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The Tennessee Tennessee State Prison was built in 1898 on a plan from another prison in New York. It was designed to scare the prisoner. Abandoned since 1992, the prison opened overcrowded and now is deteriorating rapidly. Visitors are not welcome. During the rain of May 1, 2010.
Interesting unknown tidbit: James Earl Ray was housed here on death row (for his own protection).
Amache Relocation Camp outside of Granada, Colorado. One of two camps managed by Colorado during World War II. The Amache camp was constructed for the Japanese who were forced to locate here after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. President Roosevelt signed the order which authorized the collection of Japanese American citizens from their land and property up and down the west coast and forced them to live in what essentially prisoner of war camps. The second camp was for German POWS and was located in Northern Colorado. This was a dark time for America in not only in the war it was now involved but in the injustice it meted out to the Japanese Americans at the time. The justification for relocation was to be able to keep a close eye on potential spies and saboteurs for the Empire of Japan. In fact, not one resident of these camps were ever convicted of spying for the Emperor.
Unidentified historic World War II photo taken from a guard post tower showing lines of German prisoners, detainees, or survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. The photo was taken somewhere in Germany, circa: 1945 by the 9th United States Army Air Force, USAAF, 6th Tactical Air Command.
A then new C-5A taxis at Yokota AS. Photo taken from passenger seat (they drive on the left!) of my buddy Mike's 1963 Toyopet beater, similar to this:
www.flickr.com/photos/hugo90/2512179523/
(I think he paid $100 for it. Only American GI's drove cars this beat up; the Japanese were very proud of their cars and kept them clean and shiny.)
Note the ominous guard tower with search light, just like the movies except in this one it's Americans up there (I never saw anybody in them, but then I wasn't over there at night).
Smoggy day.
Unidentified historic World War II photo taken from a guard post tower showing lines of German prisoners, detainees, or survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. The photo was taken somewhere in Germany, circa: 1945 by the 9th United States Army Air Force, USAAF, 6th Tactical Air Command.
Sunrise this morning. Strobist: Bare 285HV zoomed 1 click (don't remember that setting) @ full power camera left.
Please critique if you have time.
My photoblog:
Taken on ISO100 DX Studio35 colour film with a Bell+Howell PZ3300.
Built at the close of the 19th century, the Tennessee State Prison housed inmates until it was closed in 1989. From the time it began operations in 1898, the 800 cells of the prison had almost continually been over crowded. Throughout it's history numerous calamities have occurred at the penitentiary including riots, mass escapes, and fires. Conditions at the facility were forbidding and harsh due to overcrowding, sanitation problems and insufficient ventilation. In 1983 a federal court decision prohibited the Tennessee Department of Corrections from ever housing prisoners at the TN State Prison.
Since 1992 the facility has been left mostly abandoned. Several buildings on the massive compound are still in some use today, but the rest of the prison lies in disrepair and deterioration. The Tennessee State Prison is now a wonderland of decay. Not without danger, the buildings on the site are contaminated with black mold, asbestos, and lead based paint among other obvious perils. Yet, it is a completely fascinating location to explore. Numerous films and music videos have been shot on the grounds of the prison.
Nearly all of my exploration of this site on this visit was of the medical facility on the northern end of the compound. The medical facility one of the most restricted buildings at the prison, attributable in part to damage caused by a film crew from VH1 that were visiting to shoot the “Celebrity Paranormal Project.”
References
This small building is a watch post from the old days when the dreaded Resurrection Men were a threat to the recently buried, digging up fresh corpses at night to sell to the dissection classes in the universities.
The most infamous were Burke and Hare in Edinburgh (although actually they couldn't be bothered digging up the bodies and found murder an easier source of corpses!), but it was a widespread problem across many countries (you can sometimes see old graves covered in iron grilles to protect them, or "mortsafes", metal, locking coffins. Edinburgh lad Robert Louis Stevenson was inspired to write The Body Snatcher from these real life tales. Little bits of history, sitting there in plain sight, if you know what you're looking at.
This is an entry into the CCCIX Bandit's Raid Category and part 4 of my CCCIX storyline:
The Flames Of Fury
The Bear Claw Clan has been unleashed, and they are tearing through the countryside. After overunning a Dragon Knight guardtower, they flowed into the town with like a wall of fury.
The King's orders were clear: destroy everything in your path. Just the kind of orders the Clan loves to hear!
If you missed them, here are the earlier chapter:
Enjoy!
The Tennessee Tennessee State Prison was built in 1898 on a plan from another prison in New York. It was designed to scare the prisoner. Abandoned since 1992, the prison opened overcrowded and now is deteriorating rapidly. Visitors are not welcome.
July 9, 2021
When Tropical Storm, Elsa blazed by just to the west of us, we found ourselves on the "dry side" of the storm. The dry side is also the windy side, and the outer beaches of Cape Cod got the full brunt. The Bayside, in the lee of the land, was flat calm - at least close to shore where the fetch was still minimal.
Nauset Beach
Orleans, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2021
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 11.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Ikoflex Ic
(1956-59)
Zeiss Tessar 75mm
Arista Edu 100 (Fomapan 100)
Even though the tower was unmanned, and the prison abandoned, it was hard to shake a pervasive feeling of being watched
Photos of Port Arthur Historic Site - a former convict settlement on the Tasman Peninsula, Tasmania.
I got kicked out of the prison parking lot and into the waiting room just after I finished this. I was waiting for my passenger to finish her visit.
Since I'm a big believer, I thought I'd make my normal discrete watermark a little bit more extravagent. A normal version of the picture follows tomorrow. ;-)
240202cz7-1908-2500
This well defended structure is located near the boundary of the former RAF Lindholme, but what is it's purpose?
Ruins of prisoner barracks, with what look like partly-destroyed fireplaces, stand silent in the cool March afternoon, while the death gate looms behind them.
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IMG_7034ap
From the train, I caught these resistant strata jutting from the hillside.
Check out the old guard tower deteriorating on top of the exposure. And I wonder how old the wall is below the house.
I'm about positive this is a tiny little community by the name "La Rochette, Hautes-Alps". It's just south of Lus-la-Croix-Haute, and north of La Faurie, France. It took some searching on the Rome2rio website - tracing the train route back & forth to find it. I now recommend Rome2rio!!
The restored guard tower on Alcatraz Island is a remnant of the Federal penitentiary era, during which six free standing towers were manned by armed guards.
Alcatraz Island, a 22-acre island located 1.5 miles offshore in San Francisco Bay, has served as a lighthouse, a military fortification, and a prison. In 1972, the island often referred to as The Rock, became a national recreation area operated by the National Park Service as part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) and is currently open to tours.
The island was first discovered in 1775 by Spaniard Juan Manuel de Ayala, who charted the bay and named it "La Isla de los Alcatraces," or "The Island of the Pelicans." The island's earliest recorded owner is Julian Workman was the island's earliest recorded owner, given it by Mexican governor Pio Pico in 1846 to build a lighthouse. Following the acquisition of California in 1848, the United States fortified the island for positioning of coastal batteries. When the civil War broke out in 1861, the island mounted 85 cannons (increased to 105 by 1866) and served as the San Francisco Arsenal. Alcatraz never fired its guns but was used to imprison Confederate sympathizers. In 1867, a brick jailhouse was built and in 1868, Alcatraz was designated a long-term detention facility for military prisoners--a role it prominently played during the Spanish-American War.
After the 1906 Earthquake, civilian prisoners were transferred to Alcatraz, and the facilities were slowly expanded at the beginning of the century. Construction on Major Reuben Turner's huge concrete main cell block was completed in 1912. The Fortress was deactivated as a military prison in 1933 and transferred to the Department of Justice, becoming a Federal Bureau of Prisons federal prison the following year. During its 29 years of operation, the penitentiary claimed no prisoners had ever successfully escaped--36 prisoners were involved in 14 attempts; 23 were caught, six were shot and killed, and three were lost at sea and never found. Alcatraz held such notable criminals as Al Capone, Robert Franklin Stroud (better known as the "Birdman of Alcatraz"), George "Machine Gun" Kelly, James "Whitey" Bulger, and Alvin "Creepy Karpis" Karpowicz (who served more time at Alcatraz than any other inmate).
Far more expensive to operate than other prisons, Alcatraz was closed on March 21, 1963 by Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. From 1969-1971, the island was occupied by a multi-tribal group of Native Americans, culminating in the Trail of Broken Treaties.
National Register #76000209 (1976)
July 9, 2021
When Tropical Storm, Elsa blazed by just to the west of us, we found ourselves on the "dry side" of the storm. The dry side is also the windy side, and the outer beaches of Cape Cod got the full brunt.
Nauset Beach
Orleans, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2021
All Rights Reserved
...always learning - critiques welcome.
Tools: Canon 7D & iPhone 11.
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
Camp Westerbork was built in 1939 as a central refugee camp, but was taken over in 1942 by the Germans to become a "processing camp" for transportation to the destruction camps Sobidor, Auschwitz,Bergen-Belsen.
Westerbork was not a destruction camp and compared to the camps in the east the living condition where good (considering the situation) and killing or torture was a rarity.
From 15 July 1942 till 13 September 1944, 93 trains left Westerbork to the camps in the east. Transporting a total of 107.000 prisoners. Of those 107.000 only 5032 would survive! One of those transported from Westerbork was Anna Frank and her family.
Camp Westerbork was freed on 12 April 1945 by Canadian forces. After the war it was used as prison camp for NSB members and Dutch inhabitants that had worked with the German army. It has also been used as a living arrangement for KNIL military members and Moluccan people that fled Indonesia.
Nowadays it as a memorial, with a 102.000 stones, one for every person that died.
Oświęcim, Poland |
Camp fence and guard tower: the typical fence post was 3,3 m high and fitted with 24 ceramic insulators. There were concrete slabs underneath the fence to prevent prisoners from tunneling. Electricity for the fence was supplied by a high tension line from Siersza Wodna power plant to the main substation in Babice, from which two separate feeders ran to Auschwitz I and Birkenau, where it was connected to the fencing (400 volts at Auschwitz and 760 volts at Birkenau).
At the end of 1943, guard towers were replaced by new ones, fully walled and fitted with windows. Construction was completed in the spring of 1944.
Reconstructed Guard Tower
In February 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066. It authorized the relocation of all Japanese-Americans living on the West Coast of the United States. Over 120,000 people were sent to 10 war relocation centers. One of them was Manzanar, located in the harsh but beautiful Owens Valley of eastern California. Eventually over 10,000 Japanese-Americans were forced to live in this 500 acre compound for the duration of World War II. Today the National Park Service oversees the site.
One of several guard towers still standing around the perimeter of the camp. (No more machine guns, though.) Seen from the camp's gateway at the jourhaus.
Construction continues on road repairs and improvements to an access control point at Longare in Italy. Construction on the $950,000 project is expected to continue through May 2010. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Europe District is managing the project. (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers photo by Mark Nedzbala)
Brzezinka, Poland |
Deutsche Reichsbahn wagon, camp unloading ramp, fence, guard tower and ruins of the men's camp.
After I got a few pictures of Auschwitz's notorious entrance gate, I looked around and got a sense of how big Birkenau really was -- or tried to. It was enormous. I couldn't even describe it in terms of football fields. And no wonder. Yesterday I looked it up on ChatGPT. Auschwitz II - Birkenau is about the same size as 322 football fields.
322 football fields' worth of space devoted to humiliating, enslaving, and killing over a million people.
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IMG_7003ap
Federal Correctional Institute, Terminal Island
Federal Bureau of Prisons
FCI Terminal Island:
www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/trm/
Port of Long Beach:
June 25, 2016
A guard station at one of Cape Cod's ocean-side beaches, Nauset Beach. The sign warns beach-goers of the inherent hazards of swimming or wading in the wild North Atlantic Ocean.
Included on the sign is a warning about dangerous marine life. and the most significant creature here is the white shark, or great white shark. The white sharks patrol the length of seashore, hunting seals. Sometimes people are mistaken for seals!
Nauset Beach
Orleans, Massachusetts
Cape Cod - USA
Photo by brucetopher
© Bruce Christopher 2016
All Rights Reserved
No use without permission.
Please email for usage info.
The Tennessee Tennessee State Prison was built in 1898 on a plan from another prison in New York. It was designed to scare the prisoner. Abandoned since 1992, the prison opened overcrowded and now is deteriorating rapidly. Visitors are not welcome. During the rain of May 1, 2010.
Interesting unknown tidbit: James Earl Ray was housed here on death row (for his own protection).
The Tennessee Tennessee State Prison was built in 1898 on a plan from another prison in New York. It was designed to scare the prisoner. Abandoned since 1992, the prison opened overcrowded and now is deteriorating rapidly. Visitors are not welcome. During the rain of May 1, 2010.
Interesting unknown tidbit: James Earl Ray was housed here on death row (for his own protection).