Good Evening Fellows!We finally made it to Oregon this afternoon, 210 miles from our last stop in Boise, Idaho.
I must admit last night I didn't really think much of the city; it looked sort of empty, which gave the downtown area a strange appearance, but this morning it was a whole different story!
We stayed at a Doubletree Hotel, very close to downtown. The hotel was probably one of the best so far considering the price we paid and the quality of the service. $55 for a room at a Doubletree is really a bargain, and I'm conscious of that, especially when you think that the regular price was around $100 for last night.
This morning I had planned a visit to the "Old Idaho Penitentiary", and I'm glad we did it, because it was very interesting and at the same time very "educational".
The whole complex is now part of the Idaho State Historical Society.
We were greeted by a nice lady who asked us to pay a total of $8.50 for two, and gave us the option of taking a self guided tour, or for the same price, wait 10 minutes and actually have an expert guiding us through the buildings.
Our guide was a former guest of the penitentiary who served 15 years for manslaughter, a very nice and kind person! LOL I'm sure you almost believed that, didn't you?
No, the man is a retired prison officer, who never worked there at the Old Idaho Penitentiary, but that indeed worked at the new facility who is still operational on the outskirts of Boise.
He took us on a tour of the complex, somewhere in between 10 and 15 different buildings, some open to the public eyes, some other closed. I should mention that there is also a place where you can see solitary confinement. It gave me goose flesh to be there and see how tiny the solitary confinement rooms were at that time (OK, I don't know about the new ones since I've never been in one, thank God!). That particular building was so quiet that the silence was almost deafening. Scratched on a wall the word "Siberia" which is the way the inmates used to call the solitary confinement building.
The tour guide also told us some nice and interesting stories about the penitentiary population, but that would make this post to long for you to digest, and therefore I prefer to cut it short.
I should also mention the fact that all of the buildings we visited today were built by prisoners, and that in particular, two of the prisoners were smart enough to also create projects for different structures inside the complex.
Here is a picture of some of the buildings we visited today:
And now some facts about the prison:
It had over 13,000 inmates in 100 years, with a total of 215 women, 613 was the maximum number of prisoners at one time;
The youngest inmate was 10 years old, and served less than one year for killing a man (he was later adopted by a Boise family according to what the tour guide said);
Another young man (11 years old), served 9 years for shooting and killing his mother (apparently because she wouldn’t let him out!), he eventually served his sentence, and lived as a hermit all his life up in the mountains until he died;
The oldest was an 81 years old man who served 3 years for cattle rusting;
The prison has been used from 1872 to 1973, and the longest sentence ever served over there was the one inflicted to Harry Orchard, 46 years for assassinating former governor Steunenburg. He died in prison in 1954;
Over 500 people tried to escape from this penitentiary, but only 90 actually got away with it;
Ten men were hanged, the last one in 1957; On the other hand, no women have ever been executed in Idaho;
There have been 5 major riots, the last two in 1971 and 1973 that actually pushed the authorities governing the prison to move the inmates in a new structure;
The most common crime for women was “forgery”, and for men was “theft! I’ve read this facts on a poster on the wall, and I thought it would have been interesting to share them with you.
They also have an extremely interesting collection of weapons donated by a very prominent Idahoan, but at the present moment I can't remember the name.
The display includes several different kind of weapons, ranging from Spanish era swords of the 1600's to WWII weapons. If you have an interest in weapons, this is a must see museum, and also don't forget that it is included with the price of the ticket you paid at the beginning anyway!
Once we left the Old Idaho Penitentiary, I plugged in our new destination on the GPS, and there we went, 75 mph on I-84W.
It’s been a pleasant drive, and almost close to Nampa, ID, I had one of those TeleAtlas (Google Earth Street View mode maybe helps) cars with all the cameras on the top, I counted nine! It was amazing to finally see one for real, I know, it might not be a big deal for you, but for someone like me who nowadays basically check everything on the net, well it was a big deal! Have you ever tried to look for a restaurant, or a hotel, or a house address, and have the curiosity to know how the place looks like without having to be there? With Google Earth Street View you can do that, maybe you want to try it, I think it’s fun!
We crossed the border between Idaho and Oregon, and consequently the Pacific Time Zone. Another interest fact (ok, for you it might be boring!) is that we crossed the 45th Parallel, and at that point we were at an “equal” distance between the Equator and the North Pole. I wanted to stop to take a picture, but I had cars behind and could make it. I’ll make sure I check on the map when we’re heading back south the exact location where we’re going to cross it back, and I’ll take a picture!
We're currently in Pendleton, OR, nice little town, and in my opinion one of the best Mexican restaurants I’ve ever experienced. The name, for those of you who are interested is “Mazatlan”, on SW Court Road.
Tomorrow we're going to visit a Popcorn factory (sounds like fun…maybe!) and go on an "Undeground Pendleton" tour with an additional visit to one of the most famous former brothels in Oregon.
From Oregon I guess it's all for this evening.
Good night,
Nico
No comments:
Post a Comment