Yuma - wedding capital of the 30's and 40's

Ansel Marshall and Martina Wilkes were married in Yuma, AZ on September 17, 1940.

Ansel was racing at Aqua Caliente and living in San Ysidro, CA. He sent for Martina and she rode the train down from Prineville, Oregon. At the time she was working in the Prineville Hotel as a waitress. Ansel met her at the train station in his car and they drove directly from San Diego to Yuma to get married. They got their license, got married and headed back to San Diego directly. He said it was stifling hot, and they didn't want to hang around Yuma at all. He said his car had air conditioning... with all four windows rolled down and pedal to the metal.

At the time, California had what was called the "Gin Law" and there was a three day waiting period from the time you could get a marriage license and when you could be married. It was called the Gin Law, so that people could sober up before they got married. Figured if they were drunk when they applied for the license, three days was plenty of time to sober up and make a wise decision. Arizona did not have a waiting period or any residency requirements for getting married. In the 30's and 40's Yuma became the wedding capital of the nation. Many celebraties traveled over from Hollywood to Yuma to tie the knot. In 1940 alone, there were 17,000 marriages performed in Yuma.

The picture below is the bridge that they would have driven across from California to get to Yuma. You can't read it in the photo, but on the side supports it says, "Ocean to Ocean Highway, Yuma".Before this bridge was built there was a ferry crossing in this location. The completion of this bridge was the last link to finish the coast to coast highway. I think it was 1921 when it was finished.

This is the Courthouse where Ansel and Martina would have purchsed their marriage license. It was built in 1921. They have moved into new facilities and this will be the Yuma Heritage Center. It is only a couple of blocks from the wedding chapel.

This was the most popular wedding chapel in it's day. It was across the street from the infamous San Carlos Hotel and the river pictured below was just behind the hotel. The Yuma bridge was just a block to the North.

Yuma Territorial Prison

This was a Federal prison on top of a rock from the 1876's until 1909. It is now a state park and museum. It sit's high a top the Colorado River. Ansel remembered that no one ever escaped, but the ranger told him that 4 did try to jump in the river but they were plucked out of the river by the Mexico Federalies and met their fate at their hands.

The Colorado River looking NE. Ca in on the other side.

Ansel's scooter makes a great little pack horse too.

The cells each held 6 prisoners and were barley 7'x6' wide. There was a door in between these two cells. The cots are stacked three on each side and barely 2' feet wide. Maybe we should go back to this style of accommodations, in the horrendous heat.

Ansel made some new friends to tell some stories to. Imagine that??? These folks were from Vancouver BC, which segwayed nicely into some Hastings Park race stories.

there were displays of horse hitching and other cowboy items that the prisoners made. This bit caught my interest.

A belly dump buck board??? Ansel said they were actually quite common. I never imagined the technology started on a wagon so long ago.

It was a nice stop, here's a picture of across the river from the prison.

Yuma - more sunshine

We left Phoenix bound for Yuma. On the way we stopped at Dateland and had a date milk shake and a prickly pear cactus milk shake, and bought Ansel some prickly pear cactus candy. The shakes were actually really good. I think there was banana mixed in too. Anything banana is ok with me. Made me think of all the baby foods that are mixed with banana, and wondered about prickly pear cactus/banana baby food????? A tiny dino and a gigantic rattler, some where along the way...

Then it was on to Yuma, the weather was beautiful, lots of horizons to look at. It's so different from the Oregon high desert. Some day would like to take more time an check out the vegetation and animals that are native to here. We met Linda and Doug Johnson (from Burns) for dinner, they are now resident snowbirds of the Cocopah Community. It was nice to catch up and to learn more about the community and Yuma history.