Yuma Territorial Prison

We've been wanting to take a tour of the prison for a long time and decided Christmas break was the perfect chance to do it!

The prison opened on July 1, 1876 and was in operation for 33 years. The first 7 inmates of the prison actually built the cells they lived in themselves. There were a total of 3,069 prisoners, and the ages of the prisoners ranged from 14 to 88. Here are some stats about the prisoners that I found extremely interesting!!

The crime stats:

The punishment stats:

Here are some shots of the outside. Some of the prison has been reconstructed, but it's all done with the same design as the original prison. The kids really loved going up inside the guard tower (where the guards would stand with their guns to make sure no prisoners escaped). The architecture all around the prison was really amazing.

It was actually my girlies who loved the heavy iron gate leading into the prison! I thought for sure Asher would get a kick out of it, but he didn't show much interest at all and wouldn't even pose for a picture in front of it. The girls insisted on trying to move it over and over and wanted to get their pictures taken next to it. :-) (Don't ask me why Cambria is in the stroller. We've tried numerous times to get rid of the thing, but she insists she still needs it. Silly girl!)

They had some really cool exhibits inside. A lot of the items were replicas, but they had some that were originals, which the kids thought was super cool! We all really enjoyed looking at the model they had of the original prison. The building where the exhibits were located used to be the mess hall, and right above that was the infirmary (which is no longer there).

This ball and chain is an original. Asher thought that was way cool and stood there looking at it for a while. During their down time, the prisoners did a lot of crafting and made all sorts of things to be sold at bizaars. The items in these display cases were all originals as well. That sure makes it a lot more interesting actually looking at the real items from that long ago!

They had a display case full of photos of real prisoners. Below each was a description of what they were incarcerated for. These women were convicted of adultery and stealing. The last picture (on the bottom right hand side) had Kyrie laughing. The caption talks about how this woman asked for some yards of striped prison material and made herself her own uniform "in the fashion of the day." Kyrie just couldn't imagine a dress like that being fashionable! ;-)

This next display is of a woman named Madora Ingalls, who was the founder of the prison library. They had a picture of the actual library, and then there was also an actual songbook that had been recovered from the library. I thought that was super interesting. It looked like it would fall apart if someone even breathed on it!

After checking out all the displays, we headed out to look at the prison cells. This part was way cool, and we literally had to pry the kids away when it was time to leave. We were even able to walk through several of the cells. Summers here get to be 125 degrees, so can you imagine living in a cell like this during that kind of heat?! Notice the hook drilled into the floor where they'd hook up the ball and chain.

Here are some pictures of us checking out the cells. Derk wants me to mention that his hair doesn't usually look so goofy, which is true. He's got a nice, longer cut that looks really nice when he styles it. He just didn't style it this particular day (and regrets it now). ;-)

The only punishment implemented at the prison was what they called the "dark cell" (solitary confinement). This was a dark cell with a hole in the floor. The inmate was put into the hole, then an iron grate was placed over it to keep them inside. Apparently this punishment was extremely effective! ;-)

Untitled from Hillary Stephens on Vimeo.

Last, but certainly not least, here are some pictures of the library. The photo on the wall is an enlarged photo of the one I posted earlier. I really loved the ceiling in this room, especially how neat it looked next to the wooden (reconstructed) door.

We all had a really fun time, and Derk and I were really impressed with how interested the kiddos were. We were worried they'd think it was kinda lame, but they all enjoyed themselves. I'm so glad things like this are preserved because there's nothing like learning by seeing things first hand! It's sure a lot more interesting than simply reading about it from a book. :-)