Fourteen Executions: Inside the Wyoming Frontier Prison

Reviewed by Josh N · Updated October 5, 2026 · How we verify

Rawlins sits in the high desert of southern Wyoming, where winter arrives early and stays late, and for eighty years the town’s most imposing building was a stone penitentiary that most of its occupants never chose to enter. The Wyoming Frontier Prison, known locally as the Old Pen, took thirteen years to finish, held prisoners until 1981, and now operates as a museum where guided tours pass through cell blocks, a death house, and a gas chamber. It is also one of the most frequently investigated reportedly haunted sites in the state.

Thirteen Years of Delays Before the First Prisoner Arrived

Construction began in 1888 on what was then called the Wyoming State Penitentiary. It should not have taken long. Funding shortfalls and brutal weather dragged the project out year after year, and the building did not receive its first inmates until December 1901. Thirteen years is an unusual amount of time for a prison to sit half-built, and the delay shaped everything that followed: by the time the doors opened, the design was already behind the needs of the state it served.

This was Wyoming’s first penitentiary, built to hold the people the territory and then the state considered its most dangerous. The stone walls were the point. So was the location, far from anywhere, in a town where the wind does most of the talking.

Cell Block A: 104 Cells, No Water, No Heat

The original cell block, Cell Block A, contained 104 cells. It had no electricity, no running water, and no proper heating system. In a Wyoming winter those are not inconveniences. They are the daily conditions of confinement, and they are a large part of why the Old Pen’s reputation for hardship outlived the institution itself.

Overcrowding set in quickly, and the prison grew in pieces across six decades. A west wing was added to Block A in 1904. Cell Block B followed in 1950. The high-security Cell Block C arrived in 1966. Walking the building today means walking through three distinct eras of American corrections stacked against one another, from hand-cut stone to mid-century concrete.

The Julien Gallows and the Gas Chamber

Executions were carried out at the prison for most of its working life. Between 1901 and 1981, fourteen men were put to death inside the walls: nine by hanging and five by lethal gas. The hangings used the mechanism known as the Julien Gallows, and the gas chamber that replaced it still stands on site. Both are part of the tour.

One name that recurs in the prison’s ghost stories is Andrew Pixley, executed in the gas chamber for murder. Visitors and guides report that he is said to linger in his former cell. That is a claim about reported experience, not a documented event, and it is worth keeping the two apart. The execution is history. The lingering is legend.

The penitentiary closed in 1981 when a replacement facility opened nearby, ending roughly eighty years of continuous use.

What Visitors and Staff Say Happens in the Old Pen

No single famous incident anchors the hauntings here. Instead there is volume: decades of hard confinement, fourteen executions, and the ordinary attrition of a prison that was cold, crowded, and remote. People who spend time in the building describe a consistent set of experiences.

• Disembodied voices and footsteps in corridors where nobody else is walking.
• Cold spots concentrated in the Death House and the solitary confinement areas.
• Shadow figures and apparitions, most often reported near the execution chamber and the older cell blocks.
• Unexplained physical contact: shoulders grabbed, hair pulled, the sensation of being watched.
• Objects moving without apparent cause and doors slamming in empty wings.
• Crying and screaming reported from vacant cells.

Paranormal groups visit the prison regularly and come away with audio they describe as unexplained voices. None of that constitutes proof, and the building’s acoustics, its age, and the expectations visitors bring through the gate all work against clean conclusions. What can be said plainly is that the reports are numerous, consistent in their locations, and come from staff as well as tourists.

The site’s reputation reached a national audience when the Wyoming Frontier Prison was featured in season eight of Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures.

Touring the Old Pen in Rawlins

The prison is preserved as a museum and welcomes thousands of visitors a year. It is open daily, roughly 9:00 am to 5:00 pm, with guided tours the standard way to see the interior. Those tours cover the cell blocks, the cafeteria, the prison yard, and the execution chambers, and the on-site museum holds artifacts, photographs, and personal accounts from the people who lived and worked inside.

The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Special events, including ghost tours, are offered for visitors who want time in the cell blocks after dark. Call ahead at (307) 324-4422 or check wyomingfrontierprison.org before traveling, since hours and event schedules shift with the season.

Dress warmer than you think you need to. The stone holds the cold, which is the one thing every visitor agrees on, whatever else they think they felt.

Sources

• The Ghost Hunter's Field Guide: Over 1000 Haunted Places You Can Experience
• The Most Haunted Places in the United States
• "Ghost Hunters" Norwich State (TV Episode 2010) – IMDb
• specials
• Atchison, Kansas, looking forward to busiest 'haunted' season since 2019
• Wikipedia: List of reportedly haunted locations in the United States

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