A truss bridge that spans the Colorado River at Yuma is the final highway bridge to connect a road between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. Construction completed in 1915, and in 1926, the highway became part of U.S. Route 80, the primary east-west transcontinental highway in the depression era. For a time, the bridge’s deteriorated state resulted in it becoming a pedestrian and bicycle bridge, but after a reconstruction project in 2002, it was restored to vehicle use.

The bridge’s total length is 444 ft (135 m) and the longest of the two spans is 336 ft (102 m). Built-in nine months at a cost of $73,800, the bridge was the first bridge to span the lower Colorado River. Today it serves traffic on Penitentiary Avenue as modern bridges now carry traffic east and west on nearby I-8. The bridge has an interesting history due to it’s being a major border crossing between Arizona and California. It became a stopping point to block refugees from entering California in attempts to escape the 1930’s dust bowl states. There is an excellent article on Wikipedia that describes the bridge’s construction and history here.

This view of this bridge can be seen, along with a descriptive plaque, when you tour the Yuma Arizona Territorial Prison State Historic Park. In most browsers, you can click on a link to enlarge the image for a better view.

In recent weeks, I’ve been following a blog called The Bridgehunter’s Chronicles here. I discovered the site published by Jason D. Smith when he reblogged a couple of my posts that focused on bridges that I visited and documented on my journeys. That has inspired me to revisit some of the places I’ve traveled to focus specifically on historic bridges. From time to time, you’ll see one of these posts featuring a historic bridge.

John Steiner

Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, the park is closed to visitors. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region. More information on the park’s current status can be found here.

Looks like they finally caught up with me. They put me on that train featured in the movie “3:10 to Yuma” and I must serve my time in the Yuma Territorial Prison. My “sentence” would only last a few hours visiting the once-notorious prison that is now a state park. That “mug shot” of me features a mirror that allowed prison officials to take a front and side view mug shot on a single exposure. The mirror is set up for guests to don a quick-change striped jacket, grab one of the prison numbers, and get someone to snap your photo. The Yuma prison is one of the first to use a mirror in creating prison record photographs.

The prison was open for business between 1876 and 1909, the first batch of prisoners were “enlisted” to help build their own cells. The prison’s reputation as a “hell hole” was well deserved with summer high temperatures in Yuma averaging between 105 and 110 degrees F (around 40 degrees C). A guided tour of the prison will give you a view of a day in the life of a prisoner.

Built high on a bluff along the Colorado River at the Arizona-California border, a large observation tower overlooked the prison yard and the surrounding landscape. After the prison closed in 1909, a fire destroyed Yuma High School. For five years from 1910 to 1914, the school board rented some of the structures in the prison for use as a temporary high school. The school’s athletic teams adopted the concept of spending time in prison and named themselves The Criminals, the dubious honor given to them by an opposing football team. In 1917, the name was approved by the school board and Yuma High School carries that mascot name to this day.

Over the years, the prison was used as a hospital, and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) used one of the buildings as a clubhouse for almost 30 years. Southern Pacific Railroad acquired and demolished one section of the prison to make way for new tracks crossing the area, and during the Great Depression, hobos and homeless families lived in the cells.

The museum carries many artifacts of life in the late 19th century in the prison. Large panels on the walls describe the most notorious of the prison’s “guests.” Early on, some women were also incarcerated among the men, but eventually, a women’s section was constructed. Probably the most notorious female prisoner was Pearl Hart, one of the very few female stagecoach robbers.

In 1899 Pearl Hart and her companion at the time, Joe Boot, robbed the stage that ran between Florence and Globe, Arizona. The robbery was successful, but the getaway, not so much. Found innocent of the robbery, the judge claimed that Pearl “… flirted with the jury, bending them to her will.” Another jury found her guilty of carrying an unlawful firearm and she was sentenced to five years at Yuma where her notoriety was assured in history. There is an interesting biography of Pearl Hart here.

The large cell doors have a long hasp making the lock assembly invulnerable from prisoner tampering. The small cells were typically configured to hold six prisoners on two bunks, three beds high. I submit for your review a gallery of images captured (interesting choice of words) at Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. In most browsers, you can click on an image to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner

Notice: This post is being written during the COVID-19 pandemic and at this time, the park is closed to visitors. Please stay safe and follow your state or country’s guidelines for travel in your region. More information on the park’s current status can be found here.

Where the Colorado River crosses from Arizona into California, Yuma became a crossing point into the Golden State, never more true than during the gold rush days starting in 1849. One year later, a military post was established at Yuma and by 1858, Yuma experienced a boom as gold strikes on the Colorado River started another gold rush. In 1864, the U.S. Army established a Quartermasters Depot on the site that is now the grounds of the State Park. Materials and goods were delivered from ocean-going vessels to the mouth of the Colorado River where they were carried by steamboat to the depot. From there, supplies were transported to serve fourteen military posts in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Southern Utah, and West Texas.

If you start to find out more information in Google, be careful you get the right park. There is the James M. Robb Colorado River State Park near Grand Junction, Colorado, and the Colorado Bend State Park at Bend, Texas. Adding to the confusion, the park near Yuma was once known as the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park, and before that, the Yuma Crossing State Historic Park. History of the park, including a map of the grounds can be found at the link in the first paragraph.

The opening image features the Office of the Depot Quartermaster. The buildings are open for a walk-through and furnished appropriately. The building in the background is the Officer’s Quarters and Kitchen. The grounds are laid out much like a typical fort of those pioneer days. The only things missing are the battlements and stockade fence. Protected on three sides by the river and cliffs, it seems relatively secure considering its store of goods could be an attractive target for outlaws.

The Storehouse is a large warehouse type building that is now the heart of the museum. In the gallery of images below, you will see some of the items on display. An entire interior store room delves into the history of steamboat operations on the Colorado River.

The main exhibit hall of the Storehouse Museum features vehicles and equipment from early days of the depot. Of particular interest to me was in a small storeroom where miniature dioramas of the early days of Yuma are on display. A couple of those images are featured in the gallery below.

The block building in the image above doesn’t look like much, but it was busy from 1934-1964, operated by the United States Geological Survey (USGS). The building housed a gauging station. Basically, pipes led from the river let water in the tower rise to the level of the river. Float gauges indicate the height of the river level. When it was in operation, a small bridge walkway led from the edge of the cliff to the doorway in the photograph. USGS workers could enter the building to read the gauges. The river’s highest recorded gauge height occurred before this gauge was constructed. In 1916, the river reached 34 feet (11 m). Today, the average height at the Yuma gauging station is less than 10 feet (3 m).

Since the state park is right on the Arizona/California border, the visitor center does double duty as an information center for travelers entering the state and for visitors to the State Historic Park. Given the current pandemic situation, I’m pretty sure that even this information center is closed to the public. I submit for your review, a gallery of images captured on our visit to the park in January, 2020. In most browsers, you can click on an image in the gallery to enlarge it and to scroll through the gallery.

John Steiner