MATT JOYCE Associated Press writer | Posted: Thursday, January 1, 2009 12:00 am
LARAMIE - The days were long, the work repetitive and the conditions rough. But for prisoners, the opportunity to work in the Wyoming Territorial Prison's broom factory was probably better than wasting away in a cell.
Now the operators of the historic prison site want visitors to get a taste of old-fashioned prison labor. The state last month completed a restoration of the time-worn wooden building, which sits next to the stone prison that famously housed the outlaw Butch Cassidy.
Officials say they're building a hands-on exhibit inside the building - known in its day as the Laramie Broom Company - where visitors can make brooms using replicas of the original tools that the prisoners toiled over. They're aiming to debut the exhibit when the park opens for its summer season.
"This was a very functional building, so we wanted to have that feel in here," said Teresa Sherwood, the site curator, as she pointed out pieces of original equipment and recently purchased bales of broom corn. "We're really wanting to make sure this is an interactive space."
Site Superintendent Tom Lindmier said the Wyoming Department of Parks and Cultural Resources spent $1.1 million on a two-year project to restore the building. The building was used as a sheep barn during the decades the property served as a University of Wyoming stock farm.
The prison held convicts from throughout the Wyoming territory from its opening in 1872 until it was closed in 1903, when prisoners were transferred to the old state penitentiary in Rawlins. After the Laramie prison closed, the university used the 190-acre grounds as a stock farm until 1989.
Without photos of the interior of the original factory, historians have relied on inventories of prison equipment taken in 1891 and 1897, as well as other written records and photos of other broom factories, to get an idea of how the Laramie Broom Company operated, Sherwood said.
She said the factory was run by a lessee, who bid for a state contract to operate the prison's industries. Revenues went toward operating the factory and helping cover other prison expenses, but the inmates were not paid.
Restoring the building proved to be a challenge, because additional barn space tacked on during the livestock years had to be carefully removed without knocking over the original structure, Lindmier said. The project's directors then wrestled with keeping the building's original materials and structure while following modern safety and access codes.
"The new codes change the whole dynamics of how you do a restoration," Lindmier said. "I'm a purist. So in my mind, I think we've done fairly well, but I would have preferred to have it the way it was 100 percent. But that's just not in the cards anymore."
However, the exhibit will display pieces of the wood and metal broom-making tools believed to be part of the original factory. The tools were dropped off more than 20 years ago at the Fort Bridger State Historic Site near Evanston, about 280 miles west of here, by a man who said his father bought them at a prison auction in Rawlins at an unknown time, Lindmier said.
The implements, which include simple tools to wire the broom corn to a dowel and shape the broom, were then warehoused in Cheyenne until being put on display at the Territorial Prison about three years ago.
"I just love the idea that this is the real piece - a prisoner worked on it every day," Sherwood said. "You never know when you donate something whether later on it's going to connect."
Records indicate the broom factory churned out up to 720 brooms per day in 1900, Sherwood said. They were then shipped by boxcar to stores as far as away as San Francisco. But original labels discovered on site show that the brooms weren't marked as products of a prison. Rather, they were labeled for specific retailers, such as the Wheatland Cash Store in Wyoming.
"It doesn't say the Laramie Broom Company or anything about prison so there wouldn't be any guilt in the consumer's mind about supporting prison labor," Sherwood said. "(The prisoners) weren't being paid, so their brooms would be much cheaper than a family business."
The Territorial Prison's new exhibit will also highlight other prison industries that took place inside the stockade walls. Those included taxidermy, cigar-making, furniture-making, leather goods, farming, baking and other work.
"As an individual entered the prison, one of the things they were screened for was their talent. What can you do?" Sherwood said.
Starting next summer, visitors will get a chance to try their hand at a little prison industry. And then, thankfully, continue on with their tour.