HIDDEN Tunnels and the HOLE in the Old Montana State Prison

[Music] there is something very imposing about prisons and there's tunnels from this trapdoor guards would be able to look through there with their guns pointing at you pick you off [Music] all right [Music] so we're in prison not the first time we've been in prison would you look at those walls and these walls were all built by the inmates they were indeed and the first in night came here in 1871. this is 24 foot high three feet wide at the top four and a half feet wide at the bottom and goes underground by another four foot to stop the inmates tunneling some tried none succeeded so this was the location of the 1896 cell house and it was divided into two sections by a two foot thick wall which ran right up to the roof smaller section held up to 32 youths and the larger section held up to 258 men but he didn't have any running water or sewer facilities each cell just had two buckets one for sewage and one for water he wouldn't want to mix those up now what did they do at the old cell house well the original cell house had towers and everything it was damaged in an earthquake and knocked down then they put this concrete slab on and built a gymnasium and another structure which ended up being moved to the new prison oh okay true story so still worth still in use then yep yeah you see the foundations the concrete's just caving in this is what happens when it's open to the elements too though there you go it says here so the classroom and the gymnasium and they were moved in 1979 to a prison west of Deer Lodge okay there is something very imposing about prisons too isn't there so this is Addison we've made friends with Addison and he's taking us into the tower nobody's been in here let's take a look mind your head so this is where the guards would enter [Music] yeah they understand the whole shift now their whole shift how many hours would that be and they would be armed and looking out over the facilities absolutely oh oh and we can walk along the side only a little bit only where the railings are and what's interesting is a lot of people think that these railings actually went all the way around the wall they did it where they stopped today is where they stopped back then there was part of the history that we have here is back in the early days they would actually bring people up here and they'd shoot them up like they were going to go to work and then they'd have to walk this wall in a certain amount of time and that was basically your job interview oh wow to see whether or not they were okay with the height and whether or not they were okay with walking on the narrow because this is what three foot yeah it's about it's about the width of a sidewalk yeah so three foot wide because further Down's four foot and a half and then it goes four foot into ground yeah and uh the thing I always like to tell people is you know right now it looks pretty easy and a lot of people think they could do it but we have pretty harsh Winters here so when there's I see snow and wind yep it was dangerous so not many people could do it I don't think I'd want to do it now my knees quaked a little bit the first time I went yeah Stephen's frightened of heights so there's no way he'd want to do it friend of heights and bad knees and spiders hey I'm right there there we go what a view though crows give it a bit of a ominous [Music] so that is Tower number seven okay and I've got a story about Tower number seven I can't wait okay stop see this out of bounds out of bounds now if the prisoners cross this line the guard at Tower number seven could shoot them now in 1911 when the war was extended Tower seven became the main entry port or entryway into the prison for prisoners and visitors much like the sally port at Yuma yeah this was the main entrance in the end so you had one door here [Music] one door here and then the bar is there as well one door here yes and then the main entrance all right so four doors so once you come into this first room you have a guard now each of the doors had a different look a different key okay and the key was on a rope and funneled down the tube the door would be unlocked the visitors would go to the next one be looked goes back up then they're in here same thing God takes the key unlocks the door they're here locks it and then looked key goes back up here okay and the same for that one so a bit of a mishmash yeah low-tech solution but it worked and there was a guard that was up there right so this leads up to the actual Tower yeah and there's also something else I want to show you in here look down there oh trap door that's a trap door and there's tunnels from this trap door yeah I can see down there we'll talk more about that later okay yeah so this is the main administration building and look it was built in 1931 replacing the old one it's even got the date up there yeah I love the how the peeling paint works and so people would come in here because they were doing visiting it's a nice trendy guard why are you wearing your sunglasses inside this was the visiting area and this was the non-contact of visiting area and over the years more and more and more mesh was put on to stop Contraband being put through okay and the inmates were strip searched before they came in and when they left right because the people coming in from the streets just came in through that like accessories so they came through the three doors I've been here spoke to the guard yeah and then they would either come here or go left which would do that in a minute and this is all the contraband Contraband I should say that was uh taken I mean look knuckle dusters and not very nice little Shanks and pieces of chain all types of weapon additional tattoo machine and look something stuffed oh a smoking kit stuffed into a baseball and would you look at those shoes with concrete soles so it says here inmates that were thought to be a potential escapee were made to wear these shoes and each shoe weighs 20 pounds geez so let's go through to the other visiting area visiting area right I guess this could be for people who had less crimes because you could put things through here look how thick these are too yeah they're thick but you could still put Contraband through honest meaning today is chain link fences aren't as thick as this either yeah and there's another God very neat I do love the construction techniques throughout the and the look of buildings like from the 30s 20s 30s and earlier again they had character even though it was for a prison so look these are some of the prisoners I know that guy I mean he looks a vicious dude doesn't he yeah he looks uh quite angry and oh I see so they've got the before and after picture of where they cut their hair no poor uh poor Mr Rooney why did they bother cutting his hair he didn't have any to begin with well I guess the reason why they did it was because of life's that's true makes sense so this is the secretary Paul I guess okay telephone exchange and mail room she's got a kitty coffee and a donut she looks like she's had one too many donuts she likes her job I'd like that job too I think her eye makeup's hilarious you'd get arrested for eye makeup now we're in that but this is cool too all the the machine the Machinery that's left in here is really neat to see the old books Social Services director well they had a psychiatrist in here as well April 1959 supervisor for the Social Services and the chaplain huh I wish I had a chaplain photograph booking rooms look at that so this is where you'd have your mug shot taken that guy's enjoying having his picture taken he's got that smirk he kind of looks like a bit elvisy type doesn't he rockabilly before it was a thing and then you've got the females too social workers wow they had a dark office didn't they you'd need a psychiatrist after working in a dog office I kind of wouldn't want to have surgery back in those days look at that bone saw look at the size of that shringe oh these uh yeah they do look like torture devices and in some sense and anesthesia masks jeez well they did have dental work though so and medical again I like looking at these uh the instruments and things now it's just very neat how things have changed yeah I remember my dad had a early 1900s doctor's bag in his collection and that was really interesting I don't know what ever happened to that I think he got sold [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] [Laughter] [Music] okay getting into some prison cells huh yeah and look you can even go behind and under the stairs on the stairs so we can't go up there nope the loo bathroom so this would have been for guards I take it because no the prisoners would be locked up right well because here you've got this door which would have a lock and they'd be locked in their cells right [Music] [Applause] so they would had their own toilet and base in here yeah looks like it so yeah that's you're right that would be for the god and then so you've got a second cell [Music] I wonder if this place is haunted and again in here yeah there's your Lou and your basin but it's kind of a bit like an isolation cell it seems like it and then small shower here huh interesting and this is going to be the opposite side huh well this is more of an isolation this is almost like the dark cell yeah where prisoners have been really naughty list [Laughter] funny that is creepy concrete congratulations a shower again another shower and dark cell they're all dark though if you think that there's absolutely zero Windows you've got I mean there would be no lights these would be turned off and that would be so you would be totally in the dark also add to that these are modern bulbs not the type of bulbs that they would have used back then either that is funny though hmm and this would have been another cell here because that's the bed you're right so one two three four five cells and a shower oh oh what's through there I think that's another staircase isn't it oh I know what that is oh yeah is it next [Music] so this is a newer Edition 1912 . beautiful architecture because of the overcrowding they built this to hold a further 200 people wow and the difference is with this one it had good ventilation and each cell had a flushing low wow luxury true story look at this this is very reminiscent of Alcatraz so two per cell running water flushing loo so it's a big improvement over those uh and air quality this is a massive building I didn't realize I thought there was only three it's not this four it goes up four it does four levels imagine the uh noise that would be in here you know when you have crowds of people obviously speaking but then two two prisoners per cell if it was full Echo as well oh yeah and the guards [Music] [Music] oh in the showers I have a fun fact about this shower area did you know that 15 bathtubs with multiple Rings occupied this location and the area was complete with Loy soap and starch Linen in towels now this is temporary look up and that up there is called fish row and apparently all new inmates were classed or called fish and they stayed here until they were accustomed to prison life and then went into the general population or if they felt that they needed extra protection they ended up staying here and can you see that's separated off yeah there's an extra key to there and then more protection yeah I guess for throwing items and whatnot huh so on this tier you're going to find a lot of the original graffiti um this is the one that a lot of it has not been painted over or scraped off so and one of my favorites is up here and I'm trying to find it I think it's in 222 now these did these have double bunks yes they sell all of these have double bunks so this is his representation of even the garden oh wow what the snake yeah oh cool and who did that we don't know don't know and you don't know the date either no um I think around this late 60s early 70s they really let the in main start to bring in pain and express themselves like that in their cells just to give them something to do keep them quiet yeah and express themselves while they were sitting in here so you'll see a lot of it but to try to narrow it down to a certain artist is hard because if this guy left and another one came in then we don't know right right and if one started something the other one finished it yeah yeah so is there anywhere in the prison that you haven't been not really oh we need to hang out with you more I I'm a big one on History yeah yes historical places so to work here is not really a job that's Yeah we actually just said we said we would love to work here yeah go on the historical dust tours of the ghost tours they get up here yeah and then out of all the years I mean this stuff has lasted people don't mess with it they don't take anything they have such respect we have such good luck yeah it's amazing well that's the thing we always get annoyed with about people that go to because a lot of places we go to we don't even give out the real name to it we will for here because that's obviously you know but like some of the mining camps or ghost towns or places we've been to because you find little pieces of humanity still there and you don't want it to get ruined because it's like that's that person's life you know stuff that gets stolen as well kind of how we are here yeah we're still finding stuff I was archiving stuff last year and I mean I found all old tins of tobacco yeah um you know old Three Musketeer bars on them yeah so I love that stuff that's what I think that's another reason why we do this we try to keep things especially with the ghost towns okay let's put this on record before it's completely gone yeah so it's at least it keeps somebody's hope alive or somebody's memory alive hours okay no privacy no so just a stall soap dish shower head yep and then down here is the whole where they were in bed bread and water three times a day and they were in total darkness the only light is from this little peephole and no remnants of no caught or anything probably that was the light probably sleep on the floor and well don't I maybe pee in a bucket hmm the chapel but did you know this was once the bakery oh okay I wonder why the such the DraStic change they're nice Bakery sounds pretty good actually right now something else that is a gun Port remember those tunnel the trapdoor yes Tower seven and the tunnels they go all over underground at the prison so they can access anywhere and that is part of the tunnel system so guards would be able to look through there with their guns pointing at you and if you're naughty pick you off okay get into those let's see if we can have a little look let's take a look this was also the dining area and a lot of the time if there was going to be trouble it was either going to be in the dining area or outside so there was always a guard with tear gas positioned here in the tunnel yeah or oh so that's where we were looking in from at the chapel so this one is the secret area no I think because I got another ladder going up into that tunnel system there yeah they're all over the place so basically you could get from one end of the prison to the other in pretty much every area all underground so if there was a riot that that was it what it was for okay here we are the chapel Chapel [Music] that would be up and locked huh before we go back up we'll have to see if we can take a look at where that is [Music] oh yeah see more tunnels more steps gonna be great be great you could access all wheel area oh hang on what one's this the movie theater huh interesting there's two there's another one this end and then get them from the front and the back yeah wow and then catching is on but yep locked gate I can't see the end no aren't you glad I brought the torch pour it down there and Ladder going up now look at the brickwork I wonder if that was at the tower one of the towers because it had access to all the guard towers as well oh pot very possible [Music] foreign security weren't we just in maximum security no this used to be the women's prison from 1907 to 1959 and then after the riot they needed to get those leaders those ring leaders from the riot into an even more maximum security so hence this place okay and this is where the women were also the women were here but then they were moved okay ladies first are we gonna go left first then yeah look at this j-e-d emand 1951. 1951. May 3rd 1957 57 56. ha interesting so I have a fun fact about this woman's prison yes so throughout the whole duration that it was a women's prison no more than 10 female prisoners were ever here at any one time now true story do you think that's because women didn't get in trouble as often or they just didn't get caught as often a bit of both women are a lot smarter than men true story [Music] no I just thought so I'm thinking why is it such high security but this was all put on in after the riot oh okay because the women's prison was converted to become security right I see that makes a little bit more sense and look at their beds so their beds were actually they couldn't move their beds stationary yeah and also they only had a pot to piss in so to speak the Honey Buckets and I think they added the extra mesh because they used to throw the Honey Bucket contents at the guards [Music] foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] even the paintwork on the outside is still visible that again kind of stands out from everything else well this was the theater and it was built in 1919. and it housed or it could I think it was up to 600 seat theater wow but uh it was deliberately set on fire in 1975 but they never charged anybody [Music] [Music] really