The Yuma Territorial Prison | |
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![]() Main Gate to the Yuma Territorial Prison. | |
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General information | |
Location | Yuma, Arizona, United States |
Coordinates | 32°43′37″N 114°36′54″W / 32.72694°N 114.61500°W |
Opened | 1876[1] |
Website | |
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The Yuma Territorial Prison is a former prison located in Yuma, Arizona, United States. Opened on July 1, 1876, and shut down on September 15, 1909. It is one of the Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites on the National Register of Historic Places in the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. The site is now operated as a historical museum by Arizona State Parks as Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park.[2][3]
Opened while Arizona was still a U.S. territory, the prison accepted its first inmate on July 1, 1876.[4] For the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy.[5] The prison was under continuous construction with labor provided by the prisoners.[6] In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed Arizona State Prison Complex located in Florence, Arizona.[7] It was also the third historic park in Arizona. The state historic park also contains a graveyard where 104 of the prisoners are buried.[8]
Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings from 1910 to 1914.[9] When the school's football team played against Phoenix and unexpectedly won, the Phoenix team called the Yuma team "criminals".[10] Yuma High adopted the nickname with pride, sometimes shortened to the "Crims". The school's symbol is the face of a hardened criminal, and the student merchandise shop is called the Cell Block.[11]
(Listed chronologically) The Yuma Territorial Prison has been featured in: