Yuma's Historical Territorial Jailhouse

by Madison and Luke

Thursday afternoon, Mommy, Grandma, and Grandpa took us into town for a little history lesson. Grandpa is a retired history teacher, and he wanted to visit the Yuma Territorial Prison, a landmark that has been in Yuma for over 150 years. The prison housed over 3500 and was notorious for being a horrible place to be sent. Well, we checked it out and had a nice afternoon visiting the grounds.

Here we are at the entrance to the prison. This is located in the heart of Yuma, so this is what the terrain looks like out here.

Adjacent to the prison is the coast-to-coast, transcontinental bridge. This was the first bridge to link the country, filling the gap over the "mighty" Colorado River, which is pictured below the bridge. Anyone who has seen or knows anything about the Colorado River, knows it's really wide and used for a lot. Well, it's all siphoned off and dammed before it reaches Yuma, and what you see is all that's left. For those of you who know where Mommy grew up in Ohio, it's about as wide as the Muskellunge Creek in front of her old house.

Another view of the "mighty" Colorado River. This is looking to the west at California (starts on the opposite bank of the Colorado). What you can see is the Quechan Indian Reservation. The Yuma Indians lived on the Yuma/Arizona side of the Colorado, with the Quechan Indians living on the other side of the river. Prior to dams etc., the Colorado was really wide here.

Inside the prison gates. This was a nice open grassy area, which is part of the museum tour area now.

Both kids LOVE the palm and cactus trees found all over the Yuma area.

Jailed!

Apparently, petite Madison could fit through the jail bars. It looks as though we have a jailbreak. Notice Grandpa and Luke didn't try this!

Madison with her cactus obsession

Entrance to the museum

Once you tour the museum, you exit to this area, which is the cellblock area. We learned that no prisoners were ever able to escape from within these cell walls.

Grandpa was very interested in these cells, as they had a huge metal piece that kept the doors locked and closed. Many of the cells held six men. We also learned 29 women were sentenced to the prison. Most of the women were sentenced for adultery.

Here is the large guard tower. As you can see, it sits high above the rest of the prison.

Another random fact we learned-during the early 1900's, the prison served as the local high school. Yeah, that speaks well for high schools. We had wondered since moving here why some referred to the school mascot as the "Criminals," and now we know. What a high school...Grandpa, Grandma, and Mommy, all teachers, were all glad they never taught at this particular high school!

We all really had a nice time at the prison tour. Madison was really interested, and Luke enjoyed looking around.