A speakeasy at the Yuma Territorial Prison, which closed before Arizona ever went dry

Here's a fun bit of timing. The Yuma Territorial Prison is throwing a Prohibition-era speakeasy party, and the prison itself never made it to Prohibition.

The last inmates left Prison Hill in 1909, transferred to a new prison in Florence, according to the park's own history timeline. Arizona's voter-approved prohibition didn't take effect until Jan. 1, 1915, and national Prohibition came a few years after that. By the time liquor was outlawed here, the cellblocks were empty. For a few of those years, from 1910 to 1914, the buildings were Yuma's high school.

The Warden's Speakeasy is a costume party in a very good setting, and the 150-year-old prison on a bluff above the Colorado River is a hard setting to beat.

What's planned

The event page sets it for Saturday, Nov. 21. Gates open at 6:30 p.m., and the event runs from 7 to 10 p.m.

(If you look at the listing, you may notice the header says "6:30 am." That appears to be a typo. Everything else on the page describes an evening event. Nobody's asking you to show up to a speakeasy at dawn.)

The page promises:

• Live music, with He Said She Said named on the ticket page
• A full-service bar through the evening
• A masquerade-style speakeasy inside the prison
• The Son of a Gun Cigar Lounge, with cigars and charcuterie boards

Masks, flapper dresses, suits, suspenders, fedoras and other 1920s-style outfits are encouraged, but not required.

Tickets are $20 per person and went on sale Oct. 18 through Zeffy. The ticket page says admission is for people 21 and over and that ticket sales are nonrefundable. The park says tickets are limited. The prison is at 220 Prison Hill Road.

What the listing doesn't say

A few things you might want to know aren't on the page yet.

The event and ticket pages don't say whether drinks are included in the $20 or bought separately. The ticket page names the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area Corporation as host and offers an optional donation to support it, but it doesn't identify a specific project that ticket proceeds will fund.

The park is locally managed by the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area, and the site has been marking "150 Years of History" this year. The first seven inmates arrived on July 1, 1876. Whatever the party has to do with Prohibition, it does land in the old prison's 150th year, which is as good an excuse as any to spend an evening on Prison Hill.

Sources

• The Warden's Speakeasy event page
• official events page
• ticket page
• history timeline
• Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area
• What's Whiskey Row without the whiskey?