Visit Anamosa Pen's History

ANAMOSA -- At least a dozen times I've rambled to the big house in Anamosa -- just visiting, of course. Every time I marvel at the tall limestone walls of what is now called the Anamosa State Penitentiary. I always thought of it as the place that made license plates (beginning in 1926), but never thought about how the walls were built or how deep into the ground they're buried.

Then I stopped at Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum just outside the walls to chat with Dick Snavely and Steve Wendl, who await the March 8 release of their first book, "Images of America: Anamosa Penitentiary."

The walls, it turns out, were built by the prisoners from 1873 until 1943. They stretch 900 feet across the front, 800 feet along the sides, enclosing 13 acres. Some walls are 24 feet tall. They are nearly 8 feet thick at the base. And they go 17 or 18 feet into the ground.

Why?

So prisoners can't dig their way out.

It's amazing what you can learn by visiting this museum, opened in 2001; by looking at www.asp history.com; or by leafing through galley proofs of the soon-to-be-released 128-page picture book.

"I only signed on to donate the proceeds back to the museum," says Steve, 53, a prison counselor for nearly 30 years. "To promote the history of this place. It's rich."

"We're really a team," adds, Dick, 63, a retired prison psychologist and museum director. "He specializes in the technical stuff and he's a better writer than me. I concentrate on the museum."

Approved by the Iowa Legislature in 1872 as Iowa's second prison, construction on the penitentiary began a year later when 20 prisoners arrived from Fort Madison.

"The emotions had really built in town," Dick says. "Then they showed up. 'Here they are. We've got convicts.'"

"The prison has so much history," Steve adds. "They went through a time they couldn't take enough pictures."

The early photos, of course, show construction with large derricks and horse-drawn wagons. You see groups of prison guards, construction on the "female" department, diners in the "insane" department, inmates dressed in bold striped outfits.

The book's cover photo, showing some of the older prisoners relaxing near a stone wall in the late 1800s, was purchased on eBay by Dick. The prisoners were known as "the superannuated" because they were too old for heavy lifting.

At first called the Additional Penitentiary, it became the Iowa State Penitentiary at Anamosa in 1884. In 1907 the name changed to Iowa State Reformatory, although it didn't really try to reform inmates until counselors were hired in the 1950s.

Dick counseled one of its most notorious prisoners -- John Wayne Gacy.

"I took him on trips, to Jaycees conventions among other things," Dick recalls. "He was a model prisoner."

Arriving in the fall of 1968 after being convicted of sodomy in Waterloo, Gacy became president of the prison Jaycees. He cooked and sang in a chorus, which you can see in a video at the Web site.

Released in the spring of 1970, Gacy returned to Chicago. A decade later he was convicted of killing 33 young men. The state of Illinois killed him by lethal injection in 1994.

Of course, stories of the prison and its inmates go on and on, creating the rich history of 138 years of the penitentiary in Anamosa. This new book of pictures adds another chapter.

TO FIND OUT MORE:

-- "Images of America: Anamosa Penitentiary" by Richard Snavely and Steve Wendl, to be released by Arcadia Publishing on March 8, will sell for $21.99. For more information, see www.arcadiapublishing.com

-- The Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum is open from Memorial Day weekend to the first weekend in October on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays from noon to 4 p.m. It is also open by appointment all year around by calling (319) 462-2386. Admission is $3 for adults with students admitted free.

-- The Anamosa State Penitentiary prison history Web site can be found at

www.asphistory.com