When you were a child growing up did you want to play cowboys? Perhaps you wanted to be the bad guy instead of the hero with the white hat. One of the places you probably heard a little about was the Yuma Territorial Prison State Park. Here the “really bad guys” were taken to serve out their time in prison. Not only were they prisoners but they were also forced to build their own cells!
The Yuma prison opened for business on July 1, 1875 with seven prisoners. Those 7 had been the prisoners constructing the prison. Now, the prison wasn’t picky about who was there, because there were also 29 ladies that were held at the prison. TB was a medical problem for the prisoners, one-hundred-eleven died during their sentence at Yuma Territorial Prison. Not somewhere that was healthy to be under any circumstance. The prison also wasn’t perfect. Throughout its heritage twenty-six prisoners escaped. Of the three-thousand that were there over the years that is a very low number but probably not one that looked good on reports or with the nearby towns. If they attempted to escape and did not succeed they received the horrid ball and chain to prevent them from trying again. Not a particularly comfortable way to try to walk around.
So, while you are checking out vacation in Arizona offerings, consider 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. Usually the horses that the outlaws had were pretty skanky, no time to feed them properly and groom them, too busy running from the sheriff. To rob a bank you needed to have a pretty good plan and might very well get shot or killed. If you were caught you were shipped to Yuma (or worse.) Living it up with the money, if you got away, probably wasn’t in the deck either since where could you go that there wouldn’t be concerns about how a unemployed trail bum had the money. There may have been some that did not fit that sterotype, but probably not many. Not the type of life you probably really wanted to live.
The Yuma prison did accomplish some positive things with some of those incarcerated there. Quite a few of the prisoners learned to read and write during their time. It actually had a real library and the prisoners received medical care, such as it was at the time. Enjoy this Arizona attraction video:
The territorial prison was operated until 1907 (so a whole thirty-one years) before it became too small, overcrowded and then turned over to other uses. It has now continued life as a school; free housing for hobos and families who became homeless by the Great Depression. Although it wasn’t a place you would long to live in, it was certainly better than having no place to use for shelter. A few of the local Yuma residents thought that it was a low cost source for building supplies and so over the years many of the buildings were essentially torn down and now are not part of the historical park today.
Today the Yuma Territorial State Historical Park is used to host a variety of special events during the year including the Gathering of the Gunfighters in January which you should think about attending. It could be a lot of fun. If you arrive at another time of year you may desire to experience one of the Haunted Tours during October. There are also Old West re-enactments done each Sunday from October through April.
Tags: Arizona Attractions, Arizona Tourism, Arizona Vacation, Yuma Territorial Prison
