City of Yuma

City of Yuma Municipal Water Report Info

Welcome to the Gateway of the Great Southwest! The City of Yuma sits at the southwestern corner of Arizona, bordering both California and Mexico. Home to over 100,000 year-round residents, our population nearly doubles during winter months as seasonal visitors arrive.

Standing on the Colorado River banks today, it's difficult to envision the river in its untamed state. Before dams were constructed along its course, the Colorado's waters shaped both geography and history throughout the Southwest.

Historical Significance: In earlier eras, the full volume of water that now sustains seven western states and two nations flowed past Yuma—often unpredictably. The river's course changed seasonally across 15 miles of silty floodplains interwoven with treacherous back channels and quicksand pockets.

However, at what would become Yuma, two granite outcroppings constrained the river into a narrower channel. Here, while swift, the waters ran between stable banks, making this the safest river crossing point—known as the Yuma Crossing.

Early Exploration: Europeans first arrived in 1540—80 years before the Pilgrims reached Plymouth Rock—when Spanish expeditions led by Hernando de Alarcon and Melchior Diaz sailed up the Colorado from the Sea of Cortez. They immediately recognized the crossing's strategic settlement potential.

These explorers discovered thriving indigenous communities along the riverbanks—ancestors of today's Quechan and Cocopah tribes—who hunted, fished and cultivated crops. Spaniards called these people "Yumas" from the Spanish word for smoke (humo), as cooking fire smoke filled the valley when viewed from "Indian Hill."

Despite early expeditions, local tribes remained largely undisturbed until the 1680s when Father Eusebio Kino arrived to establish missions. Father Kino's expeditions mapped a 200 by 250 mile region, including present-day Yuma County, and confirmed Baja California was a peninsula rather than an island.

Yuma became firmly established on New Spain's maps in 1774 when Juan Bautista de Anza, charged with finding an overland route from Sonora to northern California, forged relationships with the Quechans who controlled the crossing. These friendly relations proved critical when Anza's expedition became lost in sand dunes and returned to the Colorado's banks. The Anza Trail—through Yuma Crossing—ultimately opened Spanish settlement of Alta California.