On Monday, Roger and I spent the day at Goodyear Stadium watching a Cactus League Spring Training game between the Oakland Athletics and the Cleveland Indians. The stadium is located in Goodyear Arizona which is about 130 miles from Blythe and is a western suburb of Phoenix. We had the pleasure of attending the game with our friends Pat and Sonja who make Phoenix their winter home and Andover, MN their summer home.
The day couldn't be more perfect with the sun shinning down on us and a slow warm breeze just lightly swirling throughout the stadium. The stadium holds around 10,000 but only about 5,000 fans were in attendance. From the first crack of the bat to the umpire calling the last "OUT" we enjoyed every moment of the game. What fun to sit outside and enjoy the atmosphere! The A's won the game, which was a real defensive battle, with the score ending at 9-8.
We were lucky enough to have our son Ben have the ability to stop by and visit us on his way to Goodfellow Air Force Base. Since he's such a history buff we decided to take him to Yuma, Arizona which only about 90 miles south of Blythe. Yuma is located about 3 miles from the U.S./Mexico border and is home to the famous Yuma Territorial Prison. The movie "3:10 to Yuma" is based on prisoners traveling by train on their way to the prison.
Prisoners referred to the prison as "Hell on Earth" because of it's location, in the middle of the desert with temperatures reaching up to 120 degrees at the height of summer. The locals were jealous of the prisoners because the prison was the first place in the area to have electricity, indoor plumbing and even their own marching band.
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| In the upper center is the cemetery for the prisoners | |
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| View from the Guard Tower of the Colorado River and surrounding mountains |
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| Prison |
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| Gates into the prison |
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| Ben & Roger in front of the prison entrance |
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| Ben in one of the cells - 6 prisoners to this cell |
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| Outside of the prison cells in the "yard" |
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| The guard tower |
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| The Colorado River provided supplies by Steamboat |
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On July 6, 1876, the first 7 inmates entered the Territorial Prison and were locked into the new cells they had built themselves. A total of 3,069 prisoners, including 29 women, lived within the walls during the prison's 33 years of operation. From 1910-1914, the Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings. When the school's football team upset a heavily favored Phoenix team, the Phoenix crowd taunted the Yuma team as "criminals". The school adopted the mascot and name as the "Crims" and it is the schools mascot and name to this day.
We also spent time at the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park. The grounds of the park were once teeming with military life preparing to travel to all parts west. It was used by the U.S. Army to store and distribute supplies for all the military posts in Arizona, and some in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico and Texas. Five of the original depot buildings remain on the park grounds which was established in 1864.
Supplies were brought from California by ocean-going vessels traveling around the tip of the Baja Peninsula and then north as far as the mouth of the Colorado River. At this point the supplies were transferred to river steamboats and brought up rive to the Quartermaster Depot.
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| Ben & Roger in front of an Arizona cactus |
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| A Typical Wagon used for travel with supplies | |
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| Quartermaster's House and Kitchen |
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| Water Reservoir |
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| Warehouse | |
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| Quartermasters Office |
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| A truck the same as Roger drove at the age of 8 when he was on the farm |
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| One of the vehicles now housed in the Warehouse |
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| Ben and one of the antique vehicles now housed in the Warehouse |
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As always until we meet again, "at home wherever we roam".
