Prison Cell Door

Prison Cell Door. From the Cherokee County Prison Camp. The austere prison in Peachtree housed up to 100 prisoners tasked with building and maintaining local roads. In 1931, the state combined the Highway Commission and the State Prison Department. "Road camps" were built throughout the state to provide convict labor for road projects and maintenance. , A permanent prison was built in Peachtree in 1939, as part of depression era federal infrastructure programs, to replace a temporary facility in Andrews. , In 1957 the general assembly separated the Prison Department from the State Highway and Public Works Commission. Following this act, the prison camps in Cherokee County and fourteen other North Carolina counties were eventually closed. , The relatively modern Cherokee County Camp continued as a state prison, still contracting road labor. The prison was abandoned in 1965 due to poor economics and unpopular escapes. , Tri-County Community College was formed in July 1965, and was located on the former prison site in the Peachtree area of Western North Carolina., A bronze plaque in front of the college reflects the former presence of the prison door and the solitary confinement cell remains as a campus landmark.