Another rest day we spent in Bisbee Arizona.What a kooky place!
From http://www.discoverbisbee.com/about_hist.htm: Bisbee, 90 miles southeast of Tucson and nestled amongst the Mule Mountains, is the picturesque county seat of historic Cochise County. The community was founded in 1880 and named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee, a financial backer of the Copper Queen Mine.
Once known as “the Queen of the Copper Camps”, this Old West mining camp proved to be one of the richest mineral sites in the world, producing nearly three million ounces of gold and more than eight billion pounds of copper, not to mention the silver, lead and zinc that came from these rich Mule Mountains. By the early 1900s, the Bisbee community was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco.
Bisbee, with a population of over 20,000 people in the early 1900’s, had become one of the most cultured cities in the Southwest. Despite its culture, however, the rough edges of the mining camps could be found in notorious Brewery Gulch, with its saloons and shady ladies. Brewery Gulch, which in its heyday boasted upwards of 47 saloons and was considered the "liveliest spot between El Paso and San Francisco". Bisbee offered other recreational pursuits in that it was home to the state’s first community library, a popular opera house, the state’s oldest ball fields and the state’s first golf course.
We arrived in Bisbee and decided just to walk around. This cool little town has the oddest combination of people. There are cowboys. And new-age folks. And street people. All together. Such a visual array!
Some friends had recommended that we go to the Bisbee Bicycle Brothel. What a cool bike shop. Most of the bikes there are not for sale and are historical pieces. So much memorabilia as well. We spent a fair amount of time talking with the owner about biking and other assorted stuff.
Then we headed to a nearby market where we could shop and get a sandwich. The food was good. Though the market had very little inventory, what they had was quite epicurean. We bought some wasabi powder and ogled some of the other goodies available.
After a fair bit of wandering around we headed back to Cochise.
1 comment:
Ah Bisbee! - a splendid burg we recall well from a forced exploration when a train was blocking the road. We were told the cows there "were like ambulatory leather husks that would eat anything - tires, trees, fence posts"
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