When Erika Rogers demonstrates how to do horsehair hitching at the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site in Laramie on Friday, she will be practicing an art perfected by prisoners who were once incarcerated at the facility.
During the late 19th century, inmates engaged in prison industries and some took part in a skill that has been associated with prisons at least since 1885.
Prisoners in a dozen Western states perfected the craft of hitching horsehair as they built bridles that are now highly collected by folks on the outside. The activity was most popular from 1885 to 1920, but some prisoners continue to hitch horsehair bridles.
The most well-known hitched horsehair bridles are associated with the Montana prison in Deer Lodge. But prisoners also worked on the skill in Laramie, at the Yuma Prison in Arizona, and at the prison in Canon City, Colorado, among other locations.
Wyoming’s prisoners made their bridles using a combination of hitched horsehair and braided calfskin. Most of the Wyoming products were created in black and white, in the same way prisoners at Deer Lodge worked.
The prisoners at Arizona’s Florence State Prison, which opened in 1908 to replace the Yuma Prison, often used bright colors in their work. Earlier in Yuma the bridles were black, white, and brown patterns.
In a special demonstration at Wyoming’s Territorial Prison July 5 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., Rogers will show how she hitches horsehair products – such as cuffs. She will also show how she braids horsehair into other items like hatbands.
Horsehair hitching is a folk art skill where strands of horsehair are knotted and woven together. Most of the patterns by Wyoming Territorial prisoners formed a diamond pattern.
The Wyoming Territorial prison was constructed in 1872 and housed convicts for thirty years, before it was closed when a new Wyoming State Penitentiary opened in Rawlins.
The old Territorial Prison buildings were still in good shape even though they were no longer used for prisoners. From the time the prison was abandoned and for more than 80 years, the facility was repurposed and used as the University of Wyoming experimental farm.
Instead of prisoners making brooms or hitching bridles, one building became the horse barn. Other buildings were used for cattle and sheep, and the university conducted research projects until 1989. That year the facility was abandoned by UW, which had constructed a new experimental research center.
The century-old buildings were repurposed once again, this time turned into the Wyoming Territorial Park, a state historic site, which has restored the prison and other historic buildings.
Other historic structures also have been moved to the property. Some are buildings that represent agricultural operations in Albany County. Others have been built or brought to the park that represent the early days of Laramie’s history.
The park still provides information about the prisoners and their industries. One major operation was a broom factory. Prisoners made as many as 720 brooms in a day, with their products sold in communities across Wyoming, in several other states including Montana, Nebraska, and Colorado, and even to such foreign markets as Japan and China.
And of course, some of them built bridles of horsehair.
Candy Moulton can be reached at Candy.L.Moulton@gmail.com
