Tiny Jail Where Jail Builders Were Locked Up
Lower Lake, California
Lower Lake's tiny stone jail has been preserved since it was first built in 1876 to deal with lawlessness in a rapidly growing quicksilving mining boom town. While similar municipalities needed their own calaboose for local troublemakers, this one is unique because its first occupants were the two brothers who built it.
According to the 1982 historical plaque installed by E Clampus Vitus in 1982: "Theodore and John Copsey commemorated the completion of the jail by over-celebrating, thus becoming the jail's first occupants. Rumor has it that they were also the first escapees -- as they had failed to bolt down the roof."