Bisbee, AZ

BISBEE

The Copper Queen of Southeast Arizona

Gary Speck

Twenty-one miles south of Tombstone, Arizona, State Highway (SH) 80 passes through “The Divide”, and drops into Tombstone Canyon. Rounding a bend, and tucked into the dry, scrub-covered folds of the Mule Mountains, is the wonderfully picturesque and history-filled former copper mining center of Bisbee. Just southeast of Bisbee, is the Lavender Pit, Bisbee’s largest monument to Queen Copper. Beyond that, op the south and east, a handful of sad suburbs squat across the flats.

Bisbee is a must stop when you visit southeastern Arizona. It is one of America’s best-preserved, and least touristy major mining towns. Absorb the flavor and ambiance of the Copper Queen of Southeast Arizona by walking Main Street, Brewery Avenue, OK Street, and the multitude of smaller streets that end up in dead-end gulches. Savor the warmth and individuality of the brick and stone, multi-story buildings housing services such the post office, library, Chamber of Commerce, city and county buildings; as well as the antique shops, art galleries, gift shops, mineral stores, museums and restaurants. With a full-time population hovering around 6,000, Bisbee is no ghost town; but a former mining town savoring its rich heritage of the days when it was one of the largest company towns in the West. The mines pumped out nearly three million ounces of gold, a million ounces of silver, nearly four million pounds of lead, 3.8 million pounds of zinc, and over eight billion pounds of copper.

Today Bisbee’s mines no longer produce their precious treasures, but tours are given of the Queen Mine, and some 60,000 people per year take that tour. The colorful town has been used in many movies, and Bisbee has become a haven for artists, writers, and other “free spirits.” Bisbee also hosts a number of annual events, including the La Vuelta de Bisbee (nationally known bicycle races), Bisbee Art Festival, and Brewery Gulch Days, among many others. Despite the popularity of the town as a vacation destination, it still retains the flavor of the “good old days”, without all the hype that seems to permeate the surviving Western mining towns. The good old days are what we will explore.

Bisbee is jammed into the canyons on the south flank of the Mule Mountains so tightly, that as the town grew, folks had to spread out south of the mine on flatter ground. Some of the suburbs that are still identifiable include LOWELL with its wonderful nearly deserted main street, bustling WARREN, and spread out SAN JOSE. Other faded ‘burbs include BAKERVILLE, BRIGGS, DON LUIS, GALENA, HUACHUCA TERRACE, JIGGERVILLE, SAGINAW, SOUTH BISBEE, TINTOWN and.

Bisbee’s story begins with three prospectors, named Hugh Jones, Joseph Halcro and Harry McCoy, discovering a copper stained outcropping of rocks. They filed their claim on December 14, 1877. A year later, on Dec 15, 1878, a second claim was filed on the site of the Halcro Mine, as the original discoverers neglected their annual assessment work and the claim legally lapsed. George Eddleman and Marcus Herring refiled on the claim, calling it the Copper Queen. 46 other claims were filed that year, and 53 were added in 1879. A rough-and-tumble mining camp grew up slowly, and was informally called Mule Gulch.

Serious development of the Copper Queen began in June 1880 when the owners searched out investors. The W. H. Martin Company, owned by William Martin and John Ballard, put up the money needed, much of it coming from the “tight pockets” of Judge DeWitt Bisbee. Martin arrived at the mine to run the operation.

The mining camp’s denizens were so happy the camp’s major mine was financed, so they named the budding town Bisbee, in honor of Judge Bisbee. Ore was rough processed on site, and finished up at various smelters across the country, including the Chemical Copper Co., a smelter in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania. Eastern investor Benjamin Silliman held a million dollar option on the Copper Queen Mine and also happened to be a major shareholder in the Pennsylvania smelter firm run by James Douglas. Douglas recognized the rich ore for what it was, and let Silliman know how rich the ore actually was. Douglas recommended that his friend buy the mine. Silliman sent Douglas to visit Arizona and the Mule Canyon mines in January 1881. When he arrived he wasn’t all that much impressed by the mining camp of Bisbee, but the mines did attract his attention. Silliman tried but failed to get financial backing to purchase the entire mine from his partners, as Martin was in a selling mood.

William Dodge, of Phelps, Dodge and Co., a New York mercantile firm also knew James Douglas. Dodge was interested in investing in some Arizona mining properties, so when Douglas returned to the east, Dodge asked him to return to Arizona and inspect some properties. He was to look at mines in Clifton (at Morenci), Verde (Jerome), and the Atlanta Mine, right next to the Copper Queen in Bisbee. In July, Douglas purchased the Clifton mines, and returned to Bisbee to look over the Atlanta and the Copper Queen mines. He recommended the purchase of the Atlanta, and it was made. For his fee, he retained a 10% interest in the mine. Martin was willing to sell the Copper Queen for $1,000,000, so Douglas forwarded that information to Phelps, Dodge, and Co., but they declined to purchase it. For several years the Atlanta and the Copper Queen properties were mined, but in 1884 the ore ran out, as the ore body was cut off by an underground fault. $60,000 was needed for exploratory work to search for new ore bodies. Once that was spent, Douglas contacted his Phelps, Dodge, and Co., and asked for an additional $15,000. They sent it with the caveat that this would be the last money expended on the mine, unless it paid off.

In July 1884, at 210 feet a phenomenally rich ore body was discovered, and it was found the ore body extended into the Copper Queen property. Douglas and Martin negotiated a merger of the two companies, and in August 1885, the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company was formed. The Atlanta owners retaining a 2/7 share, and the Copper Queen owners got a 5/7 portion. A short time later Martin sold to Douglas and Phelps Dodge. They convinced several other major shareholders to sell out also, and P-D soon obtained a 90% share in the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Co. Bisbee’s boom was underway, and Phelps, Dodge and Co., became a major player on the western mining scene. They consolidated their interests, and both Morenci and Bisbee grew into company towns.

In 1889 the railroad came to Bisbee, linking it with the outside world. Phelps, Dodge, and Co., continued to purchase other mines in the district and by the mid 1890s owned most of the properties in Bisbee.

By the turn of the 20^th century, Bisbee had become one of the most important mining cities in the country. In 1900 it incorporated, and growth was rampant. Over 20,000 people called the booming metropolis home (some sources claim as high as 35,000). In 1908 a streetcar line ran between Bisbee and the nearby residential suburb of Warren.

On October 14, 1908 the worst fire to hit Bisbee was caused by the explosion of a gasoline stove in the Grand Hotel. Before the ashes were even cool, Bisbee’s main street was gone, as were the homes of some 500 people. Water was in short supply, so buildings were dynamited to create firebreaks, and most of the town was saved. Yet Bisbee rose from the ashes bigger and better than ever. Reconstruction was complete by 1910, and today, Main Street is a museum of 1910 architecture.

In 1930, the mines took a major hit by the Depression, and thousands of miners found themselves without jobs. Yet Bisbee was still vigorous enough so that in 1931 the Cochise County seat was wrested from Tombstone and re-established in Bisbee, where it still remains. In 1935 a major strike idled the remaining still-working miners. The strikes ended, the Depression ended, and by the end of the decade the miners were working again.

In 1954, excavation on the huge low-grade ore pile called Sacramento Hill began. Twenty years later, on December 14, 1974, mining stopped. The thousand-foot deep open pit Lavender Pit had replaced the hill. Its closing was followed by the closing of the underground workings in June 1975. Over 1500 miles of tunnels, adits, and shafts laced the underside of the Mule Mountains in and around Bisbee. There were dozens of shafts and headframes, and most everything belonged to the all-powerful Copper Queen Mine, and its parent company Phelps Dodge Corp.

Bisbee never was established originally or developed specifically as a company-owned town. However, much of the town was bought up by and heavily influenced by “The Company”. There were still many privately owned businesses and most of the homes were privately owned.

Bisbee was and is an anomaly. Next time you visit Arizona, journey to the Copper Queen of Southeastern Arizona. You won’t be disappointed.

POPULATION FIGURES:

· 1900 – 20,000 (est)

· 1930 - 8023

· 1970 – 8328

· 1980 – 7154

· 1990 – 6288

· 2000 – 6090

· 2010 - 5575

LOCATION:

· Sec 8, W½ Sec 9, T23S, R24E, Gila & Salt River Meridian

· Latitude: 31.4481547 / 31° 26' 53" N

· Longitude: -109.9284084 / 109° 55' 42" W

This was our GHOST TOWN OF THE MONTH for July 2002

This is one of the towns featured in my newest book, GHOST TOWNS: Yesterday & Today^TM^.

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FIRST POSTED: July 01, 2002

LAST UPDATED: April 29, 2011

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