According to the Guininess Book of World Records, Yuma, Arizona is the “Sunniest City on Earth.”
It is estimated that 91% of their year is sunny and warm– which also makes it a wonderland for growing crops, particularly lettuce, and other leafy greens– and we’d come to find: Medjool dates. We didn’t know it yet, but we wandered into town just before their biggest street party of the year– the International Date Festival.
When we rolled into Yuma, it was for both the typically-warm winter temperatures and the ready access to BLM land to park our van on at night– we knew precious little about the small city. In the end, we were very glad we visited.
One of the better brewery restaurants I’ve had the pleasure to eat at, Prison Hill Brewing had fare that was seemingly just bar food, but despite the familiar recipes– was decidedly fresh and excellent. It was surprising– as one of the only places open late on the town’s historic main drag, Prison Hill Brewing could have mailed it in.
But they didn’t. Their Fried Avocado was the best I’d ever had– light, crispy, and served with a lemon wedge and a housemade spicy sauce that was full of flavor. Their name was based on the historical prison in the area– which I’d later find was so associated with the town of Yuma that its high school sports teams are still known as the “Crims” (short for ‘Criminals’).
Based on the menu blurbs about the famed prison, I decided to visit the real thing– the Yuma Territorial Prison Museum.
Opened before Arizona even became a state in 1876, the prison was open for 33 years. It was a rare prison of the time, in that it incarcerated women– something most did not do. Although I would learn they didn’t house them very well– often, they would release the women well before their sentences were completed, with the official account saying they were not sure how to provide proper facilities for them.
The museum had a pretty odd “Bad Girls of the Old West” exhibit that was poorly-named, but interesting– showing the mug shots of the convicts, as well as detailing their crimes (to the best of their ability given the era’s records).
One of the more interesting female inmates was Pearl Hart, who robbed a stagecoach (dressed as a man). Not much information exits about her– but the banner hanging in the museum said she “used her feminine wiles with both prisoners and guards alike” which was rooted in some documentation (and made me wonder if she was an early queer person).
The museum was a real gem– displaying some amazing folk art made by prisoners over the years, like this delicate lace work.
This is where I learned that in in early 1900s, part of the prison was used to house high school classes– and in a game with a rival, the opposing fans taunted the football players, nastily calling them “Criminals!”
Turning the other cheek, the city of Yuma re-named its sports teams “The Crims”– a nickname tradition which has held to this day (see above for a team photo from the 2016-2017 season.
Heading out into the cell block, the original metal bunks were inside (they removed mats due to a problem with lice). The thick walls were extremely foreboding, and luckily for the prisoners– these buildings would have been roofed back in the day. But that didn’t mean the extreme heat of the area was no issue– they even lost several prisoners to rattlesnake bites.
After spending time touring the old prison grounds, we headed downtown to the historic area again. There were a handful of antique stores, dive bars, arcades, and eateries to keep us coming back in the couple of days we were in the area.
We also got very lucky–we happened to arrive in town the night before the International Medjool Date Festival. Seeing a flyer, we jumped at our chance to attend.
And that’s how on a bright, warm Saturday in January– Mac attended his first Date Festival.
It was a heck of a time– Yuma closed off its downtown corridor and added three different stages, on which bands started playing at 10 AM and would not finish until 10 PM. (Supposedly, an Elvis impersonator was due later that day).
The date farmers around Yuma were there, selling boxes and boxes of fresh dates– Moon recalled they tasted like caramel, plump and moist, unlike the ones you can get on shelves that always feel dried-out. We even tried our first ‘Date Shake’– a concoction made of two ingredients– Banana Ice Cream and Dates.
That’s right– nothing else went into these shakes. Despite being a little too sweet, they were delicious to try. (Neither Moon nor I wanted more than a few sips, though. We both remarked we likely would have slurped them down if we were still kids!). Don’t worry, we didn’t leave Mac out– he got a dab of Date Shake that we shared on his nose.
We loved our afternoon at the Date Festival, trying dates and date dishes right from the source.
It was on the way out of town that we noticed the green fields extending in every direction– seemingly growing up out of dry desert, the farmers were harvesting their crops of greens.
We smelled the harvest before we saw it– pungent through the air was the fresh smell of just-chopped greens. There were busloads and busloads of (likely migrant) workers picking by hand, but we also spotted machines working to cut the leafy heads from their stems. The scale of the operations were magnificent to behold– and a good reminder of the work that goes into feeding each of us every day, and stocking those store shelves.
It is said that Yuma provides up to 90% of the leafy greens in the country that we eat from November to April– and having seen the extensive growing and picking operations in-action, it was easy to see why.
And it was also easy to see the huge irrigation mechanisms making it possible– without which, Yuma would likely be barren land.
But that day, it was a paradise of greenery.
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