Discovering Bisbee: Arizona’s Hidden Gem in the Mule Mountains

Arizona, known for its year-round sun and warm temperatures, has become a premier place to escape the cold of winter for many RVers. But that is not the only reason Arizona gets a lot of visitors looking for a place to reside in the winter. Throughout Arizona there are natural wonders that will stop visitors in their tracks. The state is filled with astonishing natural landscapes and the cultural traditions of the indigenous people who continue to inhabit several of these cherished places. There is also a storied history of mining towns where the Wild West comes alive again today with re-enactments of famous shootouts on main street. A person can create their own unique experience in this part of the Southwest. Arizona has something to satisfy everyone’s interests.We were fortunate enough to spend a several months this year in Arizona and have already started plotting our return. One of our favorite stops was an old mining town located 90 miles southeast of Tucson and nestled among the Mule Mountains: Bisbee. Bisbee is the county seat of historic Cochise County. This old mining town was once one of the largest cities in Arizona. The town of Bisbee has embraced an art theme and its historic past.

Both the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum and the Bisbee Restoration Museum chronicle the city’s copper-mining past. The vast Queen Mine offers underground tours and is a must-do when visiting Bisbee. Homes that once belonged to miners run up Tombstone Canyon from Old Bisbee, the historic town center. With a few old hotels and the Muheim Heritage House, with its restored interior and 19th-century furniture, history buffs will fall in love with the quirky town of Bisbee.

Today, Old Bisbee is home to a thriving downtown cultural scene.  While in town, seek out the alleyway that has original paintings by local artists lining the upward path and stairs to get the full vibe of what Bisbee is about. Some locals refer to Bisbee as “Mayberry on Acid”; they even sell bumper stickers with this phrase in some of the shops in town. We found the town friendly, (yes) quirky, but very welcoming to the visitors who come to visit the Queen Mine or the local brewery or to shop in the small stores that line the streets.Old Bisbee is also known for its architecture, Victorian-style houses, and an art deco county courthouse. Originally, the town was laid out for pedestrian traffic, before the automobile, so you will find Old Bisbee very walkable. Something unique to this town is the old three-story high school that has a street-level entrance on each floor because of the hilly terrain.The main attraction in our opinion is the Queen Mine, which was one of the richest copper mines in history. The mine opened in 1877 and closed when mining operations were discontinued in Bisbee in the mid-1970s. The Queen Mine opened once again in 1976 to provide tours for visitors, nearly 100 years after the mine originally opened. Taking the tour is an experience that is both educational and entertaining.

Tour Rates: $16 for adults; $8 for age 6-12 (taxes included). Children under 6 are not allowed underground. Reserve your spot well in advance as the tours fill up fast during high season.The moment you walk into the Queen Mine, you step into the fascinating world of mining. First you line up, where you are issued your hard hat, miner’s headlamp, and safety vest, preparing you for the adventure beneath the surface. Every year, around 50,000 visitors sign up to plunge into the depths of the Queen Mine. This truly is an adventure that takes you back in time to when miners straddled mining trains that would take them deep into the earth to abstract silver and copper.You will be given some instruction and a safety briefing prior to your ½-mile journey underground on one of the original mining trains. The moment I straddled the seat, I felt a sense of nerves and excitement of the unknown, fully aware I had signed a waiver acknowledging this activity involved some amount of risk. During the tour, we made a couple of stops where the tour guide passionately gave in-depth descriptions of what daily work was like for the miners. We highly recommend this tour!After your tour, you should venture into town and eat at one of the several restaurants, bakery, or the Ballpark Brewing Company to sample some of the local flavors. We opted for a meal at the1902 The Spirit Room, a fine-dining restaurant located in the Copper Queen Hotel that offers lunch and dinner. The décor matches the historic theme of the town, and the dining experience didn’t disappoint.

If you’re interested in learning more about Bisbee, go to our YouTube channel — Next Trekking Adventure — where we posted a video of our time in Bisbee.

 

We are Mark & Teri Nisbett of Next Trekking Adventure, and you can find us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. We are high school sweethearts who sold our bricks-and-sticks home of 30 years to travel full-time. We travel in our 2022 Montana High Country fifth-wheel, towed by our Ford F-350 Super Duty truck. We had a rough start to our full-time travel, as five weeks into our adventures we lost our RV to a fire at an RV park. But we didn’t give up on our dreams of seeing the United States. We purchased a new fifth-wheel and pushed on with our RV life. We love sharing our adventures on our YouTube channel and can’t wait to share our season of adventures in Yellowstone National Park with you.