Wyoming

We began our day driving from Salt Lake City to Fossil Butte National Monument. It was an easy 2-hour drive through northeast Utah up to southwestern Wyoming. We had read a bit (a very SMALL bit) about this park so we were unexpectedly, and very pleasantly, surprised by how much it had.

According to the National Park Service, “this 50-million-year-old lake bed is one of the richest fossil localities in the world. Recorded in limestone are dynamic and complete paleoecosystems that spanned two million years. Preservation is so complete that it allows for detailed study of climate change and its effects on biological communities.”

This was just one wall of many throughout the Visitor Center. There were so many fossils and we were amazed by the detail you could see in each fossil.

Definitely worth a visit if you are planning to be in the area. The Park Rangers also provide free tours out to the Butte. While we didn’t take the tour, the Ranger we spoke to said the tour takes about an hour. Here are several pictures of the Butte and views from the Visitor Center.

After Fossil Butte we drove another 3 hours along the I-80 to Rawlins, WY. This very small town (population about 10k) is the home of the Wyoming State Penitentiary, a historic landmark. It was built in 1901 and housed the State’s death row and execution chamber. Today, there are tours of the site. We arrived just in time to take a tour, which lasted about an hour.

Prison Library

Seating at the Library

Prison Showers – no hot water! BRRRR!!!

The prison heating and cooling system – heat through the tubes and air through the windows

The Kitchen

The Cafeteria – all seats faced forward and no talking allowed during meals.

In solitary confinement prisoners used toothpaste to stick pictures or posters to the wall. You can still see all the white spots left by the toothpaste.

For those in the solitary block, meals were slid under the door and drink cups were slid in through the opening cut into the bottom of the cell door.

There was a large area outside used as an exercise yard where some of the death row prisoners played ball. When a new warden took over he decided to make it official and formed the Wyoming State Prison Baseball Team. The prisoners played in 1911-12 for their lives, literally! If they won their execution date would be postponed, if they lost it would be the end of the road. Needless to say, the team did very well. However, it all came to an end when rumors began circulating that the prison was making money off the games. Then Governor Joseph M. Carey started cracking down on gambling in the state and by November 1912 the team was disbanded.