Jail Rock
Donna Reiner, a local historian and a good friend of Get Your PHX, has written many articles over the years for the Arizona Republic and others about Phoenix history. We use her services when we list properties of historic significance to help us tell the stories behind the homes.
We are happy that Donna is allowing us to re-publish some of her articles on a monthly basis. If you or your business ever needs a historian, let Donna know at laydeescholar “at” hotmail.com.
As a child, my friends and I watched western movies and later western TV shows. The good guys in white and the bad guys, or at least the unsavory characters, in black. The sheriff or whoever was the law enforcer protected the townspeople by arresting those who broke the law and placed them in jail. Here in Phoenix, a jail or someplace secure to put the “criminals” was initially quite an issue.
Now you may wonder, what was the big deal? Just construct a building, put in some bars, and voila, you have a jail. In the early days of Phoenix though, the problem was the available building material: adobe. Yes, that sun baked dirt and binder would not hold up that well especially if some clever ne’re-do-well prisoner had a spoon to carve away at the wall. And don’t forget, water was a sure way to turn the adobe back to its natural state of MUD. Yes, law enforcement in the early days of Phoenix’s history had to overcome the obstacle that an adobe building just might not be the most secure way to keep the bad guys in. But what to do?
Not to be deterred, some clever thinking officials came up with a brilliant idea. What if a heavy chain with a shackle at the end was bolted into a heavy rock? A rock so large that one person would not be able to move it. Hmmm. It just might work.
Locals scurried off to the Salt River bed with heavy wagons and eventually returned with three prospects. A local blacksmith was called upon to attach what looked like a super strong eye bolt into each of these rocks. Then the chain and shackles were secured to the bolt. Now this set-up looked extremely strong and it was time to test it out.
Not that we know whether Phoenix had lots of criminals to use these jail rocks, but there is one generally accepted story related to them. It seems that one prisoner, who may have been serving time for drunk and disorderly conduct, was actually able to pick up his jail rock and wander a bit. Whether that is true or not, once you see one of these rocks, you have to be amazed by that prisoner’s strength.
Today we know where two of these three rocks are located. One, which was formerly at the Phoenix Museum of History, is now under the care of the Arizona Science Center. The other is proudly displayed at the Phoenix Police Museum, 17 South 2nd Avenue (facing Jefferson Street).
