The Galloping Gallows - Deer Lodge, MT - Montana Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

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The Galloping Gallows - Deer Lodge, MT

in Montana Historical Markers

Posted by:  T0SHEA

12T E 366494 N 5139092

Opened on July 2, 1871, the Montana State Prison at Deer Lodge housed its fair share of criminal types in the century plus that it was operational.

Within the prison theatre, built in 1919-1920, is an old gallows which first saw service in 1920 and was used very occasionally until December 30, 1939. It nearly saw service again in 1978 but various delays prevented that happening. It rests here now in retirement. Its historical marker is reprinted below.

The prison was built in stages over many years, mostly by the convicts themselves, a good example of "hard labor". The present cell block was built in 1896, the prison wall was extended north in 1911 and a 400-man cell block built within in 1912, a theatre was built in 1918-1919, the administration building in 1930-1931, and dormitories, a storage building and a visitor centre were built between 1910 and 1930. A maximum security building, also used as a women's ward was built circa 1918.

Self sufficient, the prison had its own water well and water tower, power house, hospital and school.

The prison was still in use when entered in the national register on September 3rd, 1976, but was decommissioned by the end of the decade.

The Powell County Museum has online a great article on the prison.

This execution scaffold is one of the few original hanging gallows remaining in the United States. Its design is that of the traditional "trapdoor" construction and has the very unlucky thirteen (13) steps leading up to the trapdoor platform. This gallows was built in 1920 near Forsyth in eastern Montana and was used for the first time on September 3, 1920, when Alfred Lane was hanged in Forsyth for the murder of a local rancher, Mr. Harry Theade of Hathaway. After that hanging, the gallows was put into service as the official hanging scaffold for eastern Montana and was used whenever the need arose.

In order to serve its purpose as a mobile unit, each part was designed so that the gallows could be dismantled, moved to another place and reconstructed again. The main parts of the scaffold were each carved with Roman numerals so that even the unfamiliar could construct the unit by piecing it together in a jigsaw manner. The main idea of this construction was for rapid movement and erection of the unit so that if it were needed in any part of the state, it could be loaded and "galloped to the new site" . Thus arose the nickname of "Galloping Gallows".

During its twenty (20) years of use, the following men dropped through its trapdoor to their death:

Date September 3, 1920 February 9, 1923 February 9, 1923 April 24, 1935 October 16, 1935 January 15, 1938 December 30, 1939

Name Alfred Lane Glenn M. Bolton Joe B. Reagin Henry Zorn George Criner Franklin Robideau Lee Simpson

Hanged at Forsyth, Montana Hysham, Montana Hysham, Montana Miles City, Montana Miles City, Montana Columbus, Montana Ryegate, Montana

After its final use in 1939, the gallows was returned to Forsyth and stored in various county buildings. In 1972, Mr. Boyd Gutebier, a Montana State Prison employee, heard of its whereabouts, contacted Rosebud County, and arranged for obtaining the gallows and moving it to Deer Lodge for preservation. (Note: Mr. Gutebier is now retired and is one of our tour guides here at the Old Prison.)

In 1978, the gallows was moved from Deer Lodge to Great Falls, Montana, to be prepared for use once again after nearly fifty (50) years of silence. Delays in the conviction of death that had been ordered prompted the return of the gallows to Deer Lodge in 1979.

This gallows has now been officially retired and will remain as a grueling example of early western justice and one of the existing forms of execution in Montana--the other being legal injection. (Note: At this time the use of the gallows is being questioned and may be discontinued by law.)
From the sign