The facility is well known for the significant roles women played in its foundation and governance, most notably having the first female warden administer an all-male prison in the nation.

A large factor in the selection of the institution's site was the prospect of employing the prison's inmates to work in the quarry for minimal wages.

[citation needed] In 1914, Barnard stepped down after seven years as Commissioner of Charities and Corrections and was succeeded by William D. Mathews.

In an attempt to make the prison more self-sustaining, Governor Williams negotiated with the Rock Island Railroad Company, using the state-owned mountain of granite and the reformatory's inmates for labor.

During World War I, the institution assisted the U.S. military by supplying the Aviation Field at Fort Sill with building materials.

[3] In 1923, John C. Walton replaced Robertson as governor, splitting the Robertson-Waters team and ousting Waters from his position as warden.

Due to massive amounts of corruption at all levels, Walton was impeached only a year into his term and replaced by Lieutenant Governor Martin E.

It was not uncommon for the young men at the prison to be dressed in women's clothing and then displayed for visitors to taunt and ridicule them.

In October 1930, she was appointed to attend the annual meeting of the American Prison Congress in Louisville, Kentucky by the governor at the time, William J. Holloway, as his personal representative and delegate from Oklahoma.

Waters was informed by the Democratic National Committee in September 1932 that her name was on the list of speakers designated to tour the country.

In October 1933, she was also elected in Atlantic City, New Jersey as the vice-president of the National Prison Association and was appointed into Oklahoma's Hall of Fame in 1935.

A native Texan, Post moved to Oklahoma to work in the prosperous oil fields in order to raise money for his own personal airplane.

His life, as well as that of Oklahoma's beloved Will Rogers, ended on August 15, 1935 when his airplane crashed near Point Barrow, Alaska.

During his time at the reformatory, Carnes and two other men were convicted on federal kidnapping charges and were sentenced to 99 years in prison.

Instead of serving his time at the reformatory, Carnes was transferred due to his behavioral problems to Alcatraz in San Francisco Bay.

Carnes avoided the death penalty because he did not murder officers assigned to him during the escape; he lived until 61, dying at the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in Springfield, Missouri.