Garden Talk - Yuma In 1912: The Day Arizona Became A State

Presentation by Carol Brooks

On Statehood Day in 1912, Yuma was poised on the brink of major changes. New opportunities were opening up, even as older traditions were winding down.

Among the changes were large-scale irrigation projects that would transform desert into productive farm land. Thousands of people moved to the Yuma area, leveled and brushed the land, and built their own canals. Their stories of carving farms out of raw sand hills are fascinating.

Just as the once-booming mining economy petered out, businessmen poured into Yuma and built the new towns of Somerton and Gadsden. The immediate future included the building of a plank road through the sand dunes and a car bridge across the Colorado River at Yuma.

Cost: $5 per person, free to Arizona Historical Society members and volunteers