Hot summer nights: Sleeping porches let the breeze in

BY CHRIS McDANIEL - @YS_CMCDANIEL

Before the advent of air conditioning, Yuma-area residents had to find other ways to cope with the sweltering summer temperatures.“The biggest problem was always how to be comfortable in the heat,” Dorothy J. Spain wrote in her memoirs be... Full story

When life hands you lemons... raise some funds!

Lemonade stand lends a hand for AIDS orphans

BY SARAH WOMER - @YSSARAHWOMER

The world is constantly changing, but one thing remains the same: People get thirsty, especially during the hot summer months. To help quench people's thirst and also to raise money for themselves and others, lemonade stands are still popular among k... Full story

Exclusive! Yuma Daily Sun gets inside scoop

HILLARY DAVIS - SOUTHWEST LIVING

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 ... Full story

All in a day's work

Job on movie set 'fascinated' Yuman

MARA KNAUB - @YSMARAKNAUB

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 Jab... Full story

Carrie Fisher and Mark Hamil chat on set

BY CHRIS McDANIEL - @YS_CMCDANIEL

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.&ld... Full story

Contractor recalls good time working on famous sand barge

JOYCE LOBECK - @YSJOYCELOBECK

It hit the big screen 30 years ago, but Star Wars fans no doubt still remember favorite scenes from “Return of the Jedi,” the third film in the saga of the battle against the Dark Force.And for many Yumans, that scene may well be the one ... Full story

Yuman has chance encounter with Boba Fett

JAMES GILBERT - SOUTHWEST LIVING

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 &... Full story

Debunked: Foothills residents chased down myths and urban legends

BY JOHN VAUGHN - SPECIAL SECTIONS EDITOR

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 Yu... Full story

The Witch of Black Mountain may have been more than a legend

BY DARIN FENGER - FEATURES EDITOR

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 ... Full story

Fighting on the homefront

WWII sites around the Yuma area

BY JOHN VAUGHN - BAJO EL SOL EDITOR

Oceans may have separated Yuma from the front-lines fighting of World War II, but our area served the United States as a site for troop training and equipment testing.At what is now the Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma, the Army Air Corps trained hundre... Full story

'Southwest Living' Archives