Yuma Territorial Prison Arizona State Historic Park

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park
1 Prison Hill Rd
Yuma, Arizona, 85364

April 1, 2019

Walk through the actual strap iron cells and solitary chambers of Arizona Territory’s first prison.

The Yuma Territorial Prison only operated for 33 years – but that was long enough to etch a fearsome reputation into the history of the Old West, a legacy that lives on in movies like “3:10 to Yuma.”

Authorized in 1875 with a construction budget of $25,000, the prison opened on July 1, 1876 when the first seven prisoners were locked into cells they’d hacked out of the granite of Prison Hill with their own hands.

Over the next three decades, a total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within the prison’s walls – surrounded by waters of the Colorado and the Gila Rivers, with the fearsome desert beyond.

No executions took place at the prison, but 111 persons died while serving time, most of tuberculosis, and 104 of them are buried on the grounds.

Despite its reputation, the prison was a model institution for its time — and because it boasted a library with 2000 books (the most in the Territory at the time), electricity, forced ventilation, running water and flush toilets, two bath tubs and three showers, some Yumans even called it “the Country Club on the Colorado.”

By 1907, the prison was severely overcrowded, and there was no room for expansion on Prison Hill. The last prisoner left Yuma September 15, 1909. (Source)

The ruins of Arizona’s famous Territorial Prison sits on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River, three miles west of the confluence of the Colorado and the historic Gila River

Guard Tower

With a commanding view of the area and situated atop the Prison’s original water supply, this tower is a reconstruction of one of the many towers which overlooked the prison and guarded against escapes. To the east, there is the newly-restored Yuma East Wetlands restoration project.

Sally Port

One of the last remaining original adobe structures of the 1876 Yuma Territorial Prison, this facility served as the check point through which prisoners entered and left the prison. This structure has been authentically and lovingly restored.

Museum

Situated on the original site of the Prison mess hall, this New Deal-era building was built with 60,000 adobe bricks made by “Yumans” during the Great Depression. It operated as a city museum from March 1941 until Arizona State Parks assumed management of the park. In 2010, the museum’s exhibits were completely upgraded.

South of the museum, this area provides a vivid sense of what it was like to be incarcerated at the Prison, six prisoners to a cell! Included in this area is the infamous “Dark Cell” for incorrigible prisoners.

Cell Block

Hear haunting echoes of hard time in a hard place as you walk through the cell block.

Dark Cells

Women’s Ward

A separate women ward was completed in 1893, the room/cell in the picture above was carved out of the granite hillside by inmate labor.

New Yard

Prison Cemetery

104 Prisoners are buried in the Prison Cemetery, the harsh final resting place of hardened criminals.

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