Our friends Debbie & Dale stopped by the park on their way to Las Vegas and stayed for a few days. We hadn't seen them since the 4th of July in Rapid City, SD and we caught up on each others travels. They went full-timing 2 years ago and are still in the move around a lot stage, but needed a break from that.
They hadn't been to Bisbee so we decided to head that way via Sierra Vista and Naco on the back roads. They weren't that impressed with the border fence or Naco. Neither were we.
We stopped in Lowell, AZ which is next to Bisbee and the old main street is unchanged since 35-40 years ago. When the copper mine closed down it seemed like time stood still for Lowell.
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| Lavender pit at end of the road |
The end of main street is the beginning of the Lavender Pit copper mine. While it isn't the biggest copper pit we've seen, it is quite deep and leaves an ugly scar on the landscape of the area.
Bisbee is on the other side of the copper pit and it is a vibrant town to this day. Once the mines closed and homes were hard to sell, the artists found the place and have spruced it up a lot. There is a nice museum in the center of town with many pieces of equipment from the old Queen Mine on display.
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| Engine to pull mine cars. |
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| Explosives and latrine cars with the engine |
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| Elevator to go down in the mine. |
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| Steam hoist |
Bisbee is a place that has to been seen in person to appreciate it. We drove over 210 miles on the little jaunt and were tired out when we returned. We saw a lot and I'll add some more in the next blog about that.
We really enjoyed Bisbee. The Breakfast Club was a great place to stop. Climbing all the steps can be a killer.
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