The old stone Missouri State Penitentiary (MSP), the oldest prison west of the Mississippi, has become the premier attraction in Jefferson City, Missouri's capital. The prison was decommissioned and its inmates sent to a new facility on Sept. 15, 2004. The following month, on Oct. 23-24, the state hosted a weekend open house at the prison, expecting a few hundred curiosity seekers to tour the facility. Instead, more than 22,000 people lined up to get an inside look at the old lockup. Thus the idea for formal tours was born; the first one was offered in May 2009. 

"We knew the prison was going to be of interest to a lot of people, but we had no idea just how popular the tours were going to be. People really wanted to get behind the walls," says Steve Picker, executive director of the Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau, which runs the prison tours.

In 2009, about 3,000 people took the tour. Picker estimates that more than 11,700 people will have toured the prison by the end of 2010.

"That's a 275 percent increase," he says.

Former offenders and staffers, inmates' families and crime victims, curious area residents and the general public from far and wide all have come to Jefferson City to take the tour. 

"We've had visitors from 25 states and several foreign countries," Picker notes. "The word is definitely getting out."

Visitors to the MSP, set on 144 blufftop acres overlooking the Missouri River, will not see anything like the prisons they see on television or in movies.  Building interiors, though clean and stabilized, have been left "au naturel," complete with peeling paint and crumbling concrete. With housing units more than 150 years old, it's an "old-fashioned" prison with small cells and stacked tiers, unlike today's modern prison design.  

It's not difficult to imagine the mayhem and challenges in a prison that once held more than 5,300 inmates, including infamous gangster Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, heavyweight boxing champion Sonny Liston and James Earl Ray, who escaped before assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968.

Pictures of the 40 men and women executed in the gas chamber hang on the wall in the building.

The two-hour tour, priced at $12 per person, takes visitors through the prison yard, Housing Unit 4 (the oldest building on the site), the control center, the pitch-dark "dungeon" cells and - as the grand finale-the small stone gas chamber, where tourists can sit in the white metal chairs where 40 men and women were executed. Tour guides also point out the prison school and factories where prisoners made shoes, twine, saddle trees and clothing.

Throughout the tour, Schreiber, or one of the 15 other guides, is glad to share remarkable, often hair-raising, stories from the prison's century-plus history and answer visitors' questions. Many of the guides have spent years working as MSP prison guards and wardens.  And at the tour's conclusion, visitors have a chance to purchase souvenirs such as key chains, coasters and pieces of the old prison wall. Most souvenirs are made in Missouri, by current inmates.

An in-depth four-hour tour also is available for $35 per person. This "total immersion" tour includes everything on the two-hour tour, plus stops in additional buildings (including death row); the tour guides also share dozens of incredible stories and historical facts about the prison and prisoners. Offered once a month, this tour typically has a waiting list.

Children under 10 years old are not allowed on the prison tours. The last tours of 2010 will be offered on Nov. 13, and will resume the first weekend of March, 2011.

Megan Wadley, prison tour coordinator for the Convention & Visitors Bureau, adds, "People usually have one of two attitudes toward the prison. Either they're so excited to come and they're amazed at the history, or they were reluctant to take the tour and come out speechless, but glad they did it."

Hundreds of private bus tours come to Jefferson City specifically to tour the prison, Wadley notes. "They know they won't see anything like this anywhere else in America," she says.

"We hope to expand our tour offerings in the future," Picker says.  "As for the prison site itself, the possibilities are endless."

The historic prison may top the list of tourist attractions in Jefferson City but there are many more ways visitors will "feel the history" during a visit of a day or two or more. Sightseers' itineraries also include the impressive Capitol with a stunning Thomas Hart Benton mural and the stately Governor's Mansion and well-tended gardens. Civil War buffs will appreciate the historic National Cemetery. And no visit to Jefferson City is complete without indulging in a gigantic banana split at the nostalgic 1930s ice cream parlor, Central Dairy.

For more information about the prison tour, visit www.MissouriPenTours.com. For details about the other fascinating attractions in Jefferson City, as well as lodging, dining, shopping and events, please contact the Jefferson City Convention & Visitors Bureau at www.visitjeffersoncity.com or call (573) 632-8280.

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