Boise Idaho

We pulled off of I-84 and went north on US-20. The camp ground we had picked out in the Boise area was full so we were looking for a place to camp while we were going down US-20 to the Old Idaho Penitentary. We accidently made a wrong turn (it is hard to change lanes quickly in a 36' RV+toad) and went up an exit ramp instead on staying on US-20. I turned to go down Federal Way to find a place to turn around so we could get back on US-20. The first thing we saw was a Jo-Anne's Fabric Store and Karen, of course, had to stop in there to look for bug fabric (she is making a bug quilt for our first grandson). So we pulled around back and found a nice place in the shade to park the rig. This looked like a great place to dry camp so when Karen went into the Jo-Ann's I went into the nearest store and talked to the lady owner/manager about spending the night at her place - not really. She said that she and her husband were RVers and that we could stay as long as we liked. We put the jacks down and took off for the old penitentary. Karen found 5 pieces of bug fabric for the quilt in Jo-Ann's when we got 'home' that night. Next to Jo-Ann's was a day-old bread outlet so I went in and bought some stuff including a box of Famous Amos cookies that I gave to the lady who let us park in her parking lot.

The old penitentary was really neat. They have not tried to restore it. It is aging gracefully. It was closed in 1973 and was at one time Idaho's main penitentary. It has several mini-museum on the grounds as well - a vehicle, a weapons, a tatoo, and an electrical - that are in some of the prison buildings. We toured the cell blocks, laundry, solitary confinement, death row, and gallows. We saw a handwritten invitation to an execution, exhibits of weapons made by prisoners, and stories of prisoners who stayed there. Executions used to be publicly held in each county in Idaho but later were moved to this penitentary where they were held in the rose garden. Finally they were closed to viewing.

We saw the women's ward too. It is very small and some unusual characters were held there at one time for what seem like strange reasons (like adultry) now. The ward had a nice flower and rose garden that the prisoners worked in. One tree grew next to the wall and a lady prisoner climbed it and escaped as did another who used a trellis as a ladder. The prison officials cut the tree down.

The weapons museum consisted of one man's weapon collection. The museum had a lot of old weapons as well as old guns up to WWII. Very informative displays. The tatoo museum consisted of pictures of tatoos, descriptions of the process and the meaning of tatoos in prison, and tatooing equipment that had been used in prisons. Tatooing is illegal in prison and has to be done between rounds. The electrical museum had lots of old interesting distribution equipment and a working analog telephone switching system that you could watch as you dialed a number.