Wyoming Frontier Prison Ghost Hunt, Rawlins, Wyoming

Wyoming Frontier Prison Ghost Hunts

Where eighty years of suffering left something behind in the walls.

Built from Rawlins sandstone and opened in 1901, the Wyoming Frontier Prison operated for eighty years without mercy. When its doors finally closed in 1981, approximately 13,500 men and women had served time within its walls. Around 200 of them never left alive — lost to execution, suicide, violence, or the sheer brutality of conditions that, for decades, included no electricity, no running water, and winters where temperatures plunged to sixty below.

Today, the prison is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It is also widely considered the most actively haunted location in Wyoming.

A History Written in Suffering

Discipline at the Wyoming Frontier Prison was enforced through methods that belong to another era. Inmates who defied the rules were dragged to the punishment pole — a concrete pillar in a small, enclosed room — where they were chained and beaten with rubber hoses and leather straps. Their screams carried through Cell Block A, serving as a warning to every man listening.

For more severe infractions, there was the dungeon — known among inmates as “The Old Hole” — a lightless, freezing isolation cell where men were confined for weeks. Records describe guards manipulating feeding schedules to disorient prisoners, in at least one documented case driving an inmate to permanent insanity.

The Death House, completed in 1916, contained six death row cells and Wyoming’s indoor Julien Gallows — a uniquely grim mechanism in which the condemned man’s own weight, triggered by a water-operated trap door, carried out the execution. Nine men were hanged here. In 1936, a gas chamber was installed, and five more men were executed using hydrocyanic acid gas. Fourteen executions in total. Every one of them took place within these walls.

Documented Paranormal Activity

The prison’s reputation for paranormal activity is not built on rumor. Site Director Tina Hill has stated plainly: “Every paranormal investigation that we hold here comes up with some evidence, so I just tell everyone that we are officially haunted.”

The Travel Channel’s Ghost Adventures dedicated a full investigation to the prison, capturing what the crew described as some of the most compelling evidence they had ever recorded — including a camera that moved on its own in a room where no living person was present.

Staff and visitors have consistently reported a range of phenomena across the facility: physical contact including touches on the shoulders and back, hair being pulled, disembodied footsteps and voices, cell doors opening and closing without explanation, and objects being displaced and later found in different locations. EVP recordings have captured clear responses, ranging from pleas for help to mundane requests.

The Gas Chamber

Five men died in this room. Among them was Andrew Pixley, convicted of the murder of a circuit court judge’s children. Pixley holds a grim distinction: he took nearly seven minutes to die — far longer than the typical execution — and reportedly laughed throughout. Candles placed in Pixley’s former cell during investigations have been observed to flicker violently, extinguish completely, and then reignite on their own.

The gas chamber remains one of the prison’s most active locations. Tour guides and investigators routinely report hearing footsteps in and around the chamber long after the building has been cleared of visitors.

The Death House and Death Row

Visitors entering the Death House frequently describe an overwhelming sensation of pressure on the chest — a phenomenon reported independently by numerous people with no prior knowledge of other accounts. The reflection of a man wearing a brimmed hat has been observed in the room where the Julien Gallows once stood, though no physical source for the reflection has ever been identified.

The Showers

The shower area is considered by many investigators to be the prison’s single most active location. The sound of crying has been reported repeatedly by people approaching the area, only to find it completely empty upon arrival.

The Legend of the Pie Lady

One of the prison’s most enduring stories involves a Rawlins woman known as the “Pie Lady” — said to have been a local resident named Esther who baked pies for the inmates each week. According to the legend, a paroled inmate tracked her down after his release and murdered her. Upon his return to the prison, fellow inmates — enraged at the loss of the woman who had shown them kindness — hanged him from the second-floor balcony.

It should be noted that no archival records have confirmed this account, and it is considered local legend rather than documented history. However, multiple independent witnesses — including prison staff, visitors, and paranormal investigators — have reported seeing what appears to be a group of spectral figures carrying out a hanging from the upper walkway, as though the scene replays on a loop.

Your Investigation

We are offering exclusive overnight access to the Wyoming Frontier Prison for a guided paranormal investigation. This is not a theatrical haunted house experience. This is a serious investigation of a location where decades of documented suffering have left an imprint that hundreds of visitors and investigators have independently confirmed.

You will have access to the gas chamber, the Death House, death row, the cell blocks, the showers, and the solitary confinement areas. Our team will provide professional-grade paranormal equipment and experienced investigators to guide your session.

For those seeking the ultimate test: we offer the opportunity to conduct a solitary vigil inside the gas chamber itself. Seated in the same steel chair where five condemned men spent their final moments, with the door closed and the lights extinguished, you will have the chance to determine for yourself whether Andrew Pixley — or anyone else — is still present.

This is one of the most actively investigated paranormal locations in the United States. The evidence is extensive. The history is real. The only question that remains is yours to answer.

Secure your place. The Wyoming Frontier Prison is waiting.

BOOK NOW

TICKETS ARE EXTREMELY LIMITED