Vandrea Does America: Day 30 (Friday 7/20/12)- Boise, ID + Ketchum, ID

We thankfully left Boise on a high note. The morning was spent at the "Old Pen" also known as the Old Boise State Penitentiary. Our fantastic tour guide Bob had been the warden's son from the 1920's to the 1940's and had lots of first hand experience to add. We walked all around the large grounds and saw many different buildings including the maximum security cell block, the dining hall (before it was mostly lost to a fire set during a riot a year before the prison closed in the 1970's), the isolation cells, the courtyard where 6 hangings took place as well as the executioner room within the death row section and the laundry room to name a few. The tour lasted almost two hours and we learned so much that it's not possible to share it all therefore we must recommend you also take the tour...then get the hell out of Boise.

A fascinating side note that Isaiah brought to my attention is that the oldest prisoner (he died at age 88) was also the same one convicted to a life sentence for killing the Boise governor we mentioned on Wednesday. He became very religious and was mostly given free reign of the place. He was offered release, but having spent his whole life inside, he decided to die there as well. Our tour guide spent a lot of time with him as a child. We also learned that the youngest prisoner housed there did so at the tender age of 10 years having been convicted of murder (not so tender after all). Kids were sent away, but, it turns out, only 2 or 3 out of 15 women who had committed murder received sentences over 3 years. Even though it's not part of the tour make sure to check out the women's building and the arms exhibit as well (the women's building has lots of information about the 22 women housed in the prison and the arms exhibit displays and provides information on weapons throughout history). For a total of $5 you can see all that. With the exception of the free museum day in Seattle, that was the best museum deal we have found so far.
(I've been dubious of "Scared Straight" programs and their efficacy, but after the tour and hearing of the prison's dungeon wherein prisoner's were locked up, underground, in 4x4x4 cages and, if they were good, given one meal of bread and water a day and sometimes were kept in this condition for years (or until they went crazy. And they went crazy.) I swear that I will never, ever murder anyone in 1887)
(We also found out that they were using the dungeon secretly into the 1960's.)
Each time we have any length of a drive ahead of us Isaiah is careful to plan out a different a scenic route. This afternoon we drove Highway 20 into the town of Stanley. The sign said population 65 but we saw probably a 1000 people as the town was preparing for it's annual craft fair. It is also situated in the middle of the Sawtooth National Forest which, according to the man at the visitor center, is the largest National Forest in the lower 48 states. We stayed in town for a little bit but had missed the majority of the excitement and most things were closed (at like 4:00 in the afternoon) so we kept driving, this time along Highway 75.
Our next stop was the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley. Most of our time was spent walking around the beautiful downtown of Ketchum, boasting many different but expensive shops, lots of restaurants, beautiful gallery artwork and a mind boggling visitor center. Though we of course did not patronize the expensive stores or restaurants we did stumble upon an incredible completely bronze statute of a Native woman (was looking for it, having seen a picture of it in a guide book, and having given up and returned to the car found that we had parked right in front of it the whole time) and found the town's visitor center in the middle of a Starbucks, which consisted of a bank vault converted into a Ernest Hemingway shrine.

Ernest Hemingway is known well to the towns of Ketchum and Sun Valley because he wrote "For Whom the Bell Tolls" and also committed suicide here. Affectionately known as "Papa" to his friends and family he is a legend in the town. Though beloved "Papa" reveled in too much whiskey drinking, hunting and gambling for that persona to be true. We visited his grave in the Ketchum Cemetery which is marked by pennies, dimes and bottles of booze.

A rest stop with a single stall bathroom kept us for the night and you know what that means...we could wash our hair! -A