Yuma Territorial Prison Gate

by Robert Bales

Title

Yuma Territorial Prison Gate

Artist

Robert Bales

Medium

Photograph - Photo

Description

The Yuma Territorial Prison was a prison located in Yuma, Arizona Territory, United States. 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, a state park in southwestern Arizona
The prison accepted its first inmate on July 1, 1876. For the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy. The prison was under continuous construction with labor provided by the prisoners. In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed Arizona State Prison Complex located in Florence, Arizona.
From 1910 to 1914 the Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings. When the school's football team played a game against Phoenix, with Phoenix favored to win, the Phoenix team branded the Yuma team "criminals" when Yuma unexpectedly won. The school adopted the mascot with pride, sometimes shortened as the "Crims"; the school mascot image is the face of a hardened criminal, and the student merchandise shop is known as the Cell Block

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December 23rd, 2012

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