Yuma Territorial
Prison
When we visited
Yuma on our fall RV trip, we stopped at the Yuma Territorial Prison. We had seen a TV show featuring it, and it
sounded like an interesting place to visit.
The prison was authorized by Territorial Legislation back in 1875, and
opened in 1876. The prison functioned
as a prison until 1909 when it closed, and all remaining prisoners were moved
to Florence, AZ. But, it didn’t remain
unused for long. The following year in
1910, it housed a high school (those children were justified if they referred
to school as a “prison”!}, and then in 1914, became the County Hospital. The hospital burned in 1924, and it wasn’t
used again until 1931, when the VFW used part of it. During the Depression, it was used to house
the poor, until the remaining squatters were evicted in 1939. In 1940, the Museum was built with New Deal
funds, and operated until 1960. In 1961,
it became Arizona’s 3rd State Park.
It’s had quite the varied history, but today, the focus of the prison is
as its life as a prison.
Across the
Colorado River from the Prison is “Indian Hill”, the site of La Purisima
Conception mission. Nothing is left of
this mission, which was destroyed in 1781 when the native Quechans revolted,
killing all European males. Today, the
St. Thomas Mission, built in 1922, which serves the Quechan Indian Nation. Beyond that Mission is Fort Yuma, which was
established in 1852 to protect those on their way to the California Gold Rush. The bottom image is of the Colorado River,
although you can’t see it for all the green trees!!
As we completed
our walk around the front yard (as I thought of it), we saw the Guard Tower,
which is actually just outside the entrance to the prison. This tower is actually a reconstruction of
the original Guard Tower, which served not only as a place where guards could
view the inmates in at least part of the prison, but also as the place where
the water supply for the prison was housed.
The view in the lower image is what you can see off to the east of the
tower, which is the Yuma East Wetlands restoration project.
Next to the
Guard Tower, is the Sally Port. The
sally port is one of the last remaining original adobe structures of the
prison. It served as the entrance and
exit point for the prisoners. In Oct,
1887, there was perhaps the most infamous attempted escape from the prison, and
took place at the sally port. Seven
prisoners took Superintendent Gates as a hostage. The Superintendent ordered guards to shoot,
despite the danger to himself. When the
dust settled, 4 inmates were dead, another wounded, and the remaining 2 were
recaptured. The 3 surviving inmates were
sent to the Dark Cell. The Superintendent suffered a knife wound to his neck,
which later caused him to resign due to constant pain from the injury.
The next area we
visited is the cell block. It is another
original area of the prison and primarily male inmates were housed here. The top photo collection depicts the “hall”
of cell blocks in the left image and the center image is an image where one of
the cell doors was open and we could look into what was called the Dark Cell,
where prisoners considered “incorrigible” were housed as punishment. The photo on the right shows how they fit 6
bunks into one cell. The photo
collection below is information displayed in the Museum about a few of the
prisoners. Not displayed were the first
prisoner housed here, William Hall.
The prison wasn’t limited to male prisoners, however. Women were also incarcerated there, too. The first female prisoner was Lizzie Gallagher,
who entered prison in 1878. She was
sentenced for man slaughter. However, as
there were no accommodations for women prisoners, she was kept in solitary
confinement and pardoned and released after only 42 days. Another prisoner, Manuella Fibres, who was
sentenced for accessory to murder, gave birth to a baby boy in 1889. The baby stayed with her for 2 years, at
which point she was pardoned and released, out of concern for the boy. It is said that although the guards missed
the little boy, they were happy to see Manuella leave, as she was rather a
trouble-maker. In 1893, a separate women’s
prison was completed, which is shown below (the door between the 2 white
doors). The image in the lower left of
the photo collection is the doorway that led to the women’s open area.
There was a rather nice amenity at the prison – a library! The library was dug out of this wall in
1893. Today, there is a large mural on
the back wall, which seems to suggest that at one point, the library was
larger. However, there was nothing to
indicate that was truly the case. I tend
to think that the size of the cut-out was the actual size of the library.
In 1889, a hospital was established at the prison. It appears that they also had a small
infirmary as well. In the above photo
collection, the image on the left is the infirmary. On the left is an image of the side of the
cell block building. The hospital used
to be on top of the cell block, but it burned in 1924.
Only 2 prisoners ever escaped from the prison, and they are highlighted
in the image on the left in the photo collection. I found it rather interesting that neither
was heard of again. It’s possible that they
hightailed it out of the area. It’s also
possible that they didn’t make it too far and ran into trouble they couldn’t
handle. The first inmate to be executed
was Martin Ubillos, in 1905. I found it
interesting that the sheriff sent out invitations to the execution.
When we were up in the Guard Tower, we could see the prison
cemetery about a quarter mile away (top image on the left). Records indicate
that 104 prisoners are buried here. We
drove down to the cemetery when we were leaving the prison, and I got some
closer images of the graves. Pretty
harsh gravesites, and I didn’t notice any headstones to identify the
graves. My assumption is that those
records were kept by the warden, but I didn’t see one in the Museum.
Enjoy!
