Tuesday – February 21 – Today was nice and sunny but coolish, the high only got to about 68. This afternoon we went to the Yuma Territorial Prison and it was very interesting. The prison was built on the bank of the Colorado River in 1876 by convicts and was used until 1909. During that period there were 26 women imprisoned at various times and more than 3000 men and these people were convicted of crimes including murder, theft, polygamy, rape, adultery, etc. The prison is now owned by the state and the cells, main gate and guard tower are still standing.

The prison cells were 9’x12’ and had two sets of three tier bunk beds and a chamber pot. Very cosy! There is also one of the “dark cells” left and it was where prisoners were sent when they committed an infraction. The cell is totally in the dark and had an 8x10 cage where the prisoners were kept. A sentence in the dark cell could be anywhere from 1 to 21 days. When a prisoner was put in the cell they were allowed to wear only their underwear, they were fed bread and water once a day and there was no chamber pot or anything, just use a spot in the cell. At one time there were 14 prisoners in the cage – unbelievable. You would think one trip to the dark cell would be enough but a number of prisoners were sent there more than once.

After the prison we drove around a bit, checked out a couple of RV parks then came home. Dinner was at Janet and Dave’s tonight and as usual was a wonderful feast - salmon and chicken were the fare for the evening.