2009 Yuma Birding & Nature Festival
APRIL 15th-19th
YUMA VISITORS BUREAU
2008 Yuma Birding & Nature Festival
202 S. 1st Ave.
Suite 202
Yuma, AZ 85364
ph: 928-376-0100
fax: 928-376-0133
chris
YUMA INFORMATION
A TIME LINE TRIP THROUGH YUMA HISTORY
16,000 and 10,000 BCE – The first indigenous peoples arrive in the area now known as Arizona.
1540 – Spanish expeditions led by Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz arrive in Yuma by sea from the Gulf of California, noting the natural crossing of Colorado River as a potential site for settlement. The explorers find members of two tribes, the Cocopah and the Quechan, living and growing crops along the banks of the Colorado. The explorers called the Indians the Yumas, from the Spanish word for smoke, humo, because of their practice of setting fires along the river to keep the banks clear.
1687 – Father Eusebio Kino arrives in Sonora to establish missions and convert the Indians. His expeditions throughout Arizona, New Mexico and California mapped an area 200 miles long and 250 miles wide, including what is now Yuma County. He led the first land expedition to Baja California, confirming that it is a peninsula, not an island.
1774 – Juan Bautista de Anza, captain of the Presidio of Tubac (near present-day Tucson), arrives in Yuma in January, seeking an overland route from Sonora to northern California on behalf of the Viceroy of New Spain. His friendly relations with the Quechans prove critical to his men’s survival when the expedition becomes lost in the sand dunes and is forced to retrace its steps. De Anza and a portion of his forces finally arrive at Mission San Gabriel (near present-day Los Angeles) at the end of March, opening the way for greater Spanish settlement of Alta (northern) California.
1821 – Mexico wins its independence from Spain, but decade of war destroys silver-mining industry and leaves new country bankrupt; northern missions and presidios begin to wither as mountain men and other pioneers from the United States increasingly move into the area.
1846 – Mexican-American War begins; U.S. occupies Mexico City and forces Mexico to give up its northern territories, including much of present-day Arizona (but not the lands south of the Gila River).
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ends war, requires the U.S. to pay $15 million in compensation for the territories ceded by Mexico.
1849 – More than 60,000 travelers en route to California gold rush pass through Yuma, crossing the Colorado using the historic rope ferry, which was located on the river bank at the end of the Gila Trail (Main Street).
1850 – Camp Independence established near crossing by U.S. Army (settlement where Yuma now stands known as Colorado City).
1849-1876 – Thousands of tons of Army supplies are offloaded from ships steaming up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California. These supplies are then staged out of the Quartermaster Depot and transported by 20-mule teams to forts and Army installations throughout the Southwest. Men of the local tribes are valued as steamboat pilots because of their knowledge of river navigation.
1852 – Fort Yuma established by U.S. Army.
1854 – Gadsden Purchase ratified; Yuma and lands south of Gila River and west of Rio Grande become part of United States territory. (Interestingly, original agreement called for U.S. to pay Mexico $10 million, but Congress only agreed to $7 million – and when payment arrived in Mexico City, $1 million had gone missing!)
1857 – First stage road is built from San Diego to San Antonio through Yuma. Butterfield signs overland mail contract. First post office established in Colorado City.
1862 – Colorado City washed away by the Colorado River. The rebuilt town is renamed Arizona City.
1863 – Arizona territorial government set up; President Lincoln signs bill.
1864 – Pioneer pony express is established through Arizona City.
1866 – Arizona City town site is laid out. Right of way for Main Street is established at 100 feet to accommodate heavy wagon traffic and to promote commercial development along the frontage.
1871 – Arizona City is formally incorporated.
1873 – Arizona City renamed Yuma.
1876 – Arizona Territorial Prison built (in operation until 1909).
1877 – First railroad crossing of Colorado River (at Madison Street alignment); first train enters Arizona from California; the rail line across Arizona is built from west to east.
1884 – Quechan Indian Reservation established.
1893 – Quechan tribe forced to auction much of its land.
1900 -- City Hall constructed on 1st Street.
1903 – Yuma County Water Users’ Association established; the abandoned Fort Yuma Military Reservation is set aside for use by the newly established U.S. Reclamation Service (created in 1902 within the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency became an independent bureau within the Department of Interior in 1907).
1904 – The Yuma Project is authorized; it is one of the first significant undertakings for the Reclamation Service.
1905 – Construction begins on the Laguna Dam, which will become the first dam on Colorado River.
1905-1907 – Colorado River leaves its banks and breaks into the Imperial Valley in California, creating the Salton Sea.
1909 – Laguna Dam is completed. Yuma Territorial Prison closes. Yuma High School established. Original county courthouse built (this building burned in 1927 and was rebuilt soon after at same site).
1910-1914 – After a fire destroys its building, Yuma High School moves into the Territorial Prison (classes in the cell blocks, assemblies in the old prison hospital); students turn taunting after a victory against a Phoenix rival into a unique – but proud – mascot name, the Yuma Criminals.
1911 – First airplane to land in Arizona, a Wright Model B biplane with an engine rented from the Wright Brothers, touches down at the present-day site of the Yuma Landing restaurant en route from Santa Monica, Calif., to the East Coast.
1912 – On Valentine’s Day, Arizona becomes the 48th state of the union.
1912 – Construction of Yuma Siphon, which moves irrigation water from California to Arizona through a tunnel dug underneath the Colorado River, is completed. The tunnel, a 14-foot diameter concrete tube built in the sandstone 50 feet below the river bed, stretches 955 feet between a vertical shaft 76 feet deep on the California side and an exit shaft 74 feet deep on the Arizona side. The first water is delivered via the Siphon on June 29.
1915 – First highway crossing of Colorado River via Ocean-To-Ocean Bridge; opening of bridge drives rope ferry out of business.
1916 – Unprecedented flood pours down Gila River into the Colorado; flood waters sweep into Yuma, destroying many downtown buildings. (Frequent flooding combined with adobe construction is the reason that very few buildings from Yuma’s earliest days have survived. The buildings atop Mission and Prison Hills and those on the higher ground of the Quartermaster Depot are notable exceptions.)
1917 – Cocopah Indian Reservation established.
1917 – Gandolfo Theater (present-day home of Yuma Visitors Bureau administrative offices) built, becomes place to go for vaudeville performances.
1920s – Many new buildings constructed downtown, old facades remodeled in the popular Spanish Colonial style.
1925 – Main Street is paved for the first time.
1927 – County courthouse burns, is rebuilt at same site.
1928 – Federal government leases 640 acres from Yuma County to establish Fly Field at site of present-day Marine Corps Air Station Yuma; Fly Field serves as stopover point for 25 planes in New York to Los Angeles air race.
1930s – Depression stalls growth, construction. U.S. Post Office on Main Street (now Gowan Company headquarters) is one of the few buildings completed (1933) during this period.
1939 – Kofa National Wildlife Refuge established.
1941 – Imperial National Wildlife Refuge established.
1941 – Civil Aeronautics Administration authorizes expenditure for permanent runways at Fly Field.
1942-1944 – Major Gen. George S. Patton establishes Desert Training Center (later known as California-Arizona Maneuver Area) across a huge swath of desert straddling state line and extending from Mexican border to tip of Nevada; more than 1 million men trained for combat under the harshest conditions possible at four camps in Arizona and seven in California (Hyder, Horn, Laguna and Pilot Knob located near Yuma).
1943 – First classes of pilots graduate at what is now Yuma Army Air Base; it becomes one of the busiest flying schools in the nation, training pilots to fly AT-6 single engine trainers, T-17 multi-engine trainers and B-17 Flying Fortresses.
1943 – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens Yuma Test Branch near present-day site of Yuma Proving Ground to test bridging equipment; Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa are used to help construct facilities (and are allowed to visit town of Yuma once a week!).
1944 – Medjool dates introduced into Bard Valley.
1945 – With war’s end, flights cease at Yuma Army Air Base and area is partially reclaimed by desert; land is controlled by the War Assets Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.
1949 – As a publicity stunt to spotlight Yuma’s perfect flying weather, the Jaycees stage a record-setting endurance flight. The “City of Yuma,” an Aeronca Sedan, flew nonstop for nearly 47 days – from August 24 to October 10, 1949. The plane’s record-setting 1,124 hours aloft was made possible by volunteers who passed food and fuel to pilots Woody Jongeward and Bob Woodhouse from a Buick convertible as it sped along the runway at 80 miles an hour, with the plane flying just above it.
1950 – Yuma Test Branch closes.
1951 – Test branch site reopens – with greatly expanded mission – as Yuma Proving Ground.
1951 – U.S. Air Force reactivates Yuma Air Base, and the 4750th Air Base Squadron resumes training as part of the Western Air Defense Forces.
1956 – Yuma Air Base renamed Vincent Air Force Base in memory of Brig. Gen. Clinton D. Vincent, a pioneer of bombing techniques, who died in 1955.
1959 – Vincent Air Force Base signed over to the Navy Jan. 1; nine days later, Col. L.K. Davis became the first commanding officer of the newly designated Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station.
1962 – Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station is renamed Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
1963 – Arizona Western College established.
1964 – Cibola National Wildlife Refuge established.
1964 – Cocopah Indian Tribe adopts first constitution.
1969 – Main Street Mall is created, blocking traffic on Main Street.
1978 – 25,000 acres restored to Quechan Indian Tribe, reversing action of 1893.
1983 – City adopts North End Redevelopment Plan, making commitment to revitalization of downtown.
1985 – The Cocopah Tribe gains an additional 4,200 acres for its reservation through the Cocopah Land Acquisition Bill.
1985 – 224 Shops downtown are built as a reminder of 1950s-era shops that once stood in their place.
1987 – Cocopah Tribe opens convenience store, gas station, smoke shop and bingo hall near location of present-day casino.
1988 – Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge is closed to vehicle traffic.
1994 – Quechan Tribe opens bingo hall.
1995 – City workers and community volunteers clear underbrush, plant grass and install portable toilets to create “Madison Beach Park” in the historic river crossing area. This informal, ad hoc park provides the only public beach and access to the Colorado River within city limits.
1996 – The Cocopah Museum and Cultural Center opens.
1997 – The City of Yuma and Arizona State Parks work together to build and open “Yuma Crossing State Historic Park” at the site of the original Quartermaster’s Depot.
2000 – Millennium Grove is planted at West Wetlands Park, one of the first steps toward reclaiming the former dump site as a park.
2000 – Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area is officially designated under federal law.
2000 – Fountain is installed at Third and Main Street.
2001 – Main Street Cinemas opens downtown.
2002 – Through a partnership of the Quechan Indian Tribe, the City of Yuma, and Yuma County, the historic Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge is restored and reopened.
2002 – Phase one of the West Wetlands Park opens; new City Hall building at Giss Parkway between Madison and Second opens.
2003 – Habitat restoration begins in the Yuma East Wetlands; non-native vegetation is cleared and replaced with native willows, cottonwood, grasses and other plants.
2003 – The Cocopah Indian Tribe opens its current Cocopah Casino. County opens courthouse parking structure and breaks ground for new Justice Center.
2004 – Yuma Art Center complex opens downtown, with restored Historic Yuma Theatre as its keystone.
2005 – New Yuma County Justice Center opens adjacent to historic courthouse. Yuma East Main Canal Bike Path is completed between 40th Street and the riverfront.
2007 – February: Thousands of volunteers turn out to build Stewart Vincent Wolfe Memorial Playground at West Wetlands Park in February.
1540 – Spanish expeditions led by Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz arrive in Yuma by sea from the Gulf of California, noting the natural crossing of Colorado River as a potential site for settlement. The explorers find members of two tribes, the Cocopah and the Quechan, living and growing crops along the banks of the Colorado. The explorers called the Indians the Yumas, from the Spanish word for smoke, humo, because of their practice of setting fires along the river to keep the banks clear.
1687 – Father Eusebio Kino arrives in Sonora to establish missions and convert the Indians. His expeditions throughout Arizona, New Mexico and California mapped an area 200 miles long and 250 miles wide, including what is now Yuma County. He led the first land expedition to Baja California, confirming that it is a peninsula, not an island.
1774 – Juan Bautista de Anza, captain of the Presidio of Tubac (near present-day Tucson), arrives in Yuma in January, seeking an overland route from Sonora to northern California on behalf of the Viceroy of New Spain. His friendly relations with the Quechans prove critical to his men’s survival when the expedition becomes lost in the sand dunes and is forced to retrace its steps. De Anza and a portion of his forces finally arrive at Mission San Gabriel (near present-day Los Angeles) at the end of March, opening the way for greater Spanish settlement of Alta (northern) California.
1821 – Mexico wins its independence from Spain, but decade of war destroys silver-mining industry and leaves new country bankrupt; northern missions and presidios begin to wither as mountain men and other pioneers from the United States increasingly move into the area.
1846 – Mexican-American War begins; U.S. occupies Mexico City and forces Mexico to give up its northern territories, including much of present-day Arizona (but not the lands south of the Gila River).
1848 – Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo formally ends war, requires the U.S. to pay $15 million in compensation for the territories ceded by Mexico.
1849 – More than 60,000 travelers en route to California gold rush pass through Yuma, crossing the Colorado using the historic rope ferry, which was located on the river bank at the end of the Gila Trail (Main Street).
1850 – Camp Independence established near crossing by U.S. Army (settlement where Yuma now stands known as Colorado City).
1849-1876 – Thousands of tons of Army supplies are offloaded from ships steaming up the Colorado River from the Gulf of California. These supplies are then staged out of the Quartermaster Depot and transported by 20-mule teams to forts and Army installations throughout the Southwest. Men of the local tribes are valued as steamboat pilots because of their knowledge of river navigation.
1852 – Fort Yuma established by U.S. Army.
1854 – Gadsden Purchase ratified; Yuma and lands south of Gila River and west of Rio Grande become part of United States territory. (Interestingly, original agreement called for U.S. to pay Mexico $10 million, but Congress only agreed to $7 million – and when payment arrived in Mexico City, $1 million had gone missing!)
1857 – First stage road is built from San Diego to San Antonio through Yuma. Butterfield signs overland mail contract. First post office established in Colorado City.
1862 – Colorado City washed away by the Colorado River. The rebuilt town is renamed Arizona City.
1863 – Arizona territorial government set up; President Lincoln signs bill.
1864 – Pioneer pony express is established through Arizona City.
1866 – Arizona City town site is laid out. Right of way for Main Street is established at 100 feet to accommodate heavy wagon traffic and to promote commercial development along the frontage.
1871 – Arizona City is formally incorporated.
1873 – Arizona City renamed Yuma.
1876 – Arizona Territorial Prison built (in operation until 1909).
1877 – First railroad crossing of Colorado River (at Madison Street alignment); first train enters Arizona from California; the rail line across Arizona is built from west to east.
1884 – Quechan Indian Reservation established.
1893 – Quechan tribe forced to auction much of its land.
1900 -- City Hall constructed on 1st Street.
1903 – Yuma County Water Users’ Association established; the abandoned Fort Yuma Military Reservation is set aside for use by the newly established U.S. Reclamation Service (created in 1902 within the U.S. Geological Survey, the agency became an independent bureau within the Department of Interior in 1907).
1904 – The Yuma Project is authorized; it is one of the first significant undertakings for the Reclamation Service.
1905 – Construction begins on the Laguna Dam, which will become the first dam on Colorado River.
1905-1907 – Colorado River leaves its banks and breaks into the Imperial Valley in California, creating the Salton Sea.
1909 – Laguna Dam is completed. Yuma Territorial Prison closes. Yuma High School established. Original county courthouse built (this building burned in 1927 and was rebuilt soon after at same site).
1910-1914 – After a fire destroys its building, Yuma High School moves into the Territorial Prison (classes in the cell blocks, assemblies in the old prison hospital); students turn taunting after a victory against a Phoenix rival into a unique – but proud – mascot name, the Yuma Criminals.
1911 – First airplane to land in Arizona, a Wright Model B biplane with an engine rented from the Wright Brothers, touches down at the present-day site of the Yuma Landing restaurant en route from Santa Monica, Calif., to the East Coast.
1912 – On Valentine’s Day, Arizona becomes the 48th state of the union.
1912 – Construction of Yuma Siphon, which moves irrigation water from California to Arizona through a tunnel dug underneath the Colorado River, is completed. The tunnel, a 14-foot diameter concrete tube built in the sandstone 50 feet below the river bed, stretches 955 feet between a vertical shaft 76 feet deep on the California side and an exit shaft 74 feet deep on the Arizona side. The first water is delivered via the Siphon on June 29.
1915 – First highway crossing of Colorado River via Ocean-To-Ocean Bridge; opening of bridge drives rope ferry out of business.
1916 – Unprecedented flood pours down Gila River into the Colorado; flood waters sweep into Yuma, destroying many downtown buildings. (Frequent flooding combined with adobe construction is the reason that very few buildings from Yuma’s earliest days have survived. The buildings atop Mission and Prison Hills and those on the higher ground of the Quartermaster Depot are notable exceptions.)
1917 – Cocopah Indian Reservation established.
1917 – Gandolfo Theater (present-day home of Yuma Visitors Bureau administrative offices) built, becomes place to go for vaudeville performances.
1920s – Many new buildings constructed downtown, old facades remodeled in the popular Spanish Colonial style.
1925 – Main Street is paved for the first time.
1927 – County courthouse burns, is rebuilt at same site.
1928 – Federal government leases 640 acres from Yuma County to establish Fly Field at site of present-day Marine Corps Air Station Yuma; Fly Field serves as stopover point for 25 planes in New York to Los Angeles air race.
1930s – Depression stalls growth, construction. U.S. Post Office on Main Street (now Gowan Company headquarters) is one of the few buildings completed (1933) during this period.
1939 – Kofa National Wildlife Refuge established.
1941 – Imperial National Wildlife Refuge established.
1941 – Civil Aeronautics Administration authorizes expenditure for permanent runways at Fly Field.
1942-1944 – Major Gen. George S. Patton establishes Desert Training Center (later known as California-Arizona Maneuver Area) across a huge swath of desert straddling state line and extending from Mexican border to tip of Nevada; more than 1 million men trained for combat under the harshest conditions possible at four camps in Arizona and seven in California (Hyder, Horn, Laguna and Pilot Knob located near Yuma).
1943 – First classes of pilots graduate at what is now Yuma Army Air Base; it becomes one of the busiest flying schools in the nation, training pilots to fly AT-6 single engine trainers, T-17 multi-engine trainers and B-17 Flying Fortresses.
1943 – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opens Yuma Test Branch near present-day site of Yuma Proving Ground to test bridging equipment; Italian prisoners of war captured in North Africa are used to help construct facilities (and are allowed to visit town of Yuma once a week!).
1944 – Medjool dates introduced into Bard Valley.
1945 – With war’s end, flights cease at Yuma Army Air Base and area is partially reclaimed by desert; land is controlled by the War Assets Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Bureau of Reclamation.
1949 – As a publicity stunt to spotlight Yuma’s perfect flying weather, the Jaycees stage a record-setting endurance flight. The “City of Yuma,” an Aeronca Sedan, flew nonstop for nearly 47 days – from August 24 to October 10, 1949. The plane’s record-setting 1,124 hours aloft was made possible by volunteers who passed food and fuel to pilots Woody Jongeward and Bob Woodhouse from a Buick convertible as it sped along the runway at 80 miles an hour, with the plane flying just above it.
1950 – Yuma Test Branch closes.
1951 – Test branch site reopens – with greatly expanded mission – as Yuma Proving Ground.
1951 – U.S. Air Force reactivates Yuma Air Base, and the 4750th Air Base Squadron resumes training as part of the Western Air Defense Forces.
1956 – Yuma Air Base renamed Vincent Air Force Base in memory of Brig. Gen. Clinton D. Vincent, a pioneer of bombing techniques, who died in 1955.
1959 – Vincent Air Force Base signed over to the Navy Jan. 1; nine days later, Col. L.K. Davis became the first commanding officer of the newly designated Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station.
1962 – Marine Corps Auxiliary Air Station is renamed Marine Corps Air Station Yuma.
1963 – Arizona Western College established.
1964 – Cibola National Wildlife Refuge established.
1964 – Cocopah Indian Tribe adopts first constitution.
1969 – Main Street Mall is created, blocking traffic on Main Street.
1978 – 25,000 acres restored to Quechan Indian Tribe, reversing action of 1893.
1983 – City adopts North End Redevelopment Plan, making commitment to revitalization of downtown.
1985 – The Cocopah Tribe gains an additional 4,200 acres for its reservation through the Cocopah Land Acquisition Bill.
1985 – 224 Shops downtown are built as a reminder of 1950s-era shops that once stood in their place.
1987 – Cocopah Tribe opens convenience store, gas station, smoke shop and bingo hall near location of present-day casino.
1988 – Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge is closed to vehicle traffic.
1994 – Quechan Tribe opens bingo hall.
1995 – City workers and community volunteers clear underbrush, plant grass and install portable toilets to create “Madison Beach Park” in the historic river crossing area. This informal, ad hoc park provides the only public beach and access to the Colorado River within city limits.
1996 – The Cocopah Museum and Cultural Center opens.
1997 – The City of Yuma and Arizona State Parks work together to build and open “Yuma Crossing State Historic Park” at the site of the original Quartermaster’s Depot.
2000 – Millennium Grove is planted at West Wetlands Park, one of the first steps toward reclaiming the former dump site as a park.
2000 – Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area is officially designated under federal law.
2000 – Fountain is installed at Third and Main Street.
2001 – Main Street Cinemas opens downtown.
2002 – Through a partnership of the Quechan Indian Tribe, the City of Yuma, and Yuma County, the historic Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge is restored and reopened.
2002 – Phase one of the West Wetlands Park opens; new City Hall building at Giss Parkway between Madison and Second opens.
2003 – Habitat restoration begins in the Yuma East Wetlands; non-native vegetation is cleared and replaced with native willows, cottonwood, grasses and other plants.
2003 – The Cocopah Indian Tribe opens its current Cocopah Casino. County opens courthouse parking structure and breaks ground for new Justice Center.
2004 – Yuma Art Center complex opens downtown, with restored Historic Yuma Theatre as its keystone.
2005 – New Yuma County Justice Center opens adjacent to historic courthouse. Yuma East Main Canal Bike Path is completed between 40th Street and the riverfront.
2007 – February: Thousands of volunteers turn out to build Stewart Vincent Wolfe Memorial Playground at West Wetlands Park in February.
March: Downtown celebrates reopening of Main Street to traffic.
April: Restoration efforts completed on 400 acres in Yuma East Wetlands.
May: Gateway Park, a $4 million project near the site of the historic crossing and the rope ferry, is dedicated.
June: Quechan Indian Tribe breaks ground for 30,000-square-foot casino, 20,000-square-foot conference center and 166-room upscale resort hotel with elaborate pool and “lazy river” at Algodones exit off Interstate 8.
Also in June: With approval of new budget, State of Arizona commits a total of $4 million to fund construction of an Arizona Welcome Center in Yuma. The new Welcome Center, to be built on the riverfront adjacent to the 4th Avenue Bridge, will showcase the “City of Yuma” endurance flight plane that flew nonstop for nearly 47 days in 1949.
July: Ground is broken for Pivot Point, a privately financed $32 million development on the riverfront that will include a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn and an 18,000-square-foot conference center.
Also in July: Renovations to the historic courthouse are completed.
August: Initial designs for Arizona Welcome Center are unveiled.
Anticipated this fall: Opening of five new hotels, including: 120-room Holiday Inn Express and 90-room Candlewood Suites at Avenue 3E and Interstate 8; 76-room Wingate and 81-room Marriot Townplace on “hotel hill” near 16th Street and the Interstate; and the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s 101-room hotel and 3,000-square-foot conference center adjacent to its casino just south of Yuma.
***
“I am heartily in sympathy with the Yuma people,” said the governor, “in their efforts to establish a park, and will do all I can to help secure the concession which your city council has asked that the abandoned Fort Yuma Military Reservation be set aside for park purposes. It is high and dry and could be converted in a beautiful shaded resort in a very few years...Every town ought to have a park, and as you have plenty of water, I cannot see why Yuma should not have as fine a one as there is in the land.”
-- From the Arizona Sentinel, July 30, 1902, Governor Brodie’s “Visit to Yuma"
April: Restoration efforts completed on 400 acres in Yuma East Wetlands.
May: Gateway Park, a $4 million project near the site of the historic crossing and the rope ferry, is dedicated.
June: Quechan Indian Tribe breaks ground for 30,000-square-foot casino, 20,000-square-foot conference center and 166-room upscale resort hotel with elaborate pool and “lazy river” at Algodones exit off Interstate 8.
Also in June: With approval of new budget, State of Arizona commits a total of $4 million to fund construction of an Arizona Welcome Center in Yuma. The new Welcome Center, to be built on the riverfront adjacent to the 4th Avenue Bridge, will showcase the “City of Yuma” endurance flight plane that flew nonstop for nearly 47 days in 1949.
July: Ground is broken for Pivot Point, a privately financed $32 million development on the riverfront that will include a 150-room Hilton Garden Inn and an 18,000-square-foot conference center.
Also in July: Renovations to the historic courthouse are completed.
August: Initial designs for Arizona Welcome Center are unveiled.
Anticipated this fall: Opening of five new hotels, including: 120-room Holiday Inn Express and 90-room Candlewood Suites at Avenue 3E and Interstate 8; 76-room Wingate and 81-room Marriot Townplace on “hotel hill” near 16th Street and the Interstate; and the Cocopah Indian Tribe’s 101-room hotel and 3,000-square-foot conference center adjacent to its casino just south of Yuma.
***
“I am heartily in sympathy with the Yuma people,” said the governor, “in their efforts to establish a park, and will do all I can to help secure the concession which your city council has asked that the abandoned Fort Yuma Military Reservation be set aside for park purposes. It is high and dry and could be converted in a beautiful shaded resort in a very few years...Every town ought to have a park, and as you have plenty of water, I cannot see why Yuma should not have as fine a one as there is in the land.”
-- From the Arizona Sentinel, July 30, 1902, Governor Brodie’s “Visit to Yuma"
(A mere 105 years later, Gateway Park was dedicated in the historic crossing area)
2008 Yuma Birding & Nature Festival
202 S. 1st Ave.
Suite 202
Yuma, AZ 85364
ph: 928-376-0100
fax: 928-376-0133
chris
