, "Women used to be here, too?"

"That's right, at least eleven of them. So as you can imagine, these inmates wouldn't handle their peers very well."

It surprised me also that women used to be in the Penitentiary, the history behind this building was already getting interesting.
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In another part of the building, we interviewed the prison's owner, Norman Walker. He showed us around the different cell blocks, explaining the dark history.

"The guards had several variations of discipline for the inmates, like solitary confinement and a dungeon where they would house the most difficult, violent inmates to try to punish them into submission. They would handcuff the men to a "punishment pole" and whip them with rubber hoses, this was practiced legally until 1930."

Zak shook his head in disbelief, Norman walked us to another part of the prison were executions took place. We could a noose hanging inside the Julien Gallows, on the wall ahead of us was the plague of all the men that died there.

"The executions in here were from 1912 to 1933, inmates in the death house were hung by stepping onto a trap door, a stream of water was started which eventually opened the trap door, caused the condemned to drop through the trap door. Unfortunately, this "do-it-yourself" gallows didn't drop the condemned man far enough to break his neck, and they died a slow death through strangulation."

"How many men died like that?" Zak asked,

"At least nine."

"A slow death, that's got to create a lot of bad energy."

While heading down another execution site, he showed us this metallic chamber with a chair in the center. It was barely big enough to fit one man inside, seeing the gauges on top hinted that this chamber was used for something ominous.

"This was a hydrocyanic acid gas chamber and was installed in 1936 to do a more humane job of executing five condemned men up until 1965."

This was a very violent, oppressive place which has generated a lot of negative energy over the years. We would eventually hear the eyewitness accounts from several people who have had contact with these restless spirits.