Note: Click here for the complete text of Micah Hetherington's "Stone Walls of Idaho" research project. 

Primary Sources

Archival

Aldous, Melvin. Interview by Dick Hadlock, 24 Aug. 1985. Oral History Center, Idaho State Archives, Boise, Idaho.

Ancestry.com. Idaho, Old Penitentiary Prison Records, 1882-1961 (Online database). Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2017.

Eng, Nikki. “Life and Death at the Old Idaho Penitentiary.” Master’s thesis, BSU, 1997.F754.B65 E5, Idaho State Archives. 

Idaho State Penitentiary Inmate File Collection. AR 42. Idaho State Archives, Boise, ID.

Munch, Josef. Interview by Eilene Porter, 15 July 1987. Oral History Center, Idaho State Archives, Boise, Idaho.

Reese, Thomas. Interview by Chris Brady, 29 Dec. 1995. Oral History Center, Idaho State Archives, Boise, Idaho.

Roden, William. Interview by Ellen Haffner, 2010. Oral History Center, Idaho State Archives, Boise, Idaho.

The Central Inspection Board of the American Psychiatric Association. “Report on the State Mental Hospitals of Idaho.” August 1950. ID DOCS H2430.01 SOU, Idaho State Archives.

Court Cases

In re Miller, 23 Idaho 403, 129 P. 1075 (1913).

State v. Altwatter, 29 Idaho 107, 157 P. 256 (1916).

Newspapers

Boone, Rebecca and Betsy Z. Russell. “Idaho settles lawsuit over antiquated anti-sodomy law.” The Idaho Press, 10 Nov. 2022. https://www.idahopress.com/news/local/idaho-settles-lawsuit-over-antiquated-anti-sodomy-law/article_4aa4b7b4-6154-11ed-8fb8-33e87220845c.html.

Community History Archive (Online database). Pocatello, ID: Marshall Public Library. https://marshallidaho.advantage-preservation.com/.

Mather, Victor. “Salt Lake City and Boise Adopt Official Pride Flags in Response to State Laws.” The New York Times, 7 May 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/us/salt-lake-city-boise-pride-flags.html. 

NewsBank (Online database). Idaho Statesman Current and Historical Collection. Boise, ID: Boise Public Library.

Newspapers.com (Online database). Lehi, UT: Ancestry.com Operations Inc., 2017.

Published Works

Hart, Arthur. Old Idaho State Penitentiary nomination form for National Register of Historic Places. 15 October 1973.

Idaho Session Laws, Chapter 214 (1949). https://legislature.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/sessionlaws/sessionlaws_1949.pdf.

Laws of the Territory of Idaho, First Session § 45 (1864). https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015063816907&seq=9.

The Revised Statues of Idaho Territory § 6810 and 6811 (1887).     https://books.google.com/booksid=7LgwAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbsViewAPI#v=onepage&q=infamous&f=false. 

“Rules and Regulations Governing the Inmates of Idaho State Penitentiary with Comments and Information Beneficial to All,” ID DOCS C7000.06 INM01 1962, Idaho State Archives, Boise, Idaho.

The Central Inspection Board of the American Psychiatric Association. “Report on the State Mental Hospitals of Idaho.” August 1950, ID DOCS H2430.01 SOU, Idaho State Archives.

Personal Correspondence

Lowry, Tim. Oral history by Micah Hetherington. 17 Jan. 2023.

Virta, Alan. Personal research conducted (1999-2000).

Secondary Sources

Beierle, Amber, Ashley Phillips, and Hanako Wakatsuki. Old Idaho Penitentiary. Arcadia, 2014.

Boag, Peter. Same-Sex Affairs: Constructing and Controlling Homosexuality in the Pacific Northwest. University of California Press, 2003.

Canaday, Margot. The Straight State: Sexuality and Citizenship in Twentieth-Century America. Princeton University Press, 2009. 

Cocca, Carolyn E. Jailbait: The Politics of Statutory Rape Laws in the United States. State University of New York Press, 2004. 

Eskridge, William, Jr. Dishonorable Passions: Sodomy Laws in America 1861-2003. Penguin, 2008. 

Freedman, Estelle. “‘Uncontrolled Desires’: The Response to the Sexual Psychopath, 1920-1960.” The Journal of American History 74 no. 1 (1987): 83-106. https://doi.org/10.2307/1908506.

Gerassi, John and Peter Boag. The Boys of Boise: Furor, Vice, and Folly in an American City. University of Washington Press, 2001. First published 1966 by Macmillan.

Howard, John. Men Like That: A Southern Queer History. University of Chicago Press, 2001.

Humphreys, Laud. Tearoom Trade: Impersonal Sex in Public Places. Aldine, 1975.

“Inmates of the Idaho Penitentiary 1864-1947: A Comprehensive Catalog.” Idaho State Historical Society, 2008. https://history.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/inmates_1864-1947.pdf.

Kunzel, Regina. “Lessons in Being Gay: Queer Encounters in Gay and Lesbian Prison Activism.” Radical History Review 100 (2008): 11-37. https://doi.org/10.1215/01636545-2007-020.

Mercier, Laurie. “Idaho’s Ethnic History.” In Idaho’s Place: A New History of the Gem State, edited by Adam M. Sowards. University of Washington Press, 2014. 

Mushrush, Stephanie. “Sherman Indian High School Beginning to the Present.” Sherman Indian Museum. Accessed 12 Jan. 2026.             https://www.shermanindianmuseum.org/sherman_hist.htm.

Robertson, Stephen. “Shifting the Scene of the Crime: Sodomy and the American History of Sexual Violence.” Journal of the History of Sexuality 19, no. 2 (2010): 223-242. JSTOR.

Shallat, Todd and Amber Beierle. Numbered: Inside Idaho’s Prison for Women, 1887-1968. Idaho State Historical Society, 2020.