Yuma Territorial State Prison - Yuma, Arizona A Fascinating Arizona Tourism Location
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While you were a child growing up did you dream to play cowboys? Perhaps you wanted to be the bad guy instead of the hero wearing the white hat. One of the places you certainly heard a little about was the Southwest Arizona Yuma Prison. Where the “really bad guys” were taken to serve out their time in prison. Not only were they prisoners but they were also forced to construct their own cells!
The prison opened for business on July 1, 1875 with seven inmates. Those 7 had been the ones constructing the prison. Now, the prison wasn’t picky about who was incarcerated, because there were also twenty-nine ladies that were held at the prison. TB was a problem for the prisoners, one-hundred-eleven died during their time at Yuma Territorial Prison. Not someplace that was healthy to be under any circumstance. The prison certainly wasn’t perfect. During it’s history 26 prisoners escaped. Of the 3,000 that were imprisoned over the years that may be a very low number but definately not one that looked sharp on reports or with the neighboring cities. If they attempted to escape and didn’t succeed they received the painful ball and chain to keep them from trying again. Not a particularly comfortable way to try to walk around.
So, while you are checking out Arizona vacations offerings, think about when you dreamed that you wanted to be the bad cowboy - I bet you didn’t know all that stuff. You probably thought that you could ride into a city on your prancing horse, rob a bank and then ride out quickly and go hideout at someplace nice and clean and spend the money. Not so. Normally the horses that the bandits had were pretty skanky, no ability to feed them properly and groom them, too busy running from the sheriff. To knock off a bank you had to have a really good plan and might very well get shot or killed. If you were caught you were shipped to Yuma (or hung.) Living it up with the money, if you got away, probably wasn’t in the cards either because where could you go that there would not be opinions about how a dirty trail rider had the money. There may have been some that did not fit that mold, but probably not many. Not the type of lifestyle you probably really wanted to live.
The Yuma prison did accomplish some positive things with inmates living there. Many of the inmates learned to read and write during their stay. The prison actually had a public library and the prisoners received health care, limited as it was at the time. Enjoy this Arizona Tourism Video:
The territorial prison was used until 1907 (for an entire thirty-one years) before it was too small, overcrowded and eventually turned over to other uses. It has a continued life as a school; low cost housing for transients and families left homeless by the Great Depression. Although it wasn’t a place you would long to live in, it was certainly better than having no facility to use for shelter. A few of the local Yuma people decided that it was a low cost source for building supplies and so over the years many of the buildings were totally destroyed and now are not part of the historical park today.
Today the Yuma Territorial State Historical Park is used to host several special events throughout the year including the Gathering of the Gunfighters in January which you should think about attending. It will be a lot of fun. If you arrive at another time of year you may desire to take one of the Haunted Tours during October. There are also Old West re-enactments done every Sunday from October through April.
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