History of Bisbee, Arizona
Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880, and named in honor of Judge DeWitt Bisbee, one of the financial backers of the adjacent Copper Queen Mine.
In 1929, the county seat was moved from Tombstone, Arizona, to Bisbee, where it remains.
A syndicated television series that aired from 1956–1958, Sheriff of Cochise starring John Bromfield, was filmed in Bisbee.
Mining Industry
Mining in the Mule Mountains proved quite successful: in the early 20th century the population of Bisbee soared. Incorporated in 1902, by 1910 its population swelled to 9,019 and it sported a constellation of suburbs, including Warren, Lowell, and San Jose, some of which had been founded on their own (ultimately less successful) mines. In 1917, open pit mining was successfully introduced to meet the heavy copper demand due to World War I.
High quality turquoise was a by-product of the copper mining and has been promoted as Bisbee Blue. Bisbee is noted for the astounding variety of copper-based minerals and the superb specimens that have been taken from its mines. Bisbee specimens can be found in museums worldwide. Cuprite, aragonite, wulfenite, malachite, azurite, and galena are just a few of the myriad variety of minerals that have been found underneath the town.
Bisbee Deportation
The Bisbee Deportation was the illegal deportation of about 1,300 striking mineworkers, their supporters, and citizen bystanders by 2,000 vigilantes on July 12, 1917. The workers and others were kidnapped in the U.S. town of Bisbee, Arizona and held at a local baseball park. They were then loaded onto cattle cars and transported 200 miles (320 km) for 16 hours through the desert without food or water. The deportees were unloaded at Hermanas, New Mexico, without money or transportation, and warned not to return to Bisbee.
Background
In 1917, the Phelps Dodge Corporation owned a number of copper and other mines in Arizona. Mining conditions in the region were difficult, and working conditions (including mine safety, pay, and camp living conditions) extremely poor. Discrimination against Mexican American workers by Caucasian supervisors was routine and extensive. During the winter of 1915–6, a successful if bitter four-month strike in the Clifton-Morenci district led to widespread discontent and unionization among miners in the state.
However, the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (IUMMSW) and its president, Charles Moyer, did little to support the nascent union movement. Between February and May 1917, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) stepped in and began signing up several hundred miners as members. The IWW formed Metal Mine Workers Union No. 800. Although Local 800 counted more than 1,000 members, only about 400 paid dues.
Strike
The town of Bisbee had about 8,000 citizens in 1917. The city was dominated by Phelps Dodge (which owned the Copper Queen Mining Company) and two other mining firms—the Calumet and Arizona Co., and the Shattuck Arizona Co. Phelps Dodge was by far the largest company in the area, and not only owned one of the three largest employers in town but also the largest hotel, the hospital, the only department store, the town library, and the town newspaper, the Bisbee Daily Review.
In May 1917, IWW Local 800 presented a list of demands to Phelps Dodge. They asked for an end to physical examinations (used by the mine owners to counter theft), two workers on each drilling machine, two men working the ore elevators, an end to blasting while men were in the mine, an end to the bonus system, no more assignment of construction work to miners, replacement of the sliding scale of wages with a $6.00 per day shift rate, and no discrimination against union members. The company flatly refused all the demands.
IWW Local 800 called a strike to begin on June 26, 1917. When the strike occurred as scheduled, not only the miners at Phelps Dodge but those at other mines also walked out. More than 3,000 miners—about 85 percent of all mineworkers in Bisbee—went on strike.
Although the strike was peaceful, local authorities immediately asked for federal troops to break the strike. Cochise County Sheriff Harry Wheeler set up his headquarters in Bisbee on the very first day of the strike. On July 2, Wheeler asked Republican Governor Thomas Edward Campbell to request federal troops, interpreting the situation against the background of World War I: "The whole thing appears to be pro-German and anti-American." Campbell quickly telegraphed the White House and made the request, but President Woodrow Wilson declined to send in the Army, and instead appointed former Arizona Governor George W. P. Hunt as a mediator.
The president of Phelps Dodge at the time was Walter S. Douglas. He was the son of Dr. James Douglas, developer of the Copper Queen mine and a member of the board of directors of the Phelps Dodge Corporation. Walter Douglas was a political opponent of Hunt and had virulently attacked him for refusing while he was governor to send the state militia to suppress strikes in the mining industry. Walter Douglas was also president of the American Mining Congress, an employer association, and had won office by vowing to break every union in every mine and restore the open shop. Determined to keep Bisbee free of IWW influence, in 1916 Douglas established a Citizens' Protective League composed of business leaders and middle-class local residents. He also organized a Workmens' Loyalty League, some of whose members were IUMMSW miners.
Deportations
Jerome
On July 5, 1917, an IWW local in Jerome, Arizona, struck Phelps Dodge. Douglas ordered his Phelps Dodge mine superintendents to remove the miners from the town. Mine supervisors, joined by 250 local businessmen and members of the IUMMSW, began rounding up suspected IWW members at dawn on July 10. More than 100 men were kidnapped by these vigilantes and held in the county jail (with the cooperation of the Yavapai County sheriff). Later that day, 67 of them were deported by train to Needles, California. When the IWW protested to Governor Campbell, he declared that the IWW had "threatened" the governor.
Bisbee
Striking miners and others rounded up by the armed posse on July 12, 1917, sit in the bleachers in Warren Ballpark. Armed members of the posse patrol the infield.
The Jerome deportation proved to be a test run for Phelps Dodge, which moved to implement the same plan in Bisbee.
On July 11, 1917, Sheriff Wheeler met with Phelps Dodge corporate executives to plan the deportation. Some 2,200 men from Bisbee and the nearby town of Douglas were recruited and deputized as a posse— one of the largest posse ever assembled. Phelps Dodge officials also met with executives of the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad, who agreed to provide rail transportation for any deportees. The morning of July 12, the Bisbee Daily Review carried a notice announcing that:
...a Sheriff's posse of 1,200 men in Bisbee and 1,000 men in Douglas, all loyal Americans, [had formed] for the purpose of arresting on the charges of vagrancy, treason, and of being disturbers of the peace of Cochise County all those strange men who have congregated here from other parts and sections for the purpose of harassing and intimidating all men who desire to pursue their daily toil.
A similar notice was posted throughout the town on fence posts, telephone poles and walls.
At 4:00 a.m. the 2,200 deputies dispersed through the town of Bisbee and took up their positions in pre-identified, strategic places. Each wore a white armband for identification, and carried a list of the men on strike. At 6:30 a.m., the deputies moved through town and arrested every man on their list as well as any man who refused to work in the mines. Several men who owned local grocery stores were also arrested, and the deputies helped themselves to the cash in the registers and to all the goods they could carry. Many male citizens of the town were arrested seemingly at random, and anyone who had voiced support for the strike or the IWW was also seized. Two men died: One was a deputy shot by a miner he had tried to arrest, and the other was the miner himself (shot dead by three other deputies moments later).
At 7:30 a.m., the 2,000 arrestees were assembled in front of the Bisbee Post Office and marched two miles (3 km) to Warren Ballpark. Sheriff Wheeler oversaw the march from a car outfitted with a loaded Marlin 7.62 mm belt-fed machine gun. At the baseball field, the arrestees were told that if they denounced the IWW and went back to work, they would be freed. Only men who were not IWW members or organizers were given this choice. About 700 men agreed to these terms, while the rest sang, jeered or shouted profanities.
At 11:00 a.m., 23 cattle cars belonging to the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad arrived in Bisbee. The remaining 1,286 arrestees were forced at gunpoint to board the cars, many of which had over three inches (76 mm) of manure on the floor. Although temperatures were in the mid-90s Fahrenheit, no water had been provided to the men since the arrests began at dawn.
The train stopped 10 miles (16 km) east of Douglas to take on water, some of which was provided to the deportees on the packed cars. Two machine guns guarded the train from nearby hilltops, while another 200 armed men patrolled the tracks. The train continued to Columbus, New Mexico (about 175 miles (282 km) away), arriving at about 9:30 p.m. The train slowly traveled another 20 miles (32 km) to Hermanas, not stopping until 3:00 a.m.
During the Bisbee Deportation, Phelps Dodge Corporation executives seized control of the telegraph and telephones to prevent news of the kidnappings from being reported. Company executives refused to let Western Union send wires out of town, and stopped Associated Press reporters from filing stories. News of the Bisbee Deportation was made known only after an IWW attorney, who met the train in Hermanas, issued a press release.
With 1,300 penniless men in Hermanas, the Luna County sheriff worriedly wired the Governor of New Mexico for instructions. Governor Washington Ellsworth Lindsey said the men should be treated humanely and fed, then urgently contacted President Wilson and asked for assistance. Wilson ordered U.S. Army troops to escort the men to Columbus. The deportees were housed in tents meant for Mexican refugees who had fled across the border to escape the Army's Pancho Villa Expedition. The men were allowed to stay in the camp until September 17, 1917.
Aftermath
From the day of the deportations until November 1917, the Citizens' Protective League ruled Bisbee. Operating from a building owned by the copper companies, its representatives interrogated residents about their political beliefs with respect to unions and the war and determined who could work or obtain a draft deferment. Sheriff Wheeler established guards at all entrances to Bisbee and Douglas. Anyone seeking to exit or enter the town over the next several months had to have a "passport" issued by Wheeler. Any adult male in town who was not known to the sheriff's men was brought before a secret sheriff's kangaroo court. Hundreds of citizens were tried and most of them were deported and threatened with lynching if they returned. Even long-time citizens of Bisbee were deported by this "court". Only a handful of deportees ever returned to Bisbee.
When ordered to cease these activities by the Arizona Attorney General, Wheeler fumbled to explain his actions. Asked what law supported his actions he answered: "I have no statute that I had in mind. Perhaps everything that I did wasn't legal....It became a question of 'Are you American, or are you not?'" He told the Attorney General: "I would repeat the operation any time I find my own people endangered by a mob composed of eighty percent aliens and enemies of my Government."
National press reaction to the Bisbee Deportation was muted. Although many newspapers carried stories about the event, most newspapers editorialized that the workers "must have" been violent and therefore "gotten what they deserved." Some major papers said that Sheriff Wheeler had gone too far, but declared that the sheriff should have imprisoned the miners rather than deported them. The New York Times criticized the violence on the part of the mine owners and suggested that mass arrests "on vagrancy charges" would have been appropriate. Former President Theodore Roosevelt announced his view that "no human being in his senses doubts that the men deported from Bisbee were bent on destruction and murder."
Then Secretary of Labor William Wilson
Deported citizens of Bisbee pleaded with President Wilson for protection and permission to return to their homes. In October 1917, Wilson appointed a commission of five individuals, led by Secretary of Labor William B. Wilson (with support from Assistant Secretary of Labor Felix Frankfurter), to investigate labor disputes in Arizona. The commission heard testimony during the first five days of November 1917. In its final report, issued on November 6, 1917, the commission denounced the Bisbee Deportation. "The deportation was wholly illegal and without authority in law, either State or Federal," the commissioners wrote.
On May 15, 1918, the U.S. Department of Justice ordered the arrest of 21 Phelps Dodge executives, Calumet and Arizona Co. executives, and several Bisbee and Cochise County elected leaders and law enforcement officers. The arrestees included Walter Douglas. Sheriff Wheeler was not arrested only because he was serving in France with the American Expeditionary Force during World War I. A pre-trial motion by the defense led a federal district court to release the 21 men on the grounds that no federal laws had been violated. The Justice Department appealed, but in United States v. Wheeler, 254 U.S. 281 (1920), Chief Justice Edward Douglass White wrote for an 8-to-1 majority that the U.S. Constitution did not empower the federal government to enforce the rights of the deportees. Rather it "necessarily assumed the continued possession by the states of the reserved power to deal with free residence, ingress and egress." Only in a case of "state discriminatory action" would the federal government have a role to play.
Arizona officials never initiated criminal proceedings in state court. Some workers filed civil suits, but in the first case the jury determined that the deportations represented good public policy and refused to grant relief. Most of the other suits were quietly dropped, although a few workers received payments in the range of $500 to $1,250.
The Bisbee deportations were later used as an argument in favor of stronger laws against unpopular speech. Such laws would empower the government to suppress disloyal speech and activity and remove the need for citizens groups to take actions the government could not. During World War I the federal government used the Sedition Act of 1918 to prosecute people for statements in opposition to the war or that even suggested a lack of enthusiasm for the war effort. At the end of the conflict, Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer and others advocated for a peacetime equivalent and used the Bisbee events as a justification. They claimed that the only reason people had taken the law into their own hands was that the government lacked the power to suppress radical sentiment directly. If the government were armed with appropriate legislation and the threat of long prison terms, private citizens would not feel the need to take the law into their own hands. Writing in 1920, Harvard Professor Zechariah Chafee mocked that view: "Doubtless some governmental action was required to protect pacifists and extreme radicals from mob violence, but incarceration for a period of twenty years seems a very queer kind of protection."
The later history of American deportations did not follow the precedent of Bisbee and Jerome, which were vigilante actions by private citizens. Instead, later deportations were authorized by law and executed by government agents, though their advisability as public policy and constitutionality were questioned by contemporaries and later analysts. The most notable include the deportation of supposed anarchists during the Red Scare of 1919-20; mass deportations of up to 2 million Mexicans and Mexican Americans in the 1930s; the relocation of 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps during World War II; the 1954 removal of approximately a million Mexican-Americans by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, in what is known as Operation Wetback.
Mining Decline and Closure
By 1950, boom times were over and the population of the City of Bisbee had dropped to less than 6,000, but the introduction of open-pit mining and continued underground work would see the town escape the fate of many of its early contemporaries. However, in 1975 the Phelps Dodge Corporation finally halted its Bisbee copper-mining operations. The resulting exodus of mine employees might have been the end of the town. Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the Bisbee underground mines in the summer of 1975. Bisbee Mayor Chuck Eads, with the generous cooperation of Phelps Dodge, brought to reality the idea of opening a mine tour through a portion of the world-famous Copper Queen Mine. Mayor Eads felt that history of mining should be kept alive in Bisbee and in a manner that would attract tourists to the community. Many faithful volunteers cleared thousands of tons of fallen rock and re-timbered the old workings. They were assisted by local individuals and groups who furnished support and food for the workers. The local effort came to the attention of a federal agency, the Economic Development Administration, which approved a large grant to the City of Bisbee to help the mine tour project and other improvements in downtown Bisbee designed to aid the tourist business. The Queen Mine Tour was officially opened to visitors on February 1, 1976. Since then, more than a million visitors, from all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries, have enjoyed the ride into the mountain on the underground mine tour train. Bisbee survived and remains as the county seat.
Modern Bisbee
The sudden flood of real estate onto the market and crash in housing prices, coupled with an attractive climate and picturesque scenery, led to Bisbee's subsequent rebirth as an artists' colony in the early 1970s. Chief among the visionaries who turned the ailing mining town into the tourist destination it later became, were three men who saw Bisbee's potential during this time of exodus. Artist Stephen Hutchison and his wife, Marcia, purchased the town's anchor business and architectural gem, The Copper Queen Hotel, from the Phelps-Dodge mining company in 1970 after the company had failed to find a local buyer. The deed to the hotel had been offered to any local resident for the sum of $1.00, with no success. Hutchison purchased and renovated the hotel, as well as other buildings in the downtown, which included a turn of the century Brewery and Stock Exchange. Hutchison began to actively market Bisbee as a destination where travelers could find the authentic, old southwest, complete with aging long-term hotel residents who would recount their experiences from their easy chairs on the vast hotel front porch. Hutchison's endeavors attracted another dynamic personality, developer Ed Smart, the second figure in Bisbee's '70's revitalization triumvirate. Among the many guests at the hotel were celebrities from nearby California. John Wayne was a frequent visitor to Bisbee and The Copper Queen. He befriended Hutchison and eventually partnered with Smart in his real estate ventures, completing the triumvirate. This period of Bisbee's history is well documented in contemporary articles in The New Yorker and in an article by Calvin Trillin in The Cornell Review. It was at this time that Bisbee became a haven for artists and hippies fleeing the larger cities of Arizona and California and, later, the increasing gentrification of places like Aspen, Colorado.
The rediscovery of Bisbee by baby boomers in the 1990s saw it develop a more polished look, complete with coffee shops and live theater. Many of the old houses have been renovated, and property values in Bisbee now greatly exceed those of other Southeastern Arizona cities.
Today, the original city of Bisbee is known as "Old Bisbee", and is home to a thriving downtown cultural scene. Old Bisbee is also noted for its architecture, including its Victorian style houses and elegant Art Deco courthouse. Because its plan was laid out before the automobile, Old Bisbee has an almost European feel. The town's hilly terrain is exemplified by the old four-story high school: each floor has a ground-level entrance.
Quirky
In the May–June 2000 issue of Modern Maturity, the AARP highlighted what they called the most 'alive' places to retire in the U.S. Bisbee was a runner-up as one of the "quirkiest" towns in America.
Gay Community
Bisbee is noted for its gay-friendliness, and its Gay Pride Days is considered one of the top 5 rural Gay Prides in the United States by the online site at gay.com. Bisbee gays have their own website at bisbeepride.com. The 2008 Bisbee Gay Pride celebrations included a Leather and Lace Street Party, poolside BBQ, a lingerie pub crawl, the Bert Lundy Dance Party, and a turn-of-the-century ball. Ten U.S. AIDS Memorial Quilt panels were on display at Bisbee's famed Copper Queen Hotel.
Suburbs
The city of Bisbee now includes the historic downtown Bisbee, as well as the geographically spaced but administratively combined satellite communities of Warren, Lowell, and San Jose. The Lowell and Warren townsites were founded around their own mining subdivisions before being purchased in large part by Phelps Dodge and then consolidated into Bisbee-proper during the early part of the twentieth century. There are also smaller neighborhoods interspersed between these larger boroughs including Galena, Bakerville, Tintown, South Bisbee, Briggs and Saginaw.
Warren has the distinction of being Arizona's first planned community. Although there were mines operating in the vicinity, it was primarily designed as a bedroom community for the more affluent citizens of the mining district. The centrally located Vista Park and its adjacent downtown area at one time comprised a thriving center of commerce. Warren boasts a fine collection of Arts and Crafts style bungalow houses, many of which are historically registered and can be visited by the public during the city's annual home tour. Since the exit of mining in the 1970s, Warren has seen a steady decline in its standard of living, but its residential district still houses a significant portion of the population and it boasts ownership of many public services including City Hall, Greenway Elementary School, Bisbee High School, and the historic Warren Ballpark.
Lowell was at one time a sizable mining town located just to the southeast of Old Bisbee. The majority of the original townsite was consumed by the excavation of the Lavender Pit mine during the 1950s. All that is left today is a small portion of Erie Street, along with Evergreen Cemetery, Saginaw subdivision and Lowell Middle School. These days Lowell is considered by most of the local residents to be more of a place name than an actual community.
San Jose, on the southern side of the Mule Mountains, is the most modern of the city's subdivisions, and has seen the most new growth in the last two decades as it is not restricted by mountains. Named after a nearby Mexican mountain peak, it hosts many newer county government buildings, Huachuca Terrace Elementary School, and a large shopping center.
Resurgence of mining industry
In 2007, in what has been noted as the world's biggest-ever mining takeover, Freeport-McMoRan Copper & Gold bought Phelps Dodge Mining and has begun some preliminary work in the area.
History of the Copper Queen Hotel
The Copper Queen Hotel started in 1898 and completed in 1902, was the product of a booming mining camp called Bisbee. Once the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco, it is now a beautiful, quiet getaway. While the town of Bisbee has “grown up,” it has not lost its charm. Soon after Bisbee became a town, Phelps Dodge Mining Company built the Copper Queen Hotel as a place for dignitaries and investors to relax in luxury.
Construction was difficult because Phelps Dodge had to blast away and clear a large portion of the mountainside in order for building to begin. Although the most modern and up to date materials were used, it did not lessen the difficulty of each task. In order for concrete to be mixed, water had to be pumped up the hill from the mercantile, what is now called Copper Queen Plaza, on Main Street. The walls were constructed to be nearly 2 feet thick, which helps keep the hotel cool during the summer months.
Once the hotel was completed, anyone who walked through the doors would notice the mosaic tile from Italy. Since the hotel was built in an Italian style, the tile was installed throughout the entire first floor lobby; the remaining tile can be seen in the hotel entrance. As the story goes, the cathedral ceiling in the Palm Room was all fitted with Tiffany glass. Nobody knows when it came down or what happened to it. There was an open-air hallway behind two large windows along the southeast wall that acted as air conditioning for that era. The front desk was fabricated out of Tiger Oak and was surrounded with a wrought iron security cage. The unique safe behind the desk was once used at the Copper Mine until it became too small for the company payroll, which was all paid in cash. It was then passed down to the Copper Queen Hotel. Phelps Dodge cleverly paid their employees in cash, to have their money quickly returned to them in goods and drinks.
The Copper Queen Hotel was one of the most modern hotels in the west during that time. One can only imagine what changes the hotel has gone through to accommodate the modern day traveler.
Initially, the first floor was heated by a fireplace in the lobby. Now, the first floor has central air and heat. Originally, the hotel boasted 73 rooms with shared baths at the end of the hall on each floor. Today, the original hotel has 48 rooms with turn of the century Victorian charm, each room having its own modern private bath. The courtyard building adjacent to the hotel was originally built in 1904 to house Phelps Dodge’s lawyers’ offices as well as the surveyor’s and Western Union offices after they moved out of what is now the Saloon. This building was later converted to a bed and breakfast and bought back by the Copper Queen Hotel in 2006 giving the hotel a total of 52 rooms. The courtyard rooms are also decorated in a Victorian style and located just steps away from the hotel. The courtyard is brick-inlaid and has a relaxing fountain and wrought iron furniture to sit, relax and enjoy the day.
There are actually five floors to the hotel now, but the fifth floor is only a large room containing the mechanics of the elevator. Neither the elevator nor the fifth floor was original to the hotel when it was built. In fact, Phelps Dodge purchased a used 1939 model elevator and had it installed in 1944. To accommodate the elevator, the staircase had to be reconfigured and the second floor mezzanine was enclosed. It might be hard to believe, but the mezzanine was originally an open air space. The Copper Queen Hotel is the first and only hotel in Bisbee that has an elevator.
At one time, the hotel did have a parking lot. Cars would be parked three and four deep and you could not access your vehicle until you checked out. In the mid-1970's they decided that a pool would be a benefit to the hotel and it was installed where the parking lot used to be. What’s unusual about the location of the pool is that you’re at ground level, but on the second floor of the hotel. The pool offers spectacular views of what locals call, “B Hill”. The pool is heated from the sun during season with solar panels. While the hotel no longer has a dedicated parking lot, there is a city owned public lot approximately a half a block west of the hotel, behind the YWCA.
When the hotel was originally built the Saloon was actually about a quarter of the size that it is today with seating for about 12 people. The rest of the Saloon was used as office space for the Chamber of Commerce, the land surveyor and the Western Union office. Since then, it has been expanded to what you see today. Of interest in the Saloon is the 100+ year old, nearly life size, portrait of Lillie Langtry. Lillie was a stage actress from Jersey, England around the turn of the century. Legend has it that she was the love interest of Edward, Prince of Wales, later to be King Edward VII. She was Judge Roy Bean of Texas’ lady love, but he never met her.
Queen Mine Tour History
BISBEE - a name to stir the interest of mining men everywhere - has been one of the greatest copper camps the world has ever known. In almost 100 years of continuous production before the Bisbee mines closed in 1975, the local mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 price) one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world. This staggering amount of wealth came from the estimated production of 8,032,352,000 lbs of copper, 2,871,786 ounces of gold, 77,162,986 ounces of silver, 304,627,600 lbs of lead and 371,945,900 lbs of zinc!
Today’s Queen Mine Tour takes visitors deep into the old workings of the famous Queen Mine where great tonnages of extremely rich copper ore was mined in the early days, catching the attention of the mining industry around the world as one of the greatest treasure troves of copper ever discovered.
Taking the Queen Mine Tour is to step back through the pages of history. A melting pot of immigrant miners from the mining districts of Europe labored beneath the Mule Mountains to feed the insatiable demand for copper and electricity. The electrical age changed the World from a predominantly rural society to the industrial age, bringing with it the highest standard of living the world has ever known.
Early Bisbee Mining History
The story of Bisbee mining began in the late 1870’s when Lt. Dunn, in charge of a cavalry detail from the frontier Army post of Fort Huachuca, was on a scouting mission against the Apache Indians. Lt. Dunn and his men headed for a spring in the Mule Mountains to camp for the night. The party camped on a spot of fairly flat ground in the canyon below the spring—a site now occupied by Old Bisbee, only several hundred yards from the beginning of today’s Mine Tour.
On a walk after dinner, Lt. Dunn picked up an interesting rock. He found a few more pieces along the slope of the south wall of the canyon. Unable to do anything about it because of military duties, Dunn took a prospector by the name of George Warren into his confidence and struck up a deal by which Warren would locate claims and work the property with Dunn as a partner. But on his way to the site, prospector Warren stopped to visit some friends and enjoy his favorite pastime—whiskey drinking. He soon has new partners and they staked a new group of claims and left Dunn out of the deal. When Dunn came along later to check, he was on the outside looking in.
Copper production began on a limited basis around 1880. Individuals and then companies with capital gradually became involved and took over individual claims and brought them into production. Phelps Dodge Corporation, through a subsidiary the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, became the dominant force and eventually the sole operator of the mining district. Building on its base in Bisbee, Phelps Dodge has long been one of the largest copper producers in the United States.
History of the Bisbee Queen Mine Tour
Phelps Dodge Corporation closed the Bisbee underground mines in the summer of 1975. Bisbee Mayor Chuck Eads, with the generous cooperation of Phelps Dodge, brought to reality the idea of opening a mine tour through a portion of the world-famous copper Queen Mine. Mayor Eads felt that history of mining should be kept alive in Bisbee and in a manner that would attract tourists to the community. Many faithful volunteers cleared thousands of tons of fallen rock and re-timbered the old workings. They were assisted by local individuals and groups who furnished support and food for the workers. The local effort came to the attention of a federal agency, the Economic Development Administration, which approved a large grant to the City of Bisbee to help the mine tour project and other improvements in downtown Bisbee designed to aid the tourist business.
The Queen Mine Tour was officially opened to visitors on February 1, 1976. Since then, more than a million visitors, from all 50 states and more than 30 foreign countries, have enjoyed the ride into the mountain on the underground mine tour train.
The Queen Mine Tour is an authentic mining experience and the tour guides are all experienced miners, having worked in the local mines for many years, and assure you a safe tour set against a background of factual information.
We hope you enjoy your Queen Mine Tour visit and your brief journey through the pages of time.
Queen Mine Tour Facts
* February 1976 – the Queen Mine Tour opens as a tourist attraction; Chuck Eads, Bisbee's mayor at the time, established the mine tour to keep miners employed
* More than 1 million visitors have toured the mine since it opened as a tourist attraction in 1976
* Currently, about 50,000 people tour the Queen Mine each year
* Visitors from all 50 states and more than 30 countries have toured the mine
* Tour participants travel 1,500 feet into the underground mine
* The Queen Mine Tour employs 12 people on a daily basis
* Bisbee's mines, of which the Queen Mine is just one, include more than 2,500 miles of tunnels
Bisbee's Mining History Tidbits
In 1875, Hugh Jones discovers copper, but leaves, disappointed that it's not silver.
Two years after Jones leaves, Army scout Jack Dunn finds ore, but is unable to leave his post. George Warren strikes a deal with Dunn and his partners to establish a claim. Later, he loses the stake in a horse race. A colorful character, Warren is on Arizona's state seal.
San Francisco's DeWitt Bisbee, purchases the Queen Mine with a group of investors in 1880. The town is later named for Bisbee, but he never visited.
Bisbee's mines produced:
* 8 billion pounds of copper
* 2.8 million ounces of gold
* 77 million pounds of silver
* 30 million pounds of lead
* 371 million pounds of zinc
History of Cochise County
Cochise County was set apart from Pima County and organized in 1881, and was named for the famous Apache chief, Cochise, who, with a band of Chiricahuas, made his stronghold on the Dragoon range of mountains, and, like an European robber-baron of the 'Middle Ages, swooped down on those who passed along on the plains below and robbed and murdered without mercy. So bold was he in his depredations, and such terror did he inspire in the breasts of all, that no one finally dared venture within striking distance of the raids of this terrible mountain bandit. Indeed, it was not until he was starved out of his stronghold and happily hanged, that anything like an attempt was made to settle up the county, now called by his name, or to develop its varied and valuable resources.
Little was done in this section of the Territory prior to the Civil War, save a few settlements on the San Pedro and at minor points. Hence the history proper of this county may be said to have begun with the discovery of the mines in the Tombstone district in 1878, antedating the organization of the county by the space of three years.
Prior to 1878 the country beyond the San Pedro was given over to a domination of the Apache outside of the one traveled wagon road to the east. The grassy plains and hills were bare of cattle, and its mineral treasures were but in the imagination of the curious. In February, 1878, Ed Scheffelin, a prospector, who had tramped much of the territory in vain, stumbled across the droppings of what is now known as the Toughnut mine and located several claims upon the ledge. It was about the time that the Comstocks and Bodie were showing signs of collapse, and the miners of the coast flocked by the hundreds to the new discovery. A city of tents sprung up and by June 1879 a stampmill was in operation. The mines had not been overrated: they were veritable bonanzas. and (luring their season of activity have produced over $25,000,000, about $5,000,000 of which took the form of dividends to the stockholders. Full $7,000.000 more was spent upon hoisting plants and milling machinery. Up to 1885 was the busy time, when the burning of the hoisting works of the Grand Central mine cast a gloom over the camp, and the water gained upon the miners, and the main properties were closed down for a long season of inactivity. The ore on the lower levels is of high grade, and there yet remain vast quantities of it. But to reach the ore it would be necessary to inaugurate a combination pumping plant that would cost in the neighborhood of $1,000,000, and this expense the mine owners are not inclined to put upon themselves until assured of the future of silver. With a combination of capital the mines will yet be cleared of water, and operations resumed on as grand a scale as ever before.
Mr. John Montgomery, one of the early correspondents of the "Citizen," writing from San Pedro, A. T., February 7th, 1871, gives the following description of the settlement and subsequent growth of the San Pedro valley, and the afflictions they endured at the hands of the remorseless Apaches up to that time. It will be appreciated by many of the old-timers:
"The lands here were first located December 15. 1865, by Mark Aldrich, John H. Archibald, F. Burthold, Jarvis Jackson, John Montgomery and H. Brown of Tucson. A crop of wheat and barley was planted. In February, 1866, the work was commenced on the ditch to convey water to the land. By April 25 all were ready to plant a corn crop. Houses had been built and land secured.