Fort Yuma and Yuma Quartermaster Depot
Depot, Yuma, Arizona.
- Side
- Union
- Kind
- Depot
- Where
- Yuma, Arizona
- Years
- 1861-1865
- Today
- State historic site
YUMA QUARTERMASTER DEPOT
The 1st California Infantry took over Fort Yuma in December 1861, and the fort served as the supply point for the Union garrisons in Arizona. In 1864 the Army established the depot to keep six months of supplies for frontier posts, shipped up the Colorado River by steamer.
Then
The 1st California Infantry took over Fort Yuma in December 1861, the California Column marched from it to expel the Confederates from Arizona in 1862, and the fort served as the supply point for the Union garrisons there. In 1864 the Army established the Yuma Quartermaster Depot on the Arizona bank to keep six months of ammunition, food and clothing on hand for frontier posts across the Southwest, shipped from California around Baja California and up the Colorado River by steamer.
The arrival of the Southern Pacific Railroad at Yuma in 1877 signaled the end of the depot.
Now
State historic site
Colorado River State Historic Park keeps five buildings of the quartermaster depot, four of them with exhibits.
Track in service today runs beside the site, on a line owned by a smaller railroad.