Experience Alcatraz in Yuma

Quartermaster Depot serves as fitting venue for Alcatraz exhibit

We have gotten a tremendous response to the exhibit, especially in the rustic, industrial setting of the storehouse building. Alcatraz Cruises ... says that our location is the most authentic and effective setting they have experienced to date. And we are going up against locations such as Ellis Island.” CHARLES FLYNN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF YUMA CROSSING NATIONAL HERITAGE AREA CORP.

YUMA — This winter and spring, the beautifully restored waterfront of Yuma finds itself between a rock and a hard place. The hard place is always there, a colorful part of the city’s history: Yuma Territorial Prison, carved into a stony cliff overlooking the Colorado River and one of America’s most infamous 19thcentury hoosegows, became one of Arizona’s first state parks. San Francisco’s Alcatraz prison, also known as the Rock, is just downriver through April 14 in the form of a traveling exhibit at the 10-acre Quartermaster Depot, Yuma’s other state park.

Created by Alcatraz Cruises, “Alcatraz: Life on the Rock” tells the story of America’s most infamous 20th-century lockup using interactive displays, rare artifacts and video footage. It fits into the hulking concrete-floored storehouse as if it were designed for the space. Visitors enter through an iron-barred sally port. Foghorns moan. The sound of waves slapping against rocks, punctuated by the screech of seagulls, echoes through the rusty rafters. It’s an eerie experience even before you peruse the displays.

“We have gotten a tremendous response to the exhibit, especially in the rustic, industrial setting of the storehouse building,” said Charles Flynn, executive director of Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area Corp. “Alcatraz Cruises, which manages the traveling exhibit on behalf of the National Park Service, says that our location is the most authentic and effective setting they have experienced to date. And we are going up against locations such as Ellis Island.”