Bisbee Buzz

All you Mexico, Southern California and Arizona snowbirds, here is a recommendation if you are Eastbound. Leaving our winter quarters in Arizona we took a detour down to the towns of Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas then back up to New Mexico. Here is my take, on the towns: Tombstone is a tourist trap (just watch the movie and save your money). Douglas is dead and not worth driving down Main Street. Bisbee is a jewel and worth the time and effort to visit.
We stayed at the Queen Mine RV Park owned and operated by Stan Dupuy. $23.00 a night with 30 amp full hook-ups. Small cul-de-sac park with great views of the huge open-pit Lavender Copper Mine (several sites back up to the mine). It is a tight turn at the bottom of the hill going up to this RV park, so if you have a huge rig be careful. The nice thing about this park is that it is walking distance from everything you will want to see in town, including the Queen Mine Tour. Other RV parks include the San Jose RV Park ($13.50 a night) (520) 432-5761 and the famous and (worth a visit even if you don’t stay there - $30.00 a night) Shady Dell RV Park (520) 432-3567. I highly recommend the Queen Mine Tour. This is the largest tourist attraction in Bisbee and it is very educational. They suit you up in miner’s garb consisting of a raincoat, utility belt, hard-hat and torch (flashlight) – you will appreciate the flashlight. The tour guides are miners and have many years of mining experience. Martin Davis conducted our tour. They load you up on rail-cars and you head into the mine. The tour takes you 1500 feet under the mountain and you get a close-up view of mining past and present. (Above photo from Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum)
The Queen Mine’s original shaft was dug in 1880. There are over 2,300 miles of tunnel in the Queen Mine – stay with the tour, you don’t want to get lost down there.Make sure you ask about the 400 mules that lived their entire lives inside the mine and how they contributed to the mining operations. Bisbee is the second richest mineral area in the world with 300 mineral specimens.The Queen Mine produced 8 billion pounds of copper and 2.8 million ounces of gold as a byproduct. The phone number for the Queen Mine tour is (866) 432-2071 or you can email them at queenminetour@cityofbisbee.com

According to Ilona Smerekanich, Director of the Tourist Information Center, Bisbee enjoyed 50,785 visitors who came just to see her in 2006. (Well, really, they were there to get tourist information, but don’t tell Ilona). Be sure to stop in and pick up your walking tour map. The Info Center is directly across the street from the Mining Museum.

The second place you must experience is the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. This is a great place for both adults and kids. This is a true gem, because it is one of the first small rural museums to partner with the Smithsonian to develop a top-notch interactive mining museum.Museum Director Carrie Gustavson gave me a guided tour of the new exhibits and they are fabulous. The Smithsonian designers, exhibit and lighting experts did a superb job. Here Carrie touches something that the sign clearly forbids – she says the kids love to open it but the adults won’t go near it. Rule followers! The Bisbee minerals are on display and the new fiber optic lighting makes them “pop.”
Both underground mining and pit mining are displayed with great interactive stuff for the kids (and the adults that are still kids at heart). After you’ve done the walking tour of all the 1900 era buildings, cool your heels at the historic Cooper Queen Hotel restaurant and enjoy the ambiance of this palace erected for the mining executives of Phelps-Dodge from a bygone era.

Photo Credits of the museum exhibits:
Courtesy of the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum
Photos by Angela Neal and John Harris