Visit this site to see how the Colorado River shaped the history of Arizona.
In the mid-1800s, the gold rush swelled the population of what would become Western Arizona and Southern California. Many miners stopped short of California and mined the mineral-rich banks and riverbeds of the Colorado River. At a time when steamboats chugged up and down the waterway to deliver supplies to the burgeoning frontier, this site in Yuma saw a lot of action. Supplies for military posts throughout the Southwest came through this important historic area.
The Colorado River
Five original buildings from the U.S. Army Quartermaster Depot remain at the historic site perched above the Colorado River. Visitors get the backstory on the region’s late-1800s military history and the construction of major irrigation projects in the early 1900s that helped tame the arid, unforgiving landscape. Also see exhibits on early steamboats and the pioneers who put in hard labor to develop the West. The river today continues to breathe life into Yuma, known as the Winter Vegetable Capital of the World for growing 90% of the lettuce and leafy greens consumed in the U.S. and Canada.
Yuma’s Historic District
Other historic sites nearby tell the stories of the people who left a mark on the area. Yuma Territorial Prison presents the darker side of Yuma’s origin story, when bandits and crooks tried to keep the territory lawless. Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area marks the spot where the first railroad bridge across the Colorado River was constructed. Tour many of Yuma’s oldest buildings in the historic district including the Sanguinetti House Museum & Gardens. The old adobe home is frozen in the 1870s when one of the new city’s top businessmen helped turn burgeoning Yuma into a vital commercial center.
See the River in Action
The importance of the Colorado River is still apparent in Yuma every day. Take a drive south of the city to visit Cocopah Casino and pass through miles of fertile agricultural fields in the river’s vast floodplains. Take a drive north of the city to hike at Imperial National Wildlife Refuge and discover an oasis of wetlands and lakes formed by the river. The area supports a surprising variety of wildlife from 200 species of migratory birds to resident bighorn sheep and wild burros that live in this vibrant green ribbon that cuts across the desert.
