Winter trip wrap up with Pompey grave site

 After Yuma we hung out in Arizona and New Mexico before working our way back to Tacoma the end of April. We only stopped at a couple new noteworthy locations on the entire drive. Although we did drive across the salt flats west of Salt Lake City for the first time which was interesting.

The first one I want to mention is the California Trail Interpretive Center near Elko, Nevada. We decided to take a break here with no expectations. It turned out to be a wonderful, informative place. It's worth a stop if you are going across I-80 in Nevada.

We did go out of our way for the next stop of interest. Over our years of Meandering in our RV we've been to dozens of Corp of Discovery (Lewis and Clark Expedition) historic sites with many being remote and we've found them all interesting. Many years ago we saw a reference to "Pomp" (who's Pomp? See below) having died and been buried at a remote location in southeast Oregon. This went into my list of future places to seek out when in the area (why not?). When planning our route home on this trip I specifically planned the route to go here and then across US 20 to see central Oregon which was another long time goal. Missions accomplished.

So who was Pomp? He was Jean Baptiste Charbonneau, son of Sacagawea, born at Fort Mandan in 1805 in present-day North Dakota, just north of Bismarck. William Clark gave him the nickname Pompey. He went on to have an interesting life (his Wiki).

Here is a link to the Grave site.

You could also go to my post for August of 2015 when we visited the Fort Mandan State Historic Site. That might be where I saw the reference to the Pomp burial site, but I'm not sure.

Jean Baptist Charbonneau grave site

Jean Baptist Charbonneau grave site

Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park

Well, it’s February and we’ve come to Arizona to dry out and warm up. Not only that, we are spending a little time in Yuma. In all of our Arizona years we never spent any time in Yuma to see why so many snowbirds spend there winters there. Our conclusion is that it is a big enough city to have everything you need but not “really” big and cumbersome like the Phoenix and Tucson areas. I would never spend a summer in Yuma (heat to the extreme) for sure and it is not desirable for us even in winter because there is nothing to do outside whatever little community you settle in (and there are dozens of snowbird communities). Ok, enough of that.

The real reason we were drawn to finally get to Yuma was history, of course. The Yuma Territorial Prison combined with the historic Yuma Crossing. They can be visited at the Yuma Territorial Prison State Historic Park. Any readers of this blog will notice our travels are dominated by historic sites and this is one of the few remaining in Arizona that we had not been to. There really isn’t much left of the original prison but there is enough to get an idea of what it was like with the aid of the museum and interpretive signs on the grounds. The Yuma area has an interesting history and the prison facility has an interesting history even after the prison was closed (use the link above to read the history). Of course, the historic Yuma Crossing of the Colorado River also requires the imagination but you can see the general location. Anyone that has spent time on the length of the Colorado River will understand why this was the best place to cross for hundreds of miles.

In a nutshell, we found it worth the visit in our Meanderings. 

Cell block

Prison Cemetery

Site of Colorado River Crossing

Prison watchtower