Headline, 1891
Clinton is New York’s third-oldest existing prison behind Auburn, founded in 1818, and Sing Sing. New York’s legislature commissioned a study in 1842 on the potential use of state land for mining operations staffed by convict labor. Ransom Cook of Saratoga was tasked with studying the plan’s feasibility. Cook’s tour of the state’s natural resources found promising candidates in the far north. Cook presented his recommendations to the state, bolstered by claims of superior-quality ore from Dannemora’s mines, and the state legislature voted to fund his plan. Cook would be the new prison’s agent and warden, and the work of laying out the prison grounds began in February 1845. In early June, Cook visited Sing Sing and left with fifty convicts who would serve as Dannemora’s first inmates.
From the beginning, Dannemora was a violent place. Underground iron mining was dangerous and deaths and injury were routine. Even worse were the brutal punishments received by inmates who rebelled or refused to work. The second chapter of Escape from Dannemora discusses the prison’s history of violence, including various forms of state-sanctioned torture.
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