Yuma

Alternative name for a member of the American Indian Yuman people.

Yuma

Town and administrative headquarters of Yuma County, southwest Arizona; population (1990) 54,900. It is situated in an irrigated valley on the Colorado River, at the mouth of the Gila River, just east of the California and Baja California (Mexico) state lines. It is a trade centre for lettuce, citrus, date, melon, and alfalfa producers. Stock feeding and shipping, tourism, and light manufacturing are also important to the local economy. The town is home to Arizona Western College (1963). A Marine Corps Air station is located in the southeast of the town, and the Army's Yuma Proving Ground lies 24 km/15 mi to the northeast.

Spanish explorers came through this Yuman-occupied area as early as 1540. In the 1770s the river crossing was on a route north from Mexico to California. Gold prospectors bound west for California came through in the 1840s, and Yuma was a major river port. The community was destroyed by flood in 1862, then reestablished on higher ground. Yuma Territorial Prison (1875; now a museum) and the Laguna Dam (1909) were important factors in its growth.