2013 Interesting People Archive Stories

It turned out to be an offer The Yuma Daily Sun couldn't refuse, although it involved restrictions that would typically make its journalists balk: Keep a tight lid on publicity for the third installment of the much-loved galactic epic filming nearby in exchange for exclusive access to the set.The film then called "Revenge of the Jedi

June Wolfe loved hearing the stories her late husband, Vince, told of his days working on the set of “Return of the Jedi” in 1982.In the third film of the Star Wars saga, the Imperial Sand Dunes west of Yuma became the Dune Sea, where Jabba the Hutt imprisoned Han Solo (Harrison Ford) on his sail barge and Princess Leia (

During the 1982 filming of “Return of the Jedi” at the Imperial Sand Dunes, actors Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamill were both concerned with the direction their careers would take after the final film in the original trilogy was released.“I am largely associated with this, so I think people expect me to be kind of like

Unlike many of the unfortunate movie characters who have crossed his path, Yuman Robert Gwinn can say that as a young teenager he survived a chance encounter with the menacing and villainous "Star Wars" bounty hunter Boba Fett.For Gwinn, a lifelong “Star Wars” fan, the encounter happened a long, long time ago, in a desert

Leave it to Dan Rasp to get to the bottom of a mystery.If anyone can find a way to shine a light on local urban legend and phenomena, it's him.For instance, there's the myth about Spook Mountain, one of the hills in the Gila Mountain chain east of Yuma. It was so named because passers-by in Dome Valley had rep

There are several reasons that folks in Yuma's early days avoided climbing Black Mountain on cold, moonless nights.First, that's when Widow Black was known to haunt her favorite hangout.And secondly, there was the issue of the stinking stew that she loved to brew.So goes the legends of Widow Black, who was pro

Jose Maria Redondo is often called the father of modern-day agriculture in Yuma County, the first to divert water to grow crops previously unheard of in Arizona. That includes lettuce, now a multimillion-dollar global crop for Yuma County.He also in credited with being the father of the Yuma Territorial Prison, today a state park tha