South-Western Arizona History

We have been in south-western Arizona for the past month.  Arizona has many historic locations.

While we were in Yuma we visited the Yuma Quartermaster Depot State Historic Park. At this location supplies (food, clothing, ammunition) was stored for US Army forts in the Southwest.

Quartermaster Depot

 

Quartermaster Depos

 

Quartermaster Depot

 

 

Yuma is also the location of historic Yuma Territorial Prison. All the Arizona bad guys in the late 1800s were jailed at this prison.

Yuma Territorial Prison

 

Yuma Territorial Prison

 

Yuma Territorial Prison

 

Yuma Territorial Prison

 

Yuma Territorial Prison

 

 

Tombstone Arizona was one of the Wild West boom towns. Silver mines allowed the town to grow and prosper during the late 1800s.  It was also the location of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral.

OK Corral Gunfight Re-enactment

 

Crystal Palace in Tombstone

 

Tombstone

 

 

In 1958 Robert McCulloch (of McCulloch chainsaws) purchased a bunch of land on the shore of Lake Havasu along Pittsburgh Point. This area became Lake Havasu City in 1963.  Between 1968 and 1971 the London Bridge (actual bridge that crossed the Thames River in London) was disassembled, shipped to Arizona and re-assembled in Lake Havasu city. A canal was dug transforming the Pittsburgh Point peninsula into an island and the reconstructed bridge crosses that canal from the mainland to the island.

London Bridge

 

 

Another part of Arizona history is historic route 66. Oatman, AZ is an old mining town on route 66.  Due to the mining history of this area there are large numbers of wild burros, descendants of the burros that were used for mining operations.

Wild Burros in Oatman

 

Burro in Oatman