RAGBRAI 2012: Overcrowding at the prison museum

Anamosa, Ia. – With a short ride from Cedar Rapids to Anamosa, riders had plenty of free time to explore the overnight community.

Many flocked to the Anamosa State Penitentiary Museum, where the first rider arrived at 8:30 a.m., said Dick Snavely, 66, the museum’s volunteer director. By 4:00 p.m., a snaking line out front was commonplace.

“We’ve got to the point where there was gridlock back there,” he said. “People were just standing not being able to move.”

Simply put, people are fascinated by prisons, Snavely said. According to Snavely, the most visited National Park Service site remains Alcatraz Prison.

“There’s an interest it in,” he said.

Today was not the first time the museum’s seen RAGBRAI crowds, Snavely said. The ride came through ten years ago, when the museum first opened.

And while the exhibits have improved since then, he said, there’s still no solution to the overcrowding of the prison’s museum.

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