It’s not as big as the Taj Mahal in India, but a little church in the desert north of Yuma was also built for the same reason — in memory of one man’s beloved companion. The Taj was erected between 1632 and 1654 near Agra, India, as a mausoleum for Mumtaz-I-Mahal, a favorite wife of Mogul emperor Shah Jahan. It stands about 330 feet tall at its highest points and features a massive double dome sitting atop a 260-foot pinnacle. An estimated 20,000 men worked on the project.
Yuma area farmer Loren Pratt’s tribute to his late wife, Lois, is a tiny wooden chapel that sits on a flat spot in the middle of his cotton and lettuce fields. The building stands about 15 feet tall and can seat six to eight people. With the help of friends and relatives, Pratt constructed it in a few months in 1966.
Most communities adorn their water towers and tanks with either the town’s name or first initial, but in Yuma they opted for something more artistic — a giant tryptich that spreads across the city’s three huge water tanks. The city council received gallons of flak when it approved the $50,000 project in 1999, but the criticism died down a year later when the work received an award from the Governor’s Pride in Arizona Committee.
About 20 miles up the Gila River from Yuma, the community of Dome basks in the desert sun. It’s pretty quiet around here these days—a far cry from that prosperous time in the late 1850s when the boisterous boom town of Gila City boasted some thousand rough and tumble prospectors. It was Arizona’s first gold strike, and the town set the style for other mining camps over the next few years.
