A classic boom-and-bust mining town, Bisbee (pop. 6,090) is one of the most satisfying off-beat destinations in Arizona, combining scenic beauty, palpable history, and a good range of places to eat, drink, and enjoy yourself. Climbing up winding streets lined by 100-year-old structures—Victorian cottages, board shacks, and stately brick churches—Bisbee has attracted a diverse population of desert rats, bikers, working artists, and New Age apostles, all of whom mix amiably in the town’s cafés and bars.
The heart of Bisbee lies north of old US-80 along Main Street, stretching west from the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum (daily 10 am–4 pm; $4), which displays dioramas, old photos, and sundry artifacts inside the old Phelps Dodge company headquarters. Main Street has many cafés, antique shops, art galleries, and restaurants.
For visitors, the main event in Bisbee is the Queen Mine. Put on a hard hat and a miner’s lamp and take a train ride down into the mine shafts and tunnels, which were in operation until World War II. Hour-long tours (daily; $12; 520/432-2071) leave every 90 minutes from the Queen Mine building, just south of downtown along old US-80.
One of Arizona’s most unforgettable sights, the massive Lavender Open Pit forms a gigantic polychrome crater along Hwy-80, just south of the Queen Mine. Named not for its color—which is more rusty red than purple—but for a mine superintendent, Harry Lavender, this was a true glory hole with ore deposits that provided the bulk of Bisbee’s eight billion pounds of copper before being shut down in 1974. The Queen Mine also offers hour-long tours ($7) of this mile-wide, 1,000-foot-deep pit.
