Yuma Territorial Prison

Yuma Territorial Prison
Yuma Territorial Prison
	Main Gate to the Yuma Territorial Prison.
General information
Location	Yuma, Arizona, United States
Coordinates	32°43′37″N 114°36′54″W / 32.72694°N 114.61500°WCoordinates: 32°43′37″N 114°36′54″W / 32.72694°N 114.61500°W
Opened	1876[1]

The Yuma Territorial Prison is a former prison located in Yuma, Arizona, United States. Opened in 1875, 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]

History

Prison

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 20 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 3rd historic park in Arizona.

High School

Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings from 1910 to 1914.^[8] When the school's football team played against Phoenix and unexpectedly won, the Phoenix team called the Yuma team "criminals".^[9] 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.^[10]

Notable inmates

Burt Alvord – Cochise County lawman and train robber
William J. Flake – Mormon pioneer imprisoned for violating the Edmunds Act^[11]
Pearl Hart – stagecoach robber
"Buckskin Frank" Leslie – gunfighter and killer of Billy Claiborne
Ricardo Flores Magón – Mexican revolutionary, founder of the Partido Liberal Mexicano
Pete Spence – outlaw involved in the Earp-Clanton feud

In popular culture

(Listed chronologically) The Yuma Territorial Prison has been featured in:

"Three-Ten to Yuma",^[12] a 1953 western short story written by Elmore Leonard, and also in two film adaptations:
3:10 to Yuma, the 1957 original^[13] (directed by Delmer Daves and starring Glenn Ford and Van Heflin), and the 2007 remake, also titled 3:10 to Yuma, directed by James Mangold and starring Russell Crowe and Christian Bale.^[14]
26 Men, the 1957 episode "Incident at Yuma" of the syndicated western series of true stories of the Arizona Rangers, focuses on a prison break and the difficulty of gathering a posse faced by Captain Thomas H. Rynning, portrayed by Tristram Coffin.^[15]
The Badlanders, a 1958 western (also directed by Delmer Daves, and starring Alan Ladd and Ernest Borgnine), the opening scene is set in and filmed at the actual prison.
In the 1959 western, Rawhide (S1E2 broadcast 1 Jan 59), starring Clint Eastwood. In the episode "Incident at Alabaster Plain" Rowdy Yates tells how he and a fellow Confederate Corporal (Buzz Travis) escaped the Yuma Territorial Prison during the Civil War, a factual error since the prison did not open until 1875, as mentioned above.^[16]
For a Few Extra Dollars (aka Fort Yuma's Gold) is a 1966 Italian spaghetti western war film.
The first scene of the "Louis L'Amour" book Kid Rodelo (first published in 1966) takes place in Yuma Prison
The 1968 Italian made film A Long Ride from Hell is a tale of revenge that chronicles the saga of a rancher who along with his brother is unjustly sent to Yuma prison.
The novel Forty Lashes Less One (1972) by Elmore Leonard takes place almost entirely inside Yuma Prison in 1909, shortly before it was closed down.
In a 2016 episode of the Travel Channel series, Ghost Adventures, Zak Bagans and the crew investigated the prison.

Gallery

The main guard tower.
Cells and the yard.
Prison cells with courtyard.
Iron bunkbeds inside the prison.
A mugshot of Pete Spence at the Yuma Territorial Prison in 1883.
Pearl Hart at the prison in 1899.
Burt Alvord at the prison in 1904.

References

↑ Trafzer, Cliff; George, Steve (1980). Prison Centennial, 1876–1976. Yuma County Historical Society. p. 6. OCLC 906535980.
↑ http://azstateparks.com/Parks/YUTE/index.html. accessed 9/9/2010
↑ Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, AZ – DesertUSA
↑ Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park
↑ Wildernet.com – Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, Arizona State Parks
↑ Yuma Territorial Prison – Arizona Ghost Towns
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-05-27.
↑ Yuma Union – Yuma HS: History Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
↑ Yuma Territorial Prison | Atlas Obscura
↑ Jane Eppinga (November–December 1997). "Hellhole on the Colorado". American Cowboy. American Cowboy LLC: 88–89. ISSN 1079-3690. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
↑ Pop Culture 101 – 3:10 to Yuma
↑ http://www.yumasun.com/articles/prison-56764-yuma-campaign.html%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D
↑ 3:10 to Yuma (2007) – FAQ
↑ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 1, 2010. Retrieved May 27, 2010.
↑ "Rawhide" Incident at Alabaster Plain (1959)

External links

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[1] Trafzer, Cliff; George, Steve (1980). Prison Centennial, 1876–1976. Yuma County Historical Society. p. 6. OCLC 906535980.

[2] ttp://azstateparks.com/Parks/YUTE/index.html. accessed 9/9/2010

[3] Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, AZ – DesertUSA

[4] Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park

[5] Wildernet.com – Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park, Arizona State Parks

[6] Yuma Territorial Prison – Arizona Ghost Towns

[7] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2010-04-22. Retrieved 2010-05-27.

[8] Yuma Union – Yuma HS: History Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.

[9] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on July 7, 2011. Retrieved May 27, 2010.

[10] Yuma Territorial Prison | Atlas Obscura

[11] Jane Eppinga (November–December 1997). "Hellhole on the Colorado". American Cowboy. American Cowboy LLC: 88–89. ISSN 1079-3690. Retrieved 17 August 2017.

[12] Pop Culture 101 – 3:10 to Yuma

[13] ttp://www.yumasun.com/articles/prison-56764-yuma-campaign.html%5Bpermanent+dead+link%5D

[14] 3:10 to Yuma (2007) – FAQ

[15] "Archived copy". Archived from the original on March 1, 2010. Retrieved May 27, 2010.

[16] "Rawhide" Incident at Alabaster Plain (1959)