Saturday – April 18, 2015
Bisbee, Arizona
We spent the day exploring Bisbee, Arizona. We were rewarded with another sunny day, with the temperature in the mid-70s. Bisbee is a city in Cochise County, Arizona, 92 miles southeast of Tucson. According to the 2010 census, the population of the city was 5,575.
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 to Bisbee, where it remains.
From 1950 to 1960, the sharp population decline changed and the number of residents of Bisbee increased by nearly 160 percent when open-pit mining was undertaken and the city annexed nearby areas. The peak population was in 1960, at 9,914.
In the following decade, there was a decline in jobs and population, although not as severe as from 1930 to 1950. But, the economic volatility resulted in a crash in housing prices. Coupled with an attractive climate and picturesque scenery, Bisbee became a destination in the 1960s for artists and hippies of the counter culture.
Artist Stephen Hutchison and his wife Marcia purchased the Copper Queen Hotel, the town's anchor business and architectural gem, from the Phelps-Dodge mining company in 1970. The company had tried to find a local buyer, offering the deed to any local resident for the sum of $1.00, but there were no takers. The property needed renovation for continued use. Hutchison renovated the hotel, as well as other buildings in the downtown area. One held the early 20th-century Brewery and Stock Exchange. Hutchison began to market Bisbee as a destination of the "authentic," old Southwest. His work attracted the developer Ed Smart.
Among the many guests at the hotel have been celebrities from nearby California. Actor 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. This period of Bisbee's history is well documented in contemporary articles in The New Yorker and in an article by Cynthia Buchanan 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. Later it attracted people priced out by gentrification of places such as Aspen, Colorado.
In the 1990s, additional people have been attracted to Bisbee, leading it to develop such amenities as coffee shops and live theatre. Many of the old houses have been renovated, and property values in Bisbee now greatly exceed those of other southeastern Arizona cities.
Today, the historic city of Bisbee is known as "Old Bisbee" and is home to a thriving downtown cultural scene. This area is noted for its architecture, including Victorian-style houses and an elegant Art Deco county courthouse. Because its plan was laid out to a pedestrian scale before the automobile, Old Bisbee is compact and walkable. The town's hilly terrain is exemplified by the old four-story high school; each floor has a ground-level entrance.
We had a late lunch at the Café Cornucopia. Sharon had the tuna sandwich and I had the turkey sandwich with cheese, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, avocado and mayo. The sandwiches were outstanding and piled high with the tuna and turkey. We washed them down with a "BisBee Blaster" (a smoothie containing lemon and pineapple). A fitting high caloric ending to our walking tour of BisBee.
A religious shrine honoring the Holy Mother, by the Madrid family, is located on the north side of Arizona Highway 80, a few miles west of Bisbee.
Tomorrow another adventure begins.
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