Colorado River State Historic Park facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Colorado River State Historic Park |
|
|---|---|
The warehouse at Yuma Quartermasters Depot State Historic Park
|
|
 Colorado River State Historic Park
Location in Arizona
|
|
| Location | Yuma, Arizona, United States |
| Elevation | 120 ft (37 m) |
| Established | 1997 |
| Governing body | Arizona State Parks |
The Colorado River State Historic Park is a cool place to visit in Yuma, Arizona. It's an Arizona state park that used to be called Yuma Crossing State Historic Park and Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park. This park is part of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. It is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places as one of the Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites.
Long ago, in the 1870s, this spot was a very important supply center called the Yuma Quartermaster Depot. Goods traveled up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California. They were stored here in Yuma. From there, supplies were sent to army forts across the Southwestern United States desert.
Contents
A Look Back: The Yuma Depot's Story
The Yuma Quartermaster Depot was set up by the U.S. Army in 1864. Its job was to store and send out supplies to army posts. These posts were in places that are now Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada, and Utah. The depot made sure there were always enough supplies. Things like ammunition, food, and clothes were kept on hand for six months.
Supplies came to Yuma from California. Ships sailed around the Baja California peninsula and into the Gulf of California. They reached Port Isabel, Sonora at the mouth of the Colorado River. From there, river boats carried the supplies up the Colorado River to Yuma. Everything was then stored at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot.
The supplies at the depot were sent all over the southwest. They traveled by river boat or by mule team freight wagons. The depot had stables for up to 900 mules! But things changed when the Southern Pacific Railroad arrived in Yuma in 1877. When the railroad reached Tucson in 1880, the depot closed. The army's supply managers, called quartermasters, moved to Fort Lowell in Tucson.
After the army left, the Signal Corps used the site from 1875 to 1891. Then, the U.S. Weather Service took over. They worked from the depot until 1949. After 1949, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot fell into disrepair. Some parts were used by other government groups like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
From Depot to Historic Park
Today, five of the original buildings from the depot days are still at the park. In the early 1960s, people thought this site would make a great historic park. The state bought the depot quartermaster's office in 1969. More land was added in 1980. The city of Yuma bought the land from the United States Department of the Interior. They then gave it to the state park system in 1986. Work on the park began in 1986.
The park first opened in 1990 as part of Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. It became its own state historic park in 1997. The Yuma Crossing Foundation, a non-profit group, helped manage it. This group worked with the state parks board. They helped develop and run the site as a living history museum. After seven years of building and fixing things, the park opened to the public in 1997. It was called Yuma Crossing State Historic Park then.
The park is part of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area. In 2007, the park's name changed. It became Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park. This new name showed its original purpose and history. In 2017, the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area changed the name again. It became Colorado River State Historic Park. This new name shows that the park now covers more history about the Colorado River.
Today, the park also features the Southern Pacific Railroad Passenger Coach Car-S.P. X7. This historic train car is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
What You Can See and Do
The park offers many ways to learn about the past.
Exploring the Past: Park Exhibits
Four of the five original buildings now hold cool historic exhibits. The old storehouse tells the story of the Colorado River. You can learn about the steamboat era and the mule wagon trains. The depot quartermaster's office has two exhibits. One shows what the depot looked like when it was busy. The other shows how the weather and telegraph stations worked.
The commanding officers' quarters is a house museum. It looks just like it would have in the 1870s. That's when army officers and their families lived there. The corral house has an exhibit about the different fish species in the Colorado River. Outside, you can see ramadas, a steam boiler, a stone reservoir, and an encampment of wagons.
The park is a great place for a picnic. There are picnic tables all around the park. You can also reserve a shaded ramada for group use.
See also
