Yuma Territorial Prison hosts late-night paranormal tour Saturday

The Yuma Territorial Prison turned its century-old cell block into a late-night paranormal attraction Saturday, adding a ticketed after-hours event that blended ghost stories, a courtyard Spirit Bar and a narrow four-hour window for visitors willing to pay $50 a person. The prison promoted Paranormal Hotspots as a one-night investigation where “history and paranormal mysteries collide,” with limited availability and activities running from 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. at 220 Prison Hill Road in Yuma.

The timing matters as much as the theme. By shifting programming well past the prison’s normal closing time, the site extends its use beyond the daytime museum crowd and into Yuma’s evening tourism market. Regular visitor hours are 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. seven days a week, with standard admission posted at $10 for adults, $7 for youth ages 7 to 13 and free for children 6 and under. The paranormal event, by contrast, is a premium experience aimed at visitors looking for something more exclusive than a standard historic tour.

That strategy fits a landmark with unusually strong brand recognition. The prison opened in 1876 and closed in 1909, giving it 33 years of use as a territorial lockup. Arizona State Parks describes the site as sitting on a bluff overlooking the Colorado River near the historic Gila River confluence, and the Arizona Memory Project says the Legislature authorized the prison in 1875 with $25,000 budgeted for construction. Prisoners were even pressed into service to help build their own cells, a detail that still gives the site a dark edge that works in a paranormal setting.

The prison’s own event page ranked it the No. 3 Best Haunted Destination in America, a marketing line that suggests this is more than a novelty gimmick. For Yuma County, the real business value is in off-hours visitation: events like this can keep people on Prison Hill after dark and potentially send spillover traffic to nearby restaurants, shops and lodging. In that sense, the paranormal night is part of a broader effort to package Yuma’s history as an economic draw, not just a relic from the past.