Fort Yuma critical to westward expansion in frontier days

By Mr Chuck Wullenjohn (ATEC)March 14, 2012

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(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

Fort Yuma was established Nov. 27, 1850, to protect the strategic Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River. Located on a promontory overlooking the river, the fort itself was nothing more than a ramshackle collection of huts and tents at first. It wasn't until years later that the Army provided the funding necessary to make Fort Yuma into a proper outpost.

It was difficult to supply the post in its early years. Food supplies and construction materials were shipped by water from San Diego to the mouth of the Colorado River, but transferring the goods to wagons and moving them to Yuma was backbreaking and time consuming. As a result, life at the post was hard and the military's resolve to maintain a garrison vacillated. It was only two years later -- in August 1852 -- that temporary Camp Yuma became permanent Fort Yuma, and the Army resolved to stay for good.

Fort Yuma remained an active post until 1883 -- 33 years after its formation. During that time, soldiers at the fort maintained peace with the local Indians and kept watch over activity on the Colorado River.

Yuma was a significant Colorado River crossing point for wagon trains carrying settlers and prospectors to California, particularly after large deposits of gold were discovered in 1849. The Colorado River was untamed during those pre-dam years, with miles of the wide river virtually impassible due to vast areas of mud and quicksand. The narrow rock gorge through which the river passes in Yuma made the location an excellent, safe year round crossing point.

Over 60,000 people crossed at Yuma in 1850 under the protective guns of the fort. Most of these settlers followed the Gila River across Arizona to where it joined the Colorado above Yuma. They then moved south along the river toward the crossing.

As locals know, Yuma can be unbearably hot during the summer. In 1858, a soldier stationed at the fort wrote home, "The houses and quarters are built of sun-dried bricks, with every effort and provision for making the summer's heat bearable. Still, the post is but seven years old and is garrisoned by only two companies. A well-filled graveyard gives mute testimony of a most unhealthful climate."

Fort Yuma was well known in Army circles as the hottest post in the country. The fort's surgeon once reported that his pocket watch "felt like a hot boiled egg in my pocket."

During the American Civil War, the fort served as base for Union troops that blocked a Confederate thrust through the southwest pointed at the California goldfields and stayed on the heels of the invading Confederate army as it retreated to Texas. The most famous military action in Arizona occurred near Tucson at Picacho Peak, where scouting parties from the opposing armies ran across each other and exchanged shots. The California Column ended Confederate designs for control of the southwest.

Fort Yuma is now part of the Quechan Indian Reservation. Numerous buildings remain from the military period and can easily be seen today.

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