Photos Courtesy Yuma Visitors Bureau
Alcatraz Exhibit at Yuma Prison
Story By Ann Walker
Traveling Alcatraz exhibit to winter at riverfront park
History buffs, mark your calendars: For a three-month stretch this winter, you’ll be able to get a look at two of the nation’s most notorious prisons in one location. Big bonus? The site has been certified by Guinness World Records as the sunniest place on earth.
Already famous – or infamous – for the feared Yuma Territorial Prison of the Old West era (think 3:10 to Yuma), this winter Yuma will host a special traveling exhibit on Alcatraz (think The Rock, Escape from Alcatraz and more) at the Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park.
The exhibit will be in Yuma Jan. 12 through April 14. The Quartermaster Depot is open from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. seven days a week through the winter months, and the Alcatraz exhibit is included in the $4 adult admission price.
“Being located in the middle of San Francisco Bay, one of the things Alcatraz is known for is cold, foggy weather,” said Charles Flynn, executive director of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, which operates both of Yuma’s state parks. “That also limits the number of people who can visit, because the only way to get there is by boat and the island’s environment is fragile.”
The traveling exhibit is meant to bring Alcatraz to people who otherwise could never visit, Flynn explained. The “Life on the Rock” exhibit was created by Alcatraz Cruises at the request of the National Park Service and will be displayed at locations around the country.
Why Yuma? Besides warm and sunny wintertime weather, credit a strong partnership with the National Park Service, said Flynn.
“This world-class exhibit is being shown in places like Ellis Island and Liberty State Park in the New York area,” Flynn said. “As a National Heritage Area, we were fortunate to learn about its availability and gain access to it through the National Park Service”
And while “The Rock” rolling to the river is the big news, it’s just part of the improvements at Quartermaster Depot. New permanent exhibits include the Yuma Siphon, the underground water tunnel that celebrated its 100th birthday this year, steam boating on the Colorado River, circa 1900 railroads in Yuma – complete with a miniature train installation -- and Yuma’s wetlands restoration project.
A sweet addition is the “Back in Time Pie Shop,” which will operate daily from December through March. A delicious but perhaps more healthy feature will be the Sunrise Farmers Market from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. every Sunday through May. In addition, the Quartermaster Depot hosts an outdoor concert with the Western group Riders in the Sky Feb. 3, and is the site of Christmas Village Dec. 15-22 and Lettuce Days March 8-10. Meanwhile, Yuma Territorial Prison is also unveiling new exhibits and improvements (see sidebar) and hosts the popular “Gathering of the Gunfighters” competition among Old West re-enactment groups Jan. 12-13.
“Between ‘Life on the Rock’ and everything else, we’ll truly be rocking all winter,” Flynn said.
Both parks are now open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. seven days a week through May. Adult admission is $6 for the Territorial Prison and $4 for the Quartermaster Depot, with free admission to the Sunday farmers market. Along with local support, revenue from admissions help to make Yuma's state parks self-sustaining and keep them open to the public under local management, Flynn said.
More information:
Quartermaster Depot, www.visityuma.com, 800-293-0071 or 928-783-0071
Territorial Prison, www.historicyumaprison.com, 928-783-4771
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Ann Walker is a writer for Yuma Visitors Bureau. You can reach her at ann@visityuma.com
SIDEBAR:
Yuma prison tells stories of Arizonans jailed for polygamy
Better known for incarcerating Arizona’s worst desperadoes during the Wild West era of shoot-outs and stagecoach robberies, Yuma Territorial Prison has unveiled an interactive digital exhibit on nine Mormon polygamists who were sent to the fearsome lockup in 1885.
"This is a fascinating part of the Prison's history. Leading Mormon citizens in the Arizona Territory were imprisoned on federal anti-polygamy charges and thrown in with the most feared criminals in the West," Flynn said. "The exhibit explores whether these imprisonments were simply a matter of criminal prosecution or religious persecution."
From the 1850s onward, the newly formed Republican Party called for moral reform, calling slavery and polygamy "the twin relics of barbarism". Congress enacted increasingly more severe legislation, culminating in the Edmunds Act which made "unlawful cohabitation" a federal felony.
In 1884-1885, federal marshals selected leading Mormon citizens in Arizona for prosecution, apparently to send a message to all Mormons. While some fled to Mexico to escape prosecution, others, like William Jordan Flake, refused to recognize the constitutionality of the law, calling it a "mockery, a travesty on Justice", and served six months at the Yuma prison.
This era ended almost as soon as it began. In 1890 the Mormon Church issued the Manifesto, which ended the practice of polygamy. Utah became a state shortly thereafter. But now the stories of these nine men – based on scholarly research by David Boone of Brigham Young University -- live on within the prison walls of the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park.
Other improvements to the Prison include the historically authentic restoration of the adobe sally port - one of the last original structures from 1876. Also due to be unveiled this fall is a new and improved "time line" of the Prison's history etched in granite slabs.