Cheyenne County Jail, Gefängnis in den Vereinigten Staaten
The Cheyenne County Jail is a late 1800s prison building in Romanesque style featuring thick stone walls, rounded arches over windows and doors, and a tower for surveillance. The structure originally contained the sheriff's living quarters alongside holding cells and eventually added a separate section for women prisoners.
The jail was built in 1894 by renowned Denver architect Robert S. Roeschlaub as a replacement for an earlier one-room facility. In 1937, a dedicated section for female prisoners was added since women had previously been held in jails in other towns.
The jail served as a center of authority and order in the small community, reflecting the values that guided early settlement on the plains. Today, visitors can see how the sturdy design reflects the priorities and concerns of that era.
The building operates as a museum run by community volunteers and is open weekends in the afternoon from Memorial Day through Labor Day, with advance reservations recommended. Visitors should note the heavy steel bars and cell layouts are compact, so comfortable shoes are advised for exploring.
Only one inmate is known to have escaped from the facility, a rare event given the thick walls and steel bars throughout. The sheriff's tower became a symbol of law and order in a small frontier town on the plains.
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