Entry No. 14 — the Pueblo file — filed under: haunted
Museum of Colorado Prisons
“Stand still and you can hear the active yard next door.”
The 1935 women’s cellhouse shares a stone wall and gun towers with Old Max, the Territorial prison running next door since 1871 — stand still and you can hear the active yard. Out on the grounds sits Colorado’s gas chamber, last used on Luis Monge in 1967, the final execution in America before the decade-long national pause. Inside, 32 cells hold Alferd Packer’s story, a flogging horse called the Old Gray Mare, and Cell 19, where staff and visitors keep hearing coughing from an empty cell.
The move: Book a staff-run paranormal night, draw straws for who sits alone in Cell 19 with the lights off, and compare audio recordings on the drive home.
📍 Before you go It’s the stone building off US-50 at the west edge of Cañon City, hard against the wall of the still-active Territorial prison — use the free lot out front and skip photographing the working facility next door. The museum itself is self-guided through 32 converted cells; the off-season schedule drops to fewer days, so confirm before driving over in winter. Staff-run paranormal investigation nights book out in advance, especially around October. Pair it with Skyline Drive five minutes west, the one-lane ridge road inmates from this same prison built in the early 1900s.
- 📍 Cañon City
- 💸 $$
- ⚡ Up for anything
- 🌗 Indoors
Where: 201 N 1st St, Cañon City, CO 81212
Hours: Added 2026-06-11 — confirm current hours before you go.
Plan a visit & invite your people →
Proof: source 1 · source 2 · source 3 · source 4
last checked: 2026-06-11