YPG is vital part of Yuma economy
This story is published with permission of the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce.
From tanks and helicopters to canons, much of the military equipment used by today’s soldiers has a Yuma connection, having been put through its paces at Yuma Proving Ground.
The Army’s busiest test center – and at 870,000 acres one of the largest military installations in the world - YPG is responsible for developmental testing of nearly all Army equipment as well as providing training support to the nation’s military forces and to international and commercial customers. On any given day, 100 to 150 tests are going on, from shooting howitzers to driving a track vehicle to parachute cargo drops.
While it is invaluable to the effectiveness of this nation’s fighting force, YPG also is a vital part of the Yuma community and its economy.
In fiscal year 2018, YPG’s direct economic impact to the community was in the neighborhood of $450 million, said Col. Ross Poppenberger, commanding officer.
He noted that YPG has a total workforce of 2,500 and a payroll of $250 million a year. Of that workforce, about 300 are military personnel. The remaining 2,200 are civilian and contract employees. Whether wearing a military uniform, civilian polo or a contractor shirt, the workforce is a close-knit team that conducts tests, collects data, analyzes results, manages the ranges and drives the vehicles.
YPG has some 35,000 visitors a year, he said. U.S. and foreign, the visitors come to observe and to acquire goods and services. These visitors stay in hotel rooms, eat in restaurants, rent cars, shop in stores and seek entertainment during their often-extended stays here. For example, a test conducted two or three times a year brings 600 people for a month at a time. There are only 100 hotel rooms on the post so most of those people are occupying hotel rooms in town.
The most recent survey of the economic impact of Arizona’s military bases produced by The Maguire Company in 2017 estimated YPG’s indirect economic impact at $1.2 billion annually.
Yet another facet of YPG’s impact on the local economy is the ongoing construction activity at the test center, Poppenberger said. YPG has 750 miles of unimproved roads that need to be maintained. And there’s always construction activity on the post, whether developing new buildings or maintaining and renovating existing ones.
Along with being a major civilian employer and a significant contributor to the local economy, YPG also strives to be a good neighbor. The post recent hosted the Yuma County Chamber of Commerce’s annual retreat, the Arizona Game and Fish Department has been on the post receiving combative training for its officers and a travel camp for retirees remains at nearly 100 percent full through the winter months. Each winter the Yuma Visitors Bureau offers several Behind the Big Guns tours of YPG that include on-post lunch, a visit to the Heritage Center museum and a behind the scenes look at the test center. There’s a Boy Scout troop on post and YPG participates in Yuma 50, a local group organized to be a civilian advocate for the community’s two military installations. In addition, YPG personnel and its color guard take part in a variety of community events such as the Fourth of July celebration, Veterans Day and the Silver Spur Rodeo.
Poppenberger noted that 12,000 people attended YPG’s 75th anniversary celebration in 2018 and he expects 20,000 visitors to the post’s 20-20 celebration to be held on Feb. 15.
The presence of the U.S. Army in Yuma goes back to 1850, when Fort Yuma was constructed on a hill overlooking the Yuma crossing of the Colorado River to protect travelers. The fort operated until 1883.
A second facility, the Yuma Quartermaster Depot, was constructed in Yuma next to the Colorado River in 1865 to act as a supply base for Army posts throughout Arizona and part of New Mexico. The depot closed after 18 years and Army personnel were not to return to Yuma on a permanent basis until World War II.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers opened the Yuma Test Branch near the present site of the proving ground below Laguna Dam on the Colorado River in 1943. This location was considered the most desirable spot in the country for the testing of portable combat bridges because of the abundance of swift flowing water that engineers could control. In late 1944, rice and hemp plants were grown next to the Colorado River to establish realistic conditions for testing troop and vehicle movements in preparation for the expected invasion of Japan.
At the same time the test branch began operating, the Army established Camp Laguna a few miles to the west to train troops in mechanized warfare. An 18,000-square-mile area chosen by General George S. Patton, this became the training ground for over 1 million soldiers.
In 1950, the test branch closed to reopen a year later as the Yuma Test Station and took on the lion’s share of the nation’s artillery testing workload with the longest overland artillery range in the country. In addition, many types of armored vehicles, armored systems and air delivery systems began to be tested. The installation was renamed Yuma