Beyond the Badge, Featured Stories, Unlocking History

History on display: Folsom Prison Big House Museum re‑opens

July 27, 2026

The Big House Museum at Folsom State Prison will be open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekends. The museum reopened Saturday, July 25.

The Big House Museum at Folsom State Prison re-opened its doors to the public Saturday, July 25. The museum will be open weekends from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. with plans to expand hours and days of operation as more volunteers join the effort.

The museum is located outside the secure perimeter in one of the buildings once used as a warden’s residence. The organization is managed by a volunteer board of trustees while the museum is operated by volunteers. Many are retired employees eager to share stories of their former place of employment.

One such volunteer is Doug Howell, retired custody staff who also serves as vice president of the board. During Saturday’s reopening, he stood before a display devoted to one of the large, attempted prison breaks at Folsom.

In 1927, a riot broke out and the National Guard surrounded the prison. Their weapons, previously used in World War I, were trained on the building where the prisoners had taken hostages.

A military tear gas grenade used to help quell a riot at Folsom Prison in 1927 on display at the Big House Museum at Folsom State Prison. — *Military tear gas grenade used in the 1927 riot at Folsom State Prison.*

Children, parents learn about prison history

“The end of the rebellion came after … state officials assembled … the National Guard, including guardsmen, machine guns and armored tanks. It was the greatest turnout of state troops since the Wheatland hop riots of 1913,” reported the Santa Cruz Evening Sentinel, Nov. 25, 1927. “Prison directors and representatives of Governor C.C. Young gathered at the prison to advise Warden Court Smith and kept a night-long vigil.”

According to the newspaper, “for the first time in California’s history, many modern weapons that had been used in the world war were called into play. These ranged from machine guns and rifles to tanks and tear gas bombs.”

Visitors can see one of the tear gas canisters used during the riot. When it was tossed into a building where rioters held hostages, the prisoners picked it up and threw it outside.