Museum of Colorado Prisons, Canon City: History and Ghost Stories

Canon City, two hours south of Denver on the Arkansas River, has been Colorado’s prison town since the Territorial Prison opened in 1871. The Museum of Colorado Prisons sits right beside that first prison, still in use as the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility, in the state’s former women’s prison of 1935.

Its cell house is filled with the history of Colorado’s prisons, and with stories. Staff have described slamming cell doors that are welded open, voices in the archives and a woman coughing in an empty cell. This guide covers the history, the ghost stories and who tells them, and how to visit, including the paranormal investigation nights held there.

History of the Museum of Colorado Prisons

Colorado’s Territorial Prison opened in Canon City in 1871, five years before statehood, and the town has been home to prisons ever since; Westword counted nine in and around it. In 1935 the state built a separate women’s prison next door. The building shares a wall and guard towers with the old prison, now the Colorado Territorial Correctional Facility.

When the women’s prison closed, Fremont County residents and volunteers proposed turning it into a museum. The state legislature approved the idea on April 24, 1986, Canon City granted a 99-year lease, and a board raised money from grants, lottery funds, donations and loans. The museum opened on June 18, 1988.

Today about 30 of its cells hold exhibits on more than 140 years of Colorado prison history: life for inmates and guards, punishment devices, weapons made by prisoners, and famous inmates such as Alferd Packer and Antone Wood. The last hangman’s noose used in Colorado is on display, and the state’s last gas chamber stands outside the front entrance. Exhibits also cover films shot in town, from The Big House in 1930 to The Women of San Quentin in 1983.

Up on the bluff above Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery, Woodpecker Hill holds the graves of about 600 prisoners whose bodies were never claimed; it takes its name from the birds that pecked at its wooden markers.

The ghosts of the Museum of Colorado Prisons

Doors that slam and voices in the archives

In 2007 staffer Heather Ward told The Gazette she had heard cell doors slam, even though the doors are welded open, and the crash of silverware when nothing had fallen. She said the archives were the part of the building that frightened her, and that voices had been heard there. Westword’s docents described whisperings, catcalls and moans, and heavy doors fixed open suddenly slamming shut.

Cell 19

Cell 19 is linked to a female prisoner said to have died there. Visitors report coughing from the empty cell, and Uncover Colorado says photos of it sometimes show orbs. The Denver Gazette’s 2024 roundup names it as the cell she haunts.

The Parakeet Lady of Cell 18

Cell 18 was the room of a prisoner remembered as the Parakeet Lady. Legend says she promised to haunt the building after her death, and staff told The Gazette that many visitors avoid her cell.

Shadows by Cell 15 and a coffin

Victoria Newman, a museum worker, told The Gazette that shadows have been seen near Cell 15, which displays a casket once used to carry dead prisoners to Denver for medical research. The same article notes, fairly, that squirrels once nested in the casket and may explain some of the noises.

Friendly and mischievous

Staff describe the presences as more mischievous than threatening: hair pulled, names called out, the cash register opening by itself, visitors who see blood on a clean floor. Others mention cold spots and a smell of tobacco in the old laundry room, and inmates in the working prison next door are said to have heard a woman crying. A staff member told Denver7 in 2020, simply: ‘This building is haunted. They are here.’

Where to look

• Cell 19: for the coughing and a woman said to have died there.
• Cell 18: the Parakeet Lady’s cell.
• Cell 15: with the prison casket and reported shadows.
• The old laundry room: for cold spots and tobacco smell.
• The gas chamber: outside the front entrance.
• Woodpecker Hill: the prisoners’ graves above Greenwood Pioneer Cemetery.

Visiting the Museum of Colorado Prisons

The museum is at 201 North First Street in Canon City, about two hours south of Denver and an hour southwest of Colorado Springs. It is a self-guided walk through the cell house and its exhibits; plan an hour or more. Hours and admission change with the seasons, so check the museum’s website or call 719-269-3015 before you go.

Paranormal investigation nights are held on set dates, led by local paranormal groups; Visit Colorado Springs names Mountain Peak Paranormal Investigators, and the Denver Gazette describes after-dark ‘Paranormal Investigation Nights’ with modern equipment. In summer, costumed guides also run ghost walks through historic downtown Canon City, telling stories of lynchings and haunted buildings.

Remember that the building stands against a working prison. Follow staff instructions, do not photograph the active facility, and keep to the museum’s grounds.

• Visiting Self-guided museum beside a working prison
• Ghost hunting Paranormal investigation nights run by local investigators on set dates

Tips for your visit

• Visit by day first, then come back for an investigation night if you want to sit in Cell 19 after dark.
• Look for the gas chamber outside before you go in.
• Drive the scenic Phantom Canyon Road north to Victor and Cripple Creek for more ghost stories.
• Stop at Woodpecker Hill to see the prisoners’ graves.
• Stay at the haunted Victor Hotel, about an hour north.

More haunted places nearby

• Haunted Cripple Creek: the old gold camp, an hour north by Phantom Canyon Road
• Victor Hotel: a haunted hotel where bodies were once stored in winter
• Haunted places in Colorado Springs: an hour northeast
• Haunted hotels in Colorado: where to stay
• Haunted places in Colorado

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Museum of Colorado Prisons
• The Gazette: Residual residents (2007)
• Westword: Creep Show, six very spooky sites in Colorado
• Denver Gazette: 10 'paranormal' places to visit around Colorado (2024)
• Visit Colorado Springs: Ghosts and spirits of the Pikes Peak region (2024)
• Denver7: A haunting experience at the Museum of Colorado Prisons (2020)
• Royal Gorge Region: Colorado Museum of Prisons
• Uncover Colorado: Haunted places in Colorado