March 1 marks the first date of the 2011 Missouri State Penitentiary tour season, and along with the new season comes several new tour types.

In 2011, the Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau will not only offer a two hour historic tour and a four hour in-depth tour of the MSP, but also will offer  twilight tours, specialty history tours, photography tours, ghost hunt tours, ghost tours and paranormal investigations.

The Bureau has received countless phone calls from people interested in these types of tours and is very excited to finally be able to respond to the demand from the general public.

Twilight history tours, $17 per person, will include the same information as the regular history tour, but will be given in the evening, from 6 p.m. to 11 p.m. Participants will be given a lantern in order to navigate the prison at night.  

Dozens of infamous inmates spent time in the Missouri State Penitentiary and many historic events took place within the walls.  Specialty history tours will focus specifically on these people and events, including things like the 1954 Riot, Sonny Liston, MSP escape attempts, 'Pretty Boy' Floyd and executions. Specialty tours will be offered on special occasions and will cost $17.

One of the most requested type of tour is a ghost tour.  The Bureau will offer twilight ghost tours that will tell of the history of MSP and the strange and unusual occurrences that have taken place there. Guests will be guided through several housing units and will hear about some of the spirits that are said to still live at MSP. Tickets are $25 per person.

Those who want to do more than simply hear about ghost stories will have the opportunity to partake in the ghost hunt tour. For $25, guests will be given a brief history lesson of the facility and will then have time to use "activity finding" devices in two of the housing units and the gas chamber.

Organized, licensed paranormal groups will have the opportunity to spend the night in the prison and investigate the grounds of the Missouri State Penitentiary.  Paranormal investigations are $1,600 for a group of up to 16 people.

Those interested in photographing the Missouri State Penitentiary can participate in photography tours, length of session and price vary. After a brief guided history tour of MSP, photographers will be allowed to set up their camera and lighting equipment to take professional photos.

A special "more talking, less walking" tour will still be offered to group tours. 

The Jefferson City Convention and Visitors Bureau began offering tours of the decommissioned Missouri State Penitentiary in May of 2009.  Before it closed, MSP was the oldest continually operating penitentiary west of the Mississippi.  The prison was nearly 100 years old when Alcatraz began taking inmates. When MSP opened in 1836, the Battle of the Alamo was going on in Texas and Andrew Jackson was in his second term.  The Missouri State Pen housed infamous inmates such as heavyweight champion Sonny Liston, who learned to box during his time in the big house, notorious gangster 'Pretty Boy' Floyd and James Earl Ray.  Tours also include the gas chamber where 40 men and women were executed, the buried cells, several housing units and the upper yard. In 1967 the Missouri State Penitentiary was infamously named the "bloodiest 47 acres in America" by Time magazine because of the incredibly high number of serious assaults on the grounds between 1963-1964. 

A kick off event for the 2011 tour season will take place at the Missouri State Penitentiary, 115 Lafayette Street, on Tuesday, March 1.  Details for the event will be announced in early February.

For more information about the Missouri State Penitentiary tours or to schedule your tour, go to www.MissouriPenTours.com or call Megan Wadley at (866) 998-6998.