See Yuma the SegWay

Tours of Yuma's historic past have taken on a space-age spin.

Spirits of the Wild West days in Yuma must scratch their heads when they see folks learning local history while tooling around town on a two-wheel, upright scooter that balances itself.

The owners of SegwaYuma Tours like to think they are making a little history themselves.

The tour company, which opened last fall in downtown Yuma, uses a small fleet of the novel and much-hyped Segway to take riders around to see Yuma's historic sites.

"This really has been well received," said Steve Cook, who owns SegwaYuma Tours with his wife, Kate. "We thought this first year would be kind of slow to get up and running, but we've been really busy."

The tour company is located inside Arizona Ted's on Main Street. That's the departure point for tours, which are given using seven Segways, which Cook said typically go for at least $5,000 each.

Tours are $59.95 and run about two hours. The span of the tour goes out as far as the East and West Wetlands, with stops in between to the Ocean-to-Ocean Bridge, all over downtown Yuma and the Quartermaster Depot.

So far this jaunt around Yuma's northend focusing on history is SegwaYuma's only tour, but Cook said they'll likely add different routes and themes next year.

He said that inventors of the Segway thought their strange vehicle would revolutionize human transportation, a goal that certainly didn't come to light. But then tour operators realized the Segway's potential in terms of tours. It all began in Paris, but Segway tours can now be found all over the world.

In Arizona tour companies like SegwaYuma can be found in Lake Havasu, metro Phoenix and Tucson.

"They are everywhere," Cook said. "People are loving riding them."

He pointed out that riding Segways is easier than some folks might think, too. Before each tour he lets people get the hang of maneuvering the craft, something he said always just takes a minute or two.

"We recently had an 80-year-old woman ride," he said. "She just had a big grin on her face!"

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Darin Fenger can be reached at dfenger@yumasun.com or 539-6860

On the Web
www.SegwayumaTours.com