Historic Nevada State Prison to begin training volunteers; tours tentatively planned to begin in June
Submitted by Kelsey Penrose on Fri, 03/19/2021 - 12:55pm
The Nevada State Prison has an extensive history within Carson City, as it became established in 1862 and until its closure in 2012 was one of the oldest prisons still operating in the entire country.
The prison itself has many stories, from a Tom Selleck funded basketball court, to ancient mammoth footprints, a prisoner's casino, executions, and more.
The Nevada State Prison was the only facility designated for executions in the state of Nevada, and carried out the state's first gas-chamber death sentence in 1924 with the execution of Gee Jon, who was sentenced to death for the killing of a 74-year-old rival gang member in Mina.
However, the prison was officially shut down in 2012 due to budgetary issues, and since then, a move to turn it into a historic destination, open for tours and events, has finally become a reality.
The first preview tours of the historic prison were given on Nevada Day 2020, during which tickets sold out in under five minutes, according to Nevada State Prison Guide and Former Warden Mike Budge.
The prison is a combination of ancient, antique, vintage, and modern, from the cells blasted from solid sandstone with dynamite during the civil war era to the cells that held prisoners up until the closure in 2012.
In addition, the site is also home to some truly ancient curiosities as well, in the form of several fossilized footprints. Giant Sloth footprints were identified and removed along with bison, horse, deer, wolf, and bird, but there are still two interesting foot prints yet to be disturbed: an adult mammoth footprint alongside a baby mammoth footprint, according to Budge.
"The hope is that these prints will be examined and preserved by experts once additional revenue and funding begins to come in," said Budge.
Not everything at the site is wondrous though; it was after all, a prison. Several cells were blasted into sandstone walls sometime during the prison’s early days and outfitted with civil-war era iron doors.
These cells, which proved to be very small and pitch dark when the doors were closed, were used to house Native American prisoners. Food was lowered to prisoners through holes in the ceiling.
“I heard some prisoners would go blind after being in there for so long,” said Budge. “It’s a dark history.”
According to the Nevada State Prison’s website, the “cave,” as it is referred to, was still in use as a “crude for of solitary confinement and disciplinary segregation” up until 1961 when C-Block was constructed.
The prison was also the sole designated site for executions up until 2016 when an execution chamber was built in Ely.
Executions on site ranged from hanging to firing squad in the early days, and then in the modern era, gas and lethal injection. The first gas operation at the Nevada State Prison was botched; executioners attempted to pump lethal gas into Gee Jon’s cell while he was sleeping, but it escaped due to the cell not having a tight seal. Jon was then strapped to a chair and moved into a make-shift gas chamber inside the butcher shop, where he eventually succumbed to the gas.
In 1979, Jesse Bishop became the last person executed by the gas chamber and in 1985, the transition to lethal injection occurred with the execution of serial killer Carroll Cole, the execution of which Budge was present for as a prison staff member.
Now, the execution chamber is for show only, and is a common interest to those who want to tour the prison.
“A lot of the paranormal people are interested in it,” said Budge. “Some have even asked to stay the night up here. I don’t get it.”
Budge has seen many transitions during his time at the prison, when he was first hired on as an officer until becoming Warden in 2001. As Warden, he instituted many popular programs such as the Puppies on Parole program, along with flower and vegetable gardens, and for a time, Budge was in charge of the Prison Mustangs program and the prison dairy at NNCC.
One such transition at the Nevada State Prison Budge witnessed was when Tom Selleck came to town to film the 1989 Crime Drama “An Innocent Man,” using the historic prison as the movie’s backdrop.
According to Budge, the movie needed a basketball scene, but the court at the time wasn’t up to snuff, so Tom Selleck invested $25,000 into building a new basketball court, which the inmates used up until the prison’s closure.
"The movie had both staff and inmates in it acting," said Budge. "I even got a line which was 'Up against the fence, assholes," when they lit a guy on fire."
Other stops along the tour include the cafeteria, which still has the menu of the last day food was served written on the white board; “the hole,” where prisoners were placed for disciplinary issues; cells decorated and furnished to mirror what they would have looked like during use; death row; and more.
According to Budge, they are currently seeking volunteers to act as tour guides, and will begin training sometime in May. The first tours are being tentatively planned for the beginning of June.
To learn more about the historic Nevada State Prison, including the fossils found, the casino that was once run by the prisoners, and more, visit http://nevadastateprison.org/
