Frontier Justice

  I have visited the Old Yuma Prison several times and it is a fascinating visit! Inside the old dining hall are alot of exhibits such as letters that were written by prsoners and guards and antique items used back in the day such as razors, knives, uniforms, etc.
There are three things at the old prison that stand out in my mind more than anything else. 
  The first thing is the guard tower, which is still in excellent condition. It overlooks the former confluence of the Colorado and Gila Rivers. Since the Gila now meets the Colorado about 10 miles outside Yuma, the old confluence is not what it used to be since only about 150 feet of the Gila's old channel still exists, but the actual meeting point is still there.
  I also vividly remember the dark cell, or solitary confinement cell. It is a room that is cut  into the side of the hill and the back part of the room is pitch dark, even in mid afternoon. It must have been a horrible way to spend a few hours, much less days or even weeks. 
  Lastly, the most vivid memory I have of the old prison are the cells themselves. The typical cell was approximately 10 feet by 6 feet and contained triple bunks on each side of the room. Six prisoners living in an area of roughly sixty square feet! I also cannot get over the narrowness of the beds. They are about half the width of a twin bed! These beds were only about two feet wide! They had iron springs with very thin mattresses on top of the springs. I know that people were generally smaller back then than they are today, but these beds seem to small even for the dimunitive human frames of the nineteenth century. I have visited many former U.S. Cavalry forts that have some original, period furnishings and, while those beds are smaller than beds of today, they are still bigger than the beds in the Old Yuma Prison. Not all of the cells in the Old Yuma Prison still have the beds in them.
   The original prison entrance, or sally port, in still standing not far from the guard tower. 
  The Old Yuma Prison closed in September, 1909 when the new prison in Florence opened. Shortly after the prison closed, it served as Yuma High School for four years, from 1910 to 1914. I will have a bit more to say about that in the next edition of this blog.
  Also, during the Great Depression, homeless people took up residence in the abandoned prison. Finally, in 1960, Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park opened to the public to preserve what remained of the symbol of frontier justice. The prison that visitors see today is only about 25% of the original complex.  This was only the fourth state park to open in Arizona. Arizona was one of the last states to establish a system of state parks. Since there is so much federal land in Arizona, it was thought that state parks were unnecessary.  The first state park in Arizona; Tombstone Courthouse, did not open until 1949. It was the only state park until Jerome State Historic Park opened in 1957 and then Tubac Presidio opened in 1958. These are all historical parks. The first recreational state park, Lyman Lake, opened in 1960, shortly after Yuma Prison opened as a tourist attraction. Lyman Lake is located midway between St. Johns and Springerville on the 
pinon-studded grasslands of eastern Arizona, near the border with New Mexico.