At home in Yuma…

Can’t say I’m a big fan of Yuma, but the price for staying at the RV park of $199/mo plus electric (likely to be in the $125 range) is difficult to pass up. Helps me save money for my upcoming trip NE to Sioux City, Minneapolis, Forest City, Fairfield, and perhaps Vermont. We’ll see. I would like to visit Niagara Falls once. I passed by it one time, but never really visited. Vermont may be beyond my limit of travel because I get all antsy when I go east and the RV parks, generally run down, in my experience tend to charge astronomical prices for short term and long term visits not even providing half way decent services for their visitors. Like the Wifi is generally bad. It’s maddening. But I haven’t been for 10 years so maybe at least the Wifi is better these days.

Anyway, I paid for a month shortly after I got here to Yuma and spent much of the first month working on an electronic project for a friend. That was really fun. Enjoyed that immensely. As a result, I didn’t do much touristy stuff here in Yuma at the outset. After that project was completed and sent off then I did try to do something touristy…and that was to visit a museum that’s just a few blocks from downtown. I had already made a foray downtown and found a brew pub and several other upscale places to hang out, but like I mentioned last time, the downtown core is kind of blah so only hung out there a couple times the first month I was in Yuma.

During one visit downtown, I’d traveled outside the core a couple miles up a hill across an old timey bridge and found the Indian reservation (also has a casino) and they had a big sign along the roadway advertising a museum. Turned in and found that it was once an Indian school. One of those run by Catholics where the kids weren’t allowed to speak their native language. The buildings on the property were in poor shape in many cases but based on the signs size and age, figured at least the museum would be good. There were the abandoned buildings, and on the same grounds were actively used police station, tribe meeting center, and fish resources center. From the hill these facilities are on, I could see the casino with large RV park down the slope on flatlands a short drive away.

Wandering around in my car trying to find the museum proper I came across this nifty RV parked next to one of the buildings. Note the diorama setup on the roof. There was a fence so I couldn’t get closer, so used my telephoto for some closeups.

Pretty neat. Someone went to a lot of trouble.

And a look at the countryside from the hilltop I was on. As with many ancient settlements, it’s in a very large valley with a very large river running through it…in this case the Colorado. At least the river use to be very large. Now it’s just a shadow of it’s former grandeur as much of it’s waters are diverted upstream for farming and cities water supplies. There’s the old bridge, that crosses over the Colorado river. Beyond is the downtown core.  I had parked and wandered around trying to find the museum building. On my first sweep, couldn’t find it. So drove around the many buildings there at the compound trying to find it. No luck. Hmm. And then I see a native cop coming out of the police station and I ask her where the museum is? She points over that direction. I drive over, park again and wander over to the building she indicated. No signs anywhere. Looks derelict.

Doesn’t really look much like an operating museum, but the age and appearance of the building suggests it might have been one once upon a time. An antique sitting on the breezeway of the building. Back behind that old wooden building was this newer building. Over there is a creepy church. Huh. So this is where I am today. Back around the old Indian school was a trailer with souveniers. Curious about the closed museum, if that was what it was, I stopped in. There was one older Indian woman there and I asked her where the museum was? It’s closed. For how long I asked. She thought for a minute and than said probably 5-6 years! What!? Why haven’t they taken down the sign on the roadway? She didn’t know, but she wouldn’t have a job if they did. Weird and strange they would be so cruel to have her working at a pointless, insignificant ‘make-work’ job.

Drove down the hill a short way and there’s an overlook, so stopped by.  And there’s the river. Still kinda neat. So enough of that museum. Next time I’ll travel back this direction and visit the nearby territorial prison that’s now a museum. From the road, it appears to be a better place to go. We’ll see next time as adventures in Yuma continues.