Yuma Territorial Prison State Park

This was a great museum, well worth the $4.oo admission fee. Could have spent longer than the couple hours we did wandering through this old turn of the century history prison. Exploring the actual adobe and rock cells that housed the inmates gives you a bit of a creepy feeling but it was soooo interesting. Each section was well documented from the "dark cell" (solitary) to the guard houses and the watch towers.

Brief History...On July 1, 1876, the first seven inmates entered the Territorial Prison at Yuma, and were locked into the new cells they had built themselves.
A total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within these walls during the prison's thirty-three years of operation. Their crimes ranged from murder to polygamy, with grand larceny being the most common. A majority served only portions of their sentences due to the ease with which paroles and pardons were obtained. One hundred eleven persons died while serving their sentences, most from tuberculosis, which was common throughout the territory. Of the many prisoners who attempted escape, twenty-six were successful, but only two were from within the prison confines. By 1907, the prison was severely overcrowded, and there was no room on Prison Hill for expansion. The convicts constructed a new facility in Florence, Arizona. The last prisoner left Yuma on September 15, 1909.

Today we are gonna take it easy and spend some time at the pool. Gonna be a hot one, so it'll be nice to take a cool lap or two between chapters. ;)