Prisoner’s cell at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park in Yuma, Arizona.
Opened while Arizona was still a U.S. territory, the prison accepted its first inmate on July 1, 1876. For the next 33 years 3,069 prisoners, including 20 women, served sentences there for crimes ranging from murder to polygamy. The prison was under continuous construction with labor provided by the prisoners. In 1909, the last prisoner left the Territorial Prison for the newly constructed Arizona State Prison Complex elsewhere in Arizona. Yuma Union High School occupied the buildings from 1910 to 1914. When the school's football team played against Phoenix and unexpectedly won, the Phoenix team called the Yuma team "criminals". The school adopted the nickname with pride. Original image from Carol M. Highsmith’s America, Library of Congress collection. Digitally enhanced by rawpixel.