PLEASE NOTE: Because of concerns over the escalating COVID-19 virus, FMCA’s 101st International Convention and RV Expo, scheduled for March 26-29, 2020, has been cancelled.
For Tucson travelers, a side excursion to Bisbee, Arizona, is in order.
By Maggie Kielpinski
February 2020
Driving through the Mule Pass Tunnel into Bisbee, Arizona, is surreal. The contrast from coarse desert scrubland at one end to a quaint Victorian town on the other makes you feel as if it’s a portal from Alice in Wonderland.
Bisbee’s historical buildings include the 1895 Inn at Castle Rock.
Founded in 1880, Bisbee was called the “Queen of the Copper Camps,” and it’s probably the one Arizona town that epitomizes America’s Gilded Age best. RV travelers headed to or coming from FMCA‘s 101st International Convention and RV Expo, March 26 through 29 in Tucson, may want to consult a map and find Bisbee. And those who take State Route 80 southeast of Tucson toward Bisbee will get a bonus stop as well — the famous town of Tombstone is on the way.
Bisbee was named in honor of DeWitt Bisbee, a San Francisco investor who never set foot in it. He probably made money there, though, for the town was one of the world‘s richest mineral sites. By the time the last Bisbee mine closed in 1975, billions of pounds of copper; millions of ounces of gold and silver; and huge amounts of lead, zinc, and manganese had been extracted from the reddish-colored earth.
Coincidentally, all that copper in Bisbee was found just as America was being electrified. Wire was needed, and quite a bit of it. At the old Phelps-Dodge Mining headquarters, now home to the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, you can learn more about how this tiny mining camp grew into one of the most sophisticated cities in the West.
The 1896 Phelps-Dodge headquarters, now the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum.
The museum’s substantial collection of period photographs, mining equipment, and a glittering array of semiprecious stones and enormous colorful cross-cut geodes is a must-see.
Another spot to visit is the Copper Queen Mine. Visitors can ride the old mining trolleys as part of the only underground mine tour in Arizona.
More tours involve the town‘s beautiful buildings and homes. So much money poured out of the ground here that residents invested in grand architecture in the popular styles of the day. And while many Western towns have been decimated by fire and dry rot, Bisbee retains its timeless quality thanks to stringent building codes that demanded the use of American red brick for construction.
The Copper Queen Hotel has been a commanding presence in Bisbee since 1902. It’s a majestic Romanesque Revival building trimmed in red and green under a roof of terracotta tiles. If it could only talk! The hotel has entertained movie stars, politicians, and mining executives. It’s not hard to imagine the likes of Teddy Roosevelt or Gen. “Black Jack” Pershing downing plates of oysters or smoked salmon in the elaborate dining room lit by Tiffany lamps.
The 1914 high school is set on a hillside with ground-level entrances on all four floors.
Walking is a great (and free) way to take in the charm of Bisbee. Early one crisp winter morning, I set out to explore. At the head of Tombstone Canyon/Main Street, beneath the hefty corbelled stonework of the Copper Queen Library and Post Office, locals were already hurrying about their chores, picking up the mail and chatting with neighbors with that small-town ease.
I chose to follow the route used by the Bisbee 1000 Great Stair Climb, the only outdoor stair-climbing event in the United States. It’s 4.5 miles long and takes place in October; over the past 29 years it has brought in competitors from across the country.
The stairs are the only way for people to reach many of the homes and buildings uphill from town. During the Great Depression, the Works Progress Administration built many new staircases over the old mule trails between the narrow streets that rimmed the hills. Proceeds from the Great Stair Climb go to fund restoration and preservation of this piece of Bisbee history.
The 1908 Walter Douglas House once was home to the president of Phelps-Dodge Corporation.
Not quite as conditioned as I imagine the stair climb athletes are, I puffed my way up and along the crooked lanes, camera in hand, thinking that I’d ditch my gym membership if I lived here. I felt a mite voyeuristic, a tiny bit embarrassed by my intrusiveness, but not enough to stop capturing this storybook charm on my camera. Besides, I think the locals are proud of their made-over miner’s cottages with stucco siding freshened in subtle earth tones or dazzling in the colors of minerals from the red hillsides.
The narrow lanes ran randomly through town, splitting downhill and uphill, ever more narrow and lopsided. Some small privacy was afforded by overgrown yards brimming with vines and creepers and desert cacti. As one would expect in this town known for its artistic bent, explosions of color, decorative iron fences, sculpted copper gates, colorful Mexican pots, and giant agaves were everywhere. I eventually found myself at the Muheim Heritage House on Youngblood Hill.
The 48-room Copper Queen Hotel has seen many guests since it opened in 1902.
Joseph Muheim migrated to the United States from Switzerland in 1887. Not sufficiently challenged by running his uncle’s beer-making company in Brewery Gulch, he went on to invest in mining and banking, and built many of the town’s fine homes, becoming a major player in the development of Bisbee. I can imagine he found great satisfaction sitting on his front porch under the Queen Anne turret, looking down on the brewery he built in 1905. It remains standing today as the Stock Exchange Saloon and Grill.
Brewery Gulch in its day had a reputation for murder and mayhem. It was the roughest, baddest swamp of brothels and bars to be found west of St. Louis, Missouri. At one time, approximately 50 saloons entertained the miners and outlaws who drifted in and out of town. The district’s historic flavor is preserved in many old brick buildings, and at the 100-year-old St. Elmo’s Bar.
But Bisbee is not all firewater and funk. It does have some fine eateries. Café Roka has earned a solid reputation for consistently fine food since it opened in 1992. My husband and I dined on rack of lamb, as succulent as I’d ever had, in a relaxed atmosphere under hammered tin ceilings in one of the storefronts on Main Street. The Bisbee Breakfast Club did not disappoint, either. Housed in yet another old storefront in the Lowell District, it presented biscuits and gravy and breakfast burritos. The original café is so popular that five other locations have opened, four in Tucson.
Hillsides in Bisbee rise above the commercial district, which has historical buildings now filled by shops and restaurants.
As mining expanded, more homes for workers were needed. So, a major employer, the Calumet and Arizona Mining Company, built Arizona’s first planned community: Warren. It’s a suburb just south of Bisbee with comfy Craftsman-style cottages and bungalows surrounding a green park modeled after the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Today, although blighted in places, it’s still clearly a model suburb of the early 20th century. At its head, like benevolent sentinels, stand the splendid mansions of the mine owners.
The ideal American suburb would not be complete without a ballpark, and before Wrigley Field, there was Warren Ballpark. Built in 1909 by Calumet and Arizona, this canopy-covered stadium is still in its original condition, down to the concrete dugouts, locker rooms, and showers. Many major league exhibition games have been played in this 110-year-old state historic site.
RVers with a leisurely schedule after FMCA‘s Tucson convention may want to attend the annual Copper City Classic Vintage Base Ball Tournament, April 4 and 5, 2020, at Warren Ballpark. Teams dress in period uniforms and play by rules adopted in the 1860s. Games are played all day.
Bisbee is a quirky, one-of-a-kind place stuck in the desert just 12 miles from Mexico. It remains a living town, revealing to visitors its importance to America.
The Stock Exchange Saloon and Grill building welcomes patrons with 1905 architecture.
Details
Bisbee Tourism Center
8 Naco Road
Bisbee, AZ 85603
(520) 477-7329
www.bisbeetourismcenter.com
The Bisbee Tour Company is operated at the same location as the tourism center and uses the phone number above. It offers narrated golf-cart tours of town, in varying lengths. The tours are highly recommended by online reviewers.
Note that main streets in the valley area are navigable by folks with limited mobility, but Bisbee’s steep hillsides and narrow streets prevent access to some of the town’s attractions.
Several RV parks are located in town or in nearby areas. Check your favorite campground directory or app for more listings, and the campgrounds in the FMCA Marketplace online and in each January issue of Family RVing.
Bisbee RV Park Campground
1971 W. Newell St.
Naco, AZ 85620
(520) 505-1642
www.bisbeervpark.com
Desert Oasis Campground
5311 W. Double Adobe Road
McNeal, AZ 85617
(520) 979-6650
www.campatdo.com
Double Adobe Campground and Shotgun Sports, C13537*
5057 W. Double Adobe Road
McNeal, AZ 85617
(520) 364-4000
www.doubleadobe.com
Queen Mine RV Park
473 N. Dart Road
Bisbee, AZ 85603
(520) 432-5006
www.queenminervpark.com
Twin Buttes RV & Mobile Home Park
4027 N. Twin Buttes Court
Douglas, AZ 85607
(520) 364-7075
www.twinbuttesrvpark.com
*FMCA Commercial Member Campground