Colorado River State Historic Park

The Colorado River State Historic Park is located on a portion of the grounds of the old U.S. Army Quartermaster Depot (QMD) established in 1864. This site is significant in the history of the Arizona Territory. The City of Yuma, through an Intergovernmental Agreement, supports operational costs at this Park. The purpose of the Park is to protect its historic structures and interpret the diverse history of the site.

Major William B. Hooper established the QMD on a high bluff overlooking the Colorado River. Supplies were brought from California by ocean-going vessels traveling around the tip of the Baja Peninsula and then north as far as the mouth of the Colorado River.

The QMD had been identified in the early 1960s as a potential historic park site. The Parks Board first acquired the structure referred to as the Office of the Depot Quartermaster from the federal government on June 3, 1969.

In the fall of 2009, during the Great Recession, Arizona State Parks entered into an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Yuma to operate the park.  Through this agreement, and a subsequent agreement between the City of Yuma and the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area (YCNHA), the YCNHA took over daily operation of the park.  In 2013, the YCNHA oversaw the development of a new park master plan that expanded the interpretive focus of the park’s exhibits from the history of the Yuma Quartermaster Depot to the broader past, present, and future of the Colorado River.  With the changing interpretive focus, the park was renamed the Colorado River State Historic Park in October of 2017.