AURA

I know and love these places, but I asked the fellow who has been transcribing our chats to write something up about Bisbee because he knows it very well. One thing that’s true of both Jerome and Bisbee is how their populations exploded when they offered something valuable to extract from the earth, and then imploded when the goods had been taken, leaving nothing but what the extractors viewed as debris. Anyway here’s what our scribe says:

Bisbee

Bisbee is my kind of town, or maybe I’m just kind of Bisbee. Even though all I did for this site was write down the conversation the others had, I guess I’m elected to tell you about Bisbee, probably because my wife and I had a “getaway” house there for many years and really dug it, even in winter. Snow is pretty rare in ol’ Biz, and shortlived at that. That makes its rare appearance all the more pretty. Mostly what got us there was getting out of the summer heat of Tucson. Bisbee is usually maybe 10, 15 degrees cooler than Tucson, and in the summer, that can mean the difference between excruciating and borderline comfortable.

Unless you're coming up from Mexico, the most likely way you'll find yourself in southern Arizona is on I-10. The Benson turnoff puts you about 50 miles north of Bisbee via AZ 80. One cool thing about Benson is tours of the caves there. It’s not a big town so just keep your eyes open for the caves on the right about six miles after you get off I-10. Then get back on 80 to Tombstone that still has an old west look, and even reenactments of the shootout at the OK corral. I ought to bring Coronado to Tombstone since all he seems to know about the wild west is Dodge City. Just hang a right from 80 to go west a block to see what makes Tombstone worth the stop. I mention these places that are on the way to Bisbee not just because they’re on the way, but because they’re special in their own right.

After Tombstone, get back on 80 till you eventually enter a long tunnel that’s antique compared to what Elon Musk would make today. But it’s a fun ride to the other end. When you come out, you’ll see Bisbee spread over the hills to your left, and if you stay on 80, you’ll be driving parallel to Bisbee’s main street that's called Tombstone Canyon. You'll feel like a bird seeing the town from above if you stay on 80. - But if you want to get a close-up of pretty much the whole thing, hang a right soon after the tunnel to get onto Tombstone Canyon heading down and right through the floor of the canyon that most of old Biz is built along. You’ll pass houses at first, and eventually you’ll get to downtown where I suggest you stay at the Copper Queen hotel, a proud old place with a decent restaurant inside. My favorite is huevos rancheros for breakfast. If you decided to stay on 80 after the tunnel, though, you get to the Copper Queen by turning right once you see downtown down on your left, and then following that curve right around as it goes under 80 till you cross Main Street (that's also called Tombstone Canyon). Then, just about a block before you end up on Brewery Ave, you want to make a left on Howell going up a steep hill where you can stop in front of the hotel to unload your bags.

After you’ve settled in, you may remember passing the Bisbee Queen Mine that you passed during that hard right from 80. That’s where the underground mine tour starts. That’s probably the most unique thing about Bisbee, and you’ll be missing out if you don’t get on tthe small underground train that used to haul the rock out to see where it came from and the work it took to get to it. You’ll feel like you belong there once they outfit you with a hard hat and a lamp. You’ll also have a good time just wandering around downtown, stopping in the shops, galleries, etc. Houses up Brewery Gulch appeal to artists thanks to cheap rents. It’s breathtaking what an industry’s leaving town can do to property values. Bisbee was a company town, and mining copper was its lifeblood. The mine closed in 1965, and when my wife and I decided in the early 80s that Bisbee would be a good spot to cool off from Tucson’s hot summers, we went house hunting and ended up buying one at a foreclosure sale for $6500. When the US real estate market went nuts in 2006, we sold for $120,000. Bisbee’s having been discovered by more and more tourists over the years, mostly on account of the artists finding cheap digs there, helped also. But you can still find very cheap digs there. You just have to look.

Though it’s not in quaint old Bisbee, the Lavender Pit mine is real close and is mentioned in most of the tourist literature. It shows what our fellow man can do to the earth in the quest to feed our materialistic appetites. It’s not as geometrical as Meteor Crater, but it’s one heck of a hole in the ground. Just get back on 80 and hug the pit till you get to the Bisbee Breakfast Club that overlooks it. The Bisbee Breakfast Club is kind of unique in that it started after Bisbee fell on hard times, but has proven itself sufficiently to have opened a couple branches in Tucson. It’s not the Copper Queen, but they’ve got huevos rancheros, tambien. And plenty of other choices, too.

The main attraction, after all is said and done, is the town’s charm and scenery. Same for Jerome that's much closer to the Canyon. Unless you’re a rockhound, that is, like Sine, or the designer of our flying saucer logo, Dave Garski of Minerals and More.

● Bisbee's history

● Overview

● Underground mine tour, Hours, Fees

● Mine tours directions

● Virtual mine tour

● 10 day weather forecast