Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area
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Yuma Crossing and Associated Sites
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| Nearest city | Winterhaven, California and Yuma, Arizona |
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| Coordinates | 32°43′43″N 114°36′56″W / 32.72861°N 114.61556°WCoordinates: 32°43′43″N 114°36′56″W / 32.72861°N 114.61556°W |
| Area | 149 acres (60 ha) |
| Built | 1852 |
| NRHP Reference # | 66000197 |
| Significant dates | |
| Added to NRHP | November 13, 1966 |
| Designated NHL | November 13, 1966 |
Yuma Crossing is a site in Arizona and California that is significant for its association with transportation and communication across the Colorado River. It connected New Spain and Las Californias in the Spanish Colonial period in and also during the Western expansion of the United States. Features of the Arizona side include the Yuma Quartermaster Depot and Yuma Territorial Prison. Features on the California Side include Fort Yuma, which protected the area from 1850 to 1885.
The history of the Yuma Crossing began at the formation of two massive granite outcroppings on the Colorado River. The narrowing of the river provided the only crossing point for a thousand miles, thus making it a focal point for the Patayan tribes, and later the Quechan.
In 1540, well before the British Europeans touched Plymouth Rock in 1620, Yuma’s European history began here with the arrival of Spanish explorer Hernando de Alarcon. Much later the Yuma Crossing became the focal point for travel to the Wild West, from the 1840s California Gold Rush era to the arrival of the railroad in the 1877, and finally the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge, which linked the East coast and the West coast in one land route.
Immediately after the Mexican–American War in 1848, the U.S. Army built Fort Yuma here to protect travelers from Indians raiding the area. It was the center point of conflict in the Yuma War of 1850–53. From 1864–1890, the fort and nearby facilities was the main army base to support the US Army's efforts to control the Indians throughout the greater southwest.
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Wikipedia