Home Sweet Home #2
by Jon Burch Photography
Title
Home Sweet Home #2
Artist
Jon Burch Photography
Medium
Photograph - Digital Photography
Description
Wyoming Territory was plagued by outlaws when it became a territory in 1868, with outlaws committing such crimes as theft, forgery, bank and train robberies, murder and cattle rustling. As the population grew and settlers arrived in the area, the need for law and order became increasingly important.
The Wyoming Territorial Prison was constructed in 1872 and started receiving convicts, who would serve out their sentences under a strict Auburn Prison System. This system required convicts to be silent at all times, participate in gang work, leave cells only on command when going to work and other activities, wear black and white striped uniforms, replace names with numbers and move about the prison in lock step.
Nathaniel K. Boswell, the first warden of the Territorial Prison, came to Cheyenne, Wyoming in 1867 when it was still a tent city. After operating a drug store for several years, he subsequently served as the first sheriff of Albany County before being appointed as a Deputy United States Marshall serving as a warden. During his career he arrested, among others, Jack McCall, who is noted as the person who shot James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickok in the back as Hickok was playing poker with Carl Mann, Captain William R. Massic, and Charles Rich in Nuttall and Mann's Saloon in Deadwood City. Hickok held the winning hand, ace of spades, ace of clubs, eight of spades, eight of clubs, and either a queen or jack of diamonds. Aces and eights are now commonly known as the "deadman's hand." Boswell also arrested the notorious stage robber George "Big Nose" Parrott.
Later known as a legend of the American West and leader of the Wild Bunch, Robert LeRoy Parker, a.k.a. Butch Cassidy, was incarcerated as convict #187 at the Wyoming Territorial Prison for grand larceny by stealing horses from 1894-1896. This would be the only Prison to ever hold Cassidy.
Parker’s purchase of a stolen horse for five dollars from a rustler named Billy Nutcher led to his eventual conviction in Judge Jesse Knight’s court in Lander, Wyo. in 1894 and incarceration at the Wyoming State Penitentiary the former territorial prison, in Laramie. He was released early in 1896, after 18 months in prison.
Some digital effects were applied to the original image after the photograph was made. No electrons were harmed during the transition. Ordered images will not contain the Fine Art America watermark.
Image copyright 2020 Jon Burch Photography.
Uploaded
July 20th, 2020
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