Although the purpose of this website is to document calabooses in Texas, I think it is important to show examples from other states.  Some of those depicted below are most interesting and worth a visit to the calaboose enthusiast like me.

ALABAMA

Faunsdale

Houston

Loachapoka (Lee County)

Thomastan (Marengo County)

Wetmunka (Elmore County)

Photo courtesy of Dale Cox

ARIZONA

Apache Junction

town not known at this time

Clifton Cliff Jail (Greenlee County)

The Clifton Cliff jail is the original jail in the old townsite of Clifton, Arizona.Before the construction of the jail, Clifton’s criminals were punished by being sentenced to work in the mines. However, many of the prisoners escaped before they completed their sentence. in 1881 two Arizona pioneers called the Lesinsky brothers decided to build an escape-proof jail constructed to hold the prisoners. To make it escape-proof, to was built into the side of a solid granite cliff.  When it was first built, it was higher up in elevation than the surrounding town and could only be approached by climbing up the side of the cliff. Over the years, sediment from floods gradually raised the ground level even with the entrance to the jail. The job of building the jail was given to Margarito Varela, who was a stone mason. Varela worked away at the face of the cliff with pick and drill and blasting powder. A small room was made to hold the more dangerous inmates, and a larger one – eight feet wide by twenty feet long – was built for the least violent. Both of the cells were fitted with massive iron bars that were two inches wide and three-fourths of an inch thick. The doors were of the same material, pivoting on two inch solid iron rods. The two windows of the jail were ten feet above the floor. radition says that when Varela finished the job he decided to celebrate. After Varela invested his profits in snakehead whiskey, he was so happy that the jail was finished he pulled his sidearm and proceeded to shoot up Hovey’s Dance Hall to attract peoples’ attention and to tell them the news. The proprietor of the hall, who was also the deputy sheriff, arrested him, and Varela became the first prisoner held in the jail. The jail was closed eleven years later in 1906, when a large flood nearly submerged the building. The water was so deep that the prisoners had to be pulled out by ropes through a small window high up in the roof. After the flood the jail was filled with mud and debris, and so it was abandoned. The building went unused until 1929 when Mayor Peter Riley of Clifton started the process of having it restored. In 1962, the Arizona Development Board mounted a plaque in front of the jail.

Courtland

Cortland (Cochise County)

Pearce (Cochise County)

Ruby (Santa Cruz County)

Built in 1936 in the ghost town of Ruby, Arizona.

ARKANSAS

 

Calico Rock (Izard County)

Maynard (Randolph County)

Plumerville (Conway County)

Reyno (Randolph County)

Winthrop (Little River County)

Photo courtesy of Red River Historian

CALIFORNIA

Buttonwillow

Hornitos (Mariposa County)

Kelso (San Bernardino County)

Barbara Blankenship who lives in Los Angeles told me about this interesting cage with two cells.    The floor plan is very similar to several in Texas (see www.tinytexasjails.com for examples).  According to Wikipedia,About 1944 the railroad brought in an old strap-iron jail to detain local drunks. It is now on display just outside the Kelso Depot.^[2]

Lower Lake (Lake County)

Lower Lake’s tiny stone jail has been preserved since it was first built in 1876 to deal with lawlessness in a rapidly growing quick silver mining boom town. While similar municipalities needed their own calaboose for local troublemakers, this one is unique because its first occupants were the two brothers who built it.  According to the 1982 historical plaque installed by E. Clampus Vitus in 1982, “Theodore and John Copsey commemorated the completion of the jail by over-celebrating, thus becoming the jail’s first occupants. Rumor has it that they were also the first escapees — as they had failed to bolt down the roof.”

Murpheys

Old Town, San Diego (San Diego County)

Built in 1870.  Now fully restored and open to the public.

San Juan Bautista (San Benito County)

COLORADO

Animas Forks (San Juan County)

This calaboose is about twelve miles from Silverton at an elevation of 11,584 feet.  This was a mining community that began operation in 1877 and extracted galena and copper.  At one time there were between five and seven mines surrounding the town.  The original town boasted several stores, a hotel, saloons, two assay offices, shops, and many other buildings.  Mining towns often attracted people of dubious character and it is not surprising that a calaboose was needed.  One of the local stories recalls that the famous prize fighter Jack Dempsey spent a night in this calaboose.

Haswell (Kiowa County)

Ludlow

New Castle (Garfield County)

Palmer Lake (El Paso County)

Silver Plume (Clear Creek County)

FLORIDA

Cypress Town (Jackson County)

GEORGIA

Ailey

Duluth (Gwinnett County)

Jefferson

Leary (Calhoun County)

Meansville (Pike County)

Molena (Pike County)

built circa 1900

Henry County (town not known)

IDAHO

 

Branch

ILLINOIS

Mount Vernon (Jefferson County)

INDIANA

Birdseye (Dubois County)

Earl Park (Benton County)

This historic photo is used here with permission from ____________.

Wingate

IOWA

Delmar (Clinton County)

 The Town of Delmar owns this very unique calaboose that is located on Vane Street in the downtown area. According to the National Register of Historic Places Inventory Nomination Form prepared by Architectural Historian Ralph Christian in 1980 (on file at the office of the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) in Clinton, Iowa), the Delmar calaboose was the town’s oldest extant public building at the time. It is described as a unique example of local vernacular architecture. The primary reason for the construction of this calaboose is rooted in problems associated with a flourishing liquor trade such as dealers buying and selling without a license. This building was constructed by A. T. Phillips for a fee of $175, and it was ready for occupancy in early October of 1878. The vaulted roof is considered it most noteworthy exterior feature as it “heightens the effect of the coursed stone walls and gives the entire edifice a strong sense of impregnability. This sense is “heightened by narrow window slits with grated openings on the east and west sides and a heavy cast iron door with strap hinges and grated opening on the front…”

The roof is covered with cement except for a small opening near the center of the north end where a small brick-lined opening holds a metal pipe that allowed smoke to escape from the wood burning stove inside. The one room is “sheathed in plaster and devoid of ornamentation.” This jail was used well into the 20^th century, and furnishings on the inside (stove, folding cot, bureau, table, and chair) are the only items that appear to be of early 20^th century vintage. The town is considering demolition of this very significant historic building. The photo, and others on file at the office of the SHPO were taken by Marty Bowers in February of 1980.

Silver City (Mills County)

KANSAS

Bunker Hill

Burlingame (Osage County)

(Photo and text courtesy of the Kansas State Historical Society)

“Jails were symbols of order and accordance to the law. After statehood, law enforcement became more organized.  As cities and counties began to punish their criminals, officials found they lacked a method of retaining them. Building a jail was the obvious answer, but funds and materials were limited. As a result, city and county jails tended to be small, with space to house from one to three people, and made from materials that were easily available, such as stone or wood. Rooms in private homes or public buildings also served as early cells.

In 1866, the residents of Burlingame, Kansas, found themselves in need of a jail. A convicted murderer named Bates had escaped from a jail in Johnson County and appeared at the farm of A. M. Jarbo near Burlingame. He was looking for work and the farmer allowed him to stay. Later that night Jarbo discovered Bates stealing valuables and took him to the deputy sheriff in town. Because there was no jail, the deputy shackled him, but Bates grabbed the deputy’s gun and shot him. Bates escaped capture for a second time. He was soon found, tried, and hanged for his crimes.

The town constructed two identical jails sometime after this incident. The jail shown here was donated to the Kansas Museum of History by the City of Burlingame in 1954. It is made of wooden planks and measures six feet by eight feet. While it is not known whether the jail was used indoors or outdoors at the time of construction, it was later used inside city hall until the 1950s. The jail’s primary function was to house drunken revelers on a Saturday night. Early Sunday morning, the detainees were hosed off and sent home.

Ironically, one of the town’s jails itself was the victim of a crime. Burlingame citizens used the jail in 1954 as part of a Kansas Territory centennial celebration. Early one morning, the building disappeared and was later discovered in Mission, Kansas. Some residents believed the jail was stolen as part of a publicity stunt. The mystery was never solved, and the perpetrator avoided spending the night in lock-up.”

Council Grove (Morris County)

Fort Dodge (Ford County)

This interesting calaboose is located at the Boot Hill Museum in Fort Dodge, Kansas.  It was built around 1865 and used to house prisoners at the fort until its closure in the 1870s.  Confinement in this jail was not a pleasant place to be. Soldiers were often confined in this small structure for weeks at a time.  It was certainly miserably cold in the winter but probably even worse in the stifling heat of the summer.  The only ventilation and source of light for the prisoners was the four small windows and the opening in the door.  The floor was dirt and there were no sanitary facilities.  The interior consists of ____ cells.  This building was the army’s equivalent to the county jail and was mainly used as a holding area for soldiers convicted of petty crimes.  These small military jails were often referred to as a “guardhouse.”  The larger jails on the bigger posts were known as stockades.  This photograph was provided courtesy of the Boot Hill Museum.

 

Fowler (Meade County)

Liberty (Montgomery County)

Randolph (Riley County)

Wetmore (Nemaha County)

 

Mound Valley City

LOUISIANA

Corney Creek

Ida (Caddo Parish)

Mayers (Bossier Parish)

MISSISSIPPI

Clarksdale  (Coahoma County)

MISSOURI

Cuba (Crawford County)

Dalton

Elsberry (Lincoln County)

After a fire destroyed the first calaboose in Elsberry, the town council decided that a fireproof building was needed and commissioned a local stonemason, using limestone from a nearby quarry, to build a second calaboose circa 1896.  The stones were hauled to town on a sled pulled by oxen.  They are rather large, measuring 36 inches in length, 17 inches in width, and 17 inches in depth. The overall measurements of the building are 15 feet in length, 11 feet in width, 10 feet in height on the sides, and 14 feet in height at the apex of the ends. The building has one large cell on the north side and was heated by a stove (soot still coats the ceiling) that stood in a small walkway. In the fall of 1992 the Junior Elsberry Community Betterment Association began to work to rehab the interior.  A local welder put the old cell bars back into the wall and a potbellied stove was added to the interior. In 2007, the city funded a restoration project to repair the crumbling exterior of the old calaboose. It is owned by the city and located in the downtown area at the corner of North Second and Dubois streets and it is open to visitors. There is another Missouri calaboose in the town of Arrow Rock.

 

Gallatin (Daviess County)

This structure was named rotary jail and does not fit the description of a calaboose.  It is included here because of its unusual design.  The rotary jail was an architectural design for some prisons in the Midwest of the United States during the late 19th century. Cells in the jails were arranged so that they rotated in a carousel fashion; allowing only one cell at a time to be accessible from the single opening per level.  William H. Brown was the initial designer the jails were built by the Haugh, Ketcham & Co. iron foundry in the Indianapolis, Indiana neighborhood of Haughville.

The application for United States Patent No. 244,358, on July 12, 1881 has this description:

The object of our inventions is to produce a jail in which prisoners can be controlled without the necessity of personal contact between them and the jailer or guard… it consists, first, of a circular cell structure of considerable size (inside the usual prison building) divided into several cells capable of being rotated, surrounded by a grating in close proximity thereto, which has only such number of openings (usually one) as is necessary for the convenient handling of prisoners..

The pie-shaped cells rotated around a core having a sanitary plumbing system, which was considered an unusual luxury at that time. The cell block could be rotated by a single man hand-rotating a crank. It was connected to gears beneath the structure which rotated the entire cell block. The structure was supported by a ball bearing surface to allow for smooth rotation.

The jails encountered problems almost immediately with inmates’ limbs being crushed or interfering with the cellblock’s rotation. Most of the jails had to be welded in a fixed position and refitted with individual cell accesses. All of them were condemned by June 22nd, 1939.

Sources vary as to how many rotary jails had been built. The cited number varies from six to eighteen.  Rotary jails are known to have been constructed in Crawfordsville, Indiana (only one to still operate, Council Bluffs, Iowa, Gallatin, Missouri, and Sherman, Texas.

Gainesville (Ozark County)

Greene County

Hermitage (Hickory County)

Koshkonong

Liberty (Clay County)

Polo (Caldwell County)

MONTANA

Both of these calabooses are in Bannack and adjacent to each other

Belt

Gilt Edge (Ghost Town)

Photo by Gary Yeager

Goldenfield

NEVADA

Jarbidge (Jarbidge County)

NEW YORK

Greenport

NORTH  CAROLINA

Highlands (Macon County)

Laurel Springs (Alleghany County)

Town not known

OKLAHOMA

Addington (Jefferson County)

This calaboose is owned by the city.  The roof is a later replacement.

Amber (Grady County)

This calaboose is privately owned and the only example to date of one with a bell-shaped roof.

Boswell (Choctaw County)

Bennington (Bryan County)

Burbank (Osage County)

Canute (Washita County)

Covington (Garfield County)

Dewey (Washington County)

Eakly (Caddo County)

Foss (Washita County)

Freedom (Woods County)

Geary (Blaine & Canadian Counties)

Hydro (Caddo County)

Photo courtesy of Rusty Carney. This calaboose is no longer standing.

Gracemont (Caddo County)

Keota (Haskell County)

Leedey (Dewey County)

This photo depicts the original calaboose.  The metal cell illustrated below was moved to its current location when the old structure was demolished.

Macomb (Pottawatomie County)

Manitou (Tillman County)

Red Bird

Smithville (McCurtain County)

Terlton (Pawnee County)

Terral (Jefferson County)

This calaboose is owned by the city.  The door is most unusual and I believe it may be have been recycled from a bank vault.

Texola (Beckham County)

According to Wikipedia, this “territorial jail” was built in 1910.

Verden (Grady County)

At the north end of town, on North Boundary Street stands a one-story concrete building which served as the jail. Painted on the front of the building is “COTTONWOOD GROVE VERDEN JAIL 1905 – 2005.” This building has two jail cells. As you enter the front barred door, to the right is a small room with a heating unit. To the left, a rudimentary lavatory has a sink on the wall and a toilet. At the back of the building, are two cells. One cell still contains a flat metal bed; the other cell is empty. The building has two small barred windows on each side. The facade has a stepped parapet above the flat concrete roof.

Washington (McClain County)

This calaboose is owned by the city.  When it was constructed, there were two doors, the one depicted here and one on the end.  Today, only the door shown above remains.  The other has been sealed with concrete.  The wall that separated the two cells has been removed.

Partially sealed door.

Wayne (McClain County)

This calaboose is owned by the city.  There is a small entry room just inside the door that is separated from the cell by a wall of metal bars.

Webbers Falls (Muskogee County)

Unknown Town

Unknown Town

OHIO

Santoy

OREGON

T

Portland (Washington County)

In 1853, the first Washington County Jail opened.^[1] It was built at Fourth and Washington Streets in Hillsboro by William Brown for a cost of $900.^[1] During its use two people died while confined to the jail, and a baby was born after it ceased being used as a jail.^[1] One of those dying in the jail was former Hudson’s Bay Company employee William Burris who killed his family in 1855 in a drunken rage.^[2]. In 1870, the building was sold to the Cave family.^[1] They lived in it briefly while their house was built, and then used the structure as an outbuilding.^[1] In 1953 the structure was moved to the Washington County fairgrounds where it remained until 2003. Beginning in 2003, the building was restored at a cost of $75,000 and relocated from the county fairgrounds to the Washington County Museum.^[1]

Shaniko

TENNESSEE

Rockwood (Roane County)