Opened on July 1, 1876, under the new Arizona Territory, Yuma Territorial Prison held 3,069 prisoners over 33 years, including 29 women convicted of offenses from murder to polygamy. Much of the prison’s continual construction and repair was done by inmate labor before it closed on September 15, 1909, and prisoners were moved to Florence. The stone complex then took on new roles, serving as Yuma Union High School from 1910 to 1914 and later as a city jail. Remembered for notable inmates and officials, a graveyard with 104 burials, and appearances in Western fiction and film, it endures as a reminder of territorial justice and frontier life.