Long before "Orange" became the "New Black," female inmates at the Colorado Women's Prison, part of the State Penitentiary in Canon City, were navigating close quarters on strict schedules with limited access to educational resources. Learn more about this historical women's penitentiary that is reused today as a museum.

Colorado’s historic buildings always tell a story. Some illustrate the wealth generated from the gold and silver mining days while others tell the tale of the state’s agricultural beginnings. Seldom heard, though, are the stories that are confined within the walls of Colorado’s prisons and jails. To help these tales break free, here is a glimpse at three historic Colorado jails (and one prison) that you may not know about.

I always thought that historic preservation simply implied that a building was saved from demolition. I was wrong. After an eye-opening internship with History Colorado’s Preservation Programs as a first semester graduate student, I realized that historic preservation is so much more than saving bricks and mortar -- it’s about preserving the memories of the people who used and loved those buildings. Additionally, losing those old buildings severs our ties to the past and the stories that evolved within those structures. Many times, they are the stories of people often forgotten in history. One of the greatest local examples of keeping our connection to the past, and one that intertwined with my family history, is the story of Dr. Justina Ford.