A Tale of Two Towns - Bisbee, AZ

"The town too high to care."

Like Tomestone, Bisbee was founded on rich silver mining and also boomed and busted when the silver ran out.  However, the area is also rich in copper deposits and when the country turned to electricity the demand for copper wire skyrocketed and Bisbee boomed again.  Then the copper mostly ran out around the 1970's and it became almost a ghost town.

Just about that time, Rolling Stone magazine ran a story about what a beautiful spot Bisbee was and how cheap real estate was.  In fact, it is said the famous Copper Queen Hotel was available for $1, but the annual taxes of $1000 kept people away (as well as the considerable costs needed for repairs and renovations). The hippies, artists and musicians came and bought up much of the buildings and land. Through the years, they and the town matured to the point the hippies are now respected business people and running the town.  The lively arts scene drew in tourists and once again Bisbee is enjoying a renewal with art galleries, music festivals, and good restaurants.  In fact, Wikipedia now ranks Bisbee as one of the five best towns in Arizona for gays and lesbians.

One favorable long term effect of the peace and love movement is that the people of the town are very friendly and honestly nice. We very much enjoyed everyone we met (however, they did not want to be photographed).

In a strange twist of fate, with copper and silver prices skyrocketing again plus newer more efficient extraction techniques, the mining companies are back in business reprocessing the slag and even reopening some of the other old mines.

Our Navion looks tiny next to the big class A's

Overview of the historic town

By now, most of the wonderful old buildings have been restored or are in the process of being restored.

Many are made of a dense red brick with little mortar

This one is being restored to be a dinner theater

The only year around water available when the town started was at Apache Spring by Castle Rock, first used by the Apaches and then by the US Troops pursuing them. Later as the town grew up, the Inn at Castle Rock was built right over the spring. In fact, you can see the well in the appropriately named Apache Spring Cafe which is a part of the the Inn.

Unfortunately, we can't recommend actually eating there. The lunch we had wasn't that great as opposed to the other restaurants in town. The dinning hall upstairs has highly rated dinners on weekends, but we missed them.  Good places we did eat at were: the Cornucopia, Bisbee Grill, and Santiago's.

The Inn at Castle Rock

Apache Spring

Screaming Banshee Pizza

Residential buildings are scattered throughout the town and up the steep canyon walls.

Original brick street in one neighborhood

The Copper Cabin, but of course!

Bisbee is dog friendly

Long flights of stairs running up and down the steep sides of the canyons are quite common.  In fact there are so many stairs that Bisbee hosts an annual marathon called the Race of a Thousand Stairs.

Hand painted murals grace the entrance to this stairway

Rainbow hued handrails lead downwards (top stairs read in caulk "Too Many Stairs")

With all the hippies and artists moving in, Bisbee has an artsy and funky side.

Copper sculptures are quite common

Tribute to Copper Miners

One of many Art Cars

Hand painted murals are often found...

Looks like the politics are different in Bisbee than the rest of Arizona

ET has landed in the Garden of Eden (hummm... I wonder what kind of drugs this artist was on)

The crazies are now running the Asylum

Being a mining town, Brewery Alley was the place to go for booze and brothels.

An old brewery being restored as a hotel

Inside the new craft Bisbee Brewery

Peter and I sample a few of the Bisbee brews - they're good

Most of the old brothels are gone having burned down in one of the town's destructive fires ... or rumored to be set ablaze by the local Women's Club.

The last remaining brothel house, currently being restored as a B&B

Copper ladies hold up an garden arbor across the street

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Mining

The presence of the mining industry is everywhere to be found in Bisbee.

Old mining equipment serves as city sculptures

The Mining Museum - well worth seeing

Copper tags are used instead of time cards miners can be identified in case of an explosion

Occasionally, the miners would break into "Crystal Rooms" - some as small as a football and others the size of a whole soccer field.  Many of the better specimens from the Bisee mines are shared with the Smithsonian.  Several have just returned and are on display at the Mining Museum (don't ask me what they are - I've forgotten).
In addition to the Mining Museum, the tour of the Queen Mine is well worth the price of admission.

People waiting for the tour on an old mining train

Peter being outfitted with mining gear

We're entering the mine

Once well into the mine, our tour guide explains how the mining was done....

how they operated the elevator cages between levels;

the all important sequence of setting dynamite charges

and of course the "S Cart" for bodily functions while working underground

Our guide also points out the objects of all the mining work...

a small pocket of copper ore

a tube where underground water flowed and crystals are now forming

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More frequently these days, mining takes form of destructive strip mining, in which men do actually move entire mountains and create others.  This particular pit is just outside the office at our RV park.

The sun sets early in the canyon and so we set off on the short walk from the RV park (the Queen Mine RV Park, which really is close to town) to enjoy our last dinner at a good restaurant in town before heading out in the morning.