Historical Marker · No. 806
Fort Yuma
Winterhaven, Imperial County · California
Erected by State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Quechan Tribe and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, April 29, 1989, 1989
The army came back to the crossing the Quechan had closed. Camp Calhoun in 1849 became Camp Yuma and then Fort Yuma, and it held the river for the United States as the Spanish never managed. In 1884 the War Department transferred the post to the Interior Department and the Quechan, and what the Quechan got was a boarding school run by the Catholic Church until 1900. The land came back with a school on it. The buildings stand above the Colorado at Winterhaven.
What the plaque says
Fort Yuma Originally called Camp Calhoun, the site was first used as a U.S. military post in 1849. A fire destroyed the original buildings. By 1855 the barracks had been rebuilt. Called Camp Yuma in 1852 it became Fort Yuma after reconstruction. Transferred to the Department of the Interior and the Quechan Indian Tribe in 1884, it became a boarding school operated by the Catholic Church until 1900. California Registered Historical Landmark No. 806 First registered June 1965. Plaque placed by the State Department of Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Quechan Tribe and Squibob Chapter, E Clampus Vitus, April 29, 1989.
Where it stands
32.73242, -114.61765 · Directions