News

Aug

2023

Transforming Yuma’s riverfront: Heritage Area attracts tourists, boosts economy

By MARA KNAUB SUN STAFF WRITER
Aug 13, 2023

Yuma’s riverfront is now a beautiful destination and tourist attraction, not something you might easily imagine for the desert Southwest.

The Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area has been a driving force behind the transformation of the riverfront, helping to attract tourism and economic development.

Today, the organization contributes nearly $23 million annually to Yuma’s economy and leverages $5 for every $1 in federal funding received.

And now the Heritage Area has stable operational funding for the next 15 years due to the passage of the congressional National Heritage Area Act and Yuma’s 2% hospitality tax.

“This will allow us to continue to make improvements to the riverfront and increase tourism and economic development, all contributing to Yuma’s livability and helping to attract more people to want to live and work in Yuma,” said Sarah Halligan, communications specialist with the Heritage Area.

Halligan was one of the guest speakers at the Greater Yuma Economic Development Corp. Quarterly Investor Luncheon on Aug. 2, which centered on the theme “Innovative Community Marketing Techniques for Talent Attraction.”

Congress designed Heritage Areas to conserve nationally significant landscape and promote and protect their natural historic, cultural and recreational resources.

In a coordinated effort to reconnect with the Lower Colorado River, both environmentally, economically and recreationally, the Yuma community sought designation as a National Heritage Area, and in October 2000, Congress authorized the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area.

Yuma’s riverfront is now a beautiful destination and tourist attraction, not something you might easily imagine for the desert Southwest.

The Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area has been a driving force behind the transformation of the riverfront, helping to attract tourism and economic development.

Today, the organization contributes nearly $23 million annually to Yuma’s economy and leverages $5 for every $1 in federal funding received.

And now the Heritage Area has stable operational funding for the next 15 years due to the passage of the congressional National Heritage Area Act and Yuma’s 2% hospitality tax.

Congress designed Heritage Areas to conserve nationally significant landscape and promote and protect their natural historic, cultural and recreational resources.

It was formed to serve as an advocate, with key partners, to protect the Lower Colorado River, and its rich history, Halligan said.

The mission of the Yuma Crossing National Heritage Area includes reversing a century of environmental degradation on the Lower Colorado River, reconnecting the community to the river both economically and recreationally, bridging historic divides among diverse stakeholders, and weaving new commercial and outdoor recreational development into a National Historic Landmark.

Over the past 20 years, the Heritage Area has develop West and East Wetlands, Gateway Park, the riverfront trail system, private development including the Hilton Garden Inn and Conference Center, Home 2 Suites, the federal courthouse, Madison Avenue Shopkeepers, restoration of several adobe buildings, Main Street improvements, as well as assuming local operation of the two state parks.

“If you lived in Yuma prior to 2000, I’m sure you have witnessed the changes to Yuma’s riverfront and downtown,” Halligan noted.

The Heritage Area achieved all this with millions of dollars in federal, state, local and foundation grants and by working collaboratively with many partners, including the City of Yuma, National Park Service, Quechan Tribe, Bureau of Reclamation, Arizona Game and Fish Department, Arizona State Parks, private developers and many others.

Since 2010, the Heritage Area has been operating Yuma’s two state parks with no funding assistance from the state. Starting this fiscal year, the state will begin planning nearly $6 million in capital projects and historic preservation work at the Yuma Territorial Prison beginning in 2025.

“We are also hopeful the state will have enough American Rescue Plan Act funding available to invest in new bathrooms at both parks within the next year or two,” Halligan said.

To improve the riverfront parks, the Heritage Area recently received a $250,000 grant from the Arizona Office of Tourism and is collaborating with the city’s Parks and Recreation Department to make landscape and parking improvements in the center of West Wetlands Park.

The organization assembled more than $400,000 in grant funds to build a small nature park at the East Wetlands, just north of the PAAC. Ground work will begin on these projects within the next few months.

The Heritage Area also provides educational programming for school children, both in the classroom and via field trips. For the past two years, the organization has received funding from the National Park Foundation to bring Yuma County fourth graders to the state parks and East Wetlands for educational and interactive field trips, all at no cost to the schools.

This program includes an educational video series produced by staff and narrated by mascots Ranger Bucky and Yasmin the Yellow-billed cuckoo.

“We should find out within the next week or two if our next grant application is awarded, allowing us to continue this program which has become very popular with Yuma County schools,” Halligan said.

The Heritage Area also sponsors several cultural events held at the state parks including the popular Dia de los Muertos event and the new Asian and Pacific Islander cultural event Haru Matsuri, which received “great” attendance this past spring.

The Heritage Area also collaborates with other entities to host various youth programming like National Space Day, the recent Exploration Station events, and the Christmas on the Colorado event.

These events were “well attended by the public and becoming more and more popular,” she noted.

The Heritage Area collaborated with KAWC Public Radio to hold concerts at the Colorado River State Historic Park, and it hopes to continue this relationship.

Both parks also serve as venues for private events. The Penitentiary Pint Fest was held at the Yuma Territorial Prison, and Harvest Dinner takes place at the Colorado River park annually.

In addition, the Colorado River park is rented nearly every weekend for weddings and special events during the fall and winter.

The Heritage Area strives to regularly improve the visitor experience through new exhibit development at the parks. A couple of years ago, the organization introduced passes to the Yuma state parks “to make it more affordable for local community members to visit our parks multiple times throughout the year.”

A family pass is just $50 a year for entry into both parks. “So if you haven’t visited the state parks in a while, we hope you’ll help support these treasured historic assets and come out and see what’s new,” Halligan said.

“Yuma has so much to offer, but we continually receive comments from first-time visitors that they didn’t know all of this existed in Yuma,” she noted.

The Heritage Area, in conjunction with Visit Yuma, is working to change that. “Continuing to promote Yuma as a tourist destination is a high priority for us, and we’re excited to see results from Visit Yuma’s new marketing campaign,” Halligan added.