SW USA 2024: The Canadian Coddiwomplers*

*Coddiwomple: “to travel in a purposeful manner towards a vague destination."

Bisbee

Bisbee was named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee and part owner of the Phelps Dodge Company’s Copper Queen Mine.

On our way to Bisbee we went further south and closer to the Mexican Border. We started to see more of the Saguaro Cactus and fewer Yucca. This is the unusual plant we saw around Marfa and forgot to put the picture in the blog, so here it is now.

Someone told Jerry this was a Yucca plant

Sometimes while driving, I will check out what’s to do at our next destination and I looked up Bisbee. Apparently, it is quite the haunted town. We called to book a Ghost Tour by golf cart for the evening we arrived. Unfortunately, there was a fire on Main Street in Bisbee the night before so the tour people weren’t sure what was happening that evening. She promised to call us back.

It was a very enjoyable drive to our campground, The Desert Oasis RV Campground is about 6 miles from Bisbee and yes it’s in the desert. The host warned us about rattlesnakes and javelinas (they are like wild boars) wandering in the grounds!

The drive to Bisbee

Many towns/cities like to place a huge initial on the local hill/mountain. We found out in Tucson that this was done and maintained by university students. As far as we know there is no university in Bisbee, maybe it's the ghosts.

Bisbee lights up at night

The Ghost Tour was on so we made our way to the old town and the meet-up spot in front of the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. Turned out we were the only people signed up for the golf cart tour, there were several others on a similar walking tour. Bisbee was built upwards – up the side of the mountain and there are numerous hills and stairs and wonky streets, I was very glad we choose the cart tour. Our guide, Obo, appeared and at first I thought he was in costume but no he just naturally looked like a ghost.

Look for the "girl" in the glass...

The night was very cold and dark. Obo was new to the tour company and gave us the impression this was his first time doing the tour on his own. He was very nice, a mite quirky but not confident or very knowledgeable. I of course kept asking questions that threw him off. We saw a number of interesting buildings and heard a few ghost stories, Obo also threw in a bit of history.

In 1877, Bisbee became a booming place once copper, lead and silver were discovered in the Mule Mountains and like Dawson City it attracted lots of bars and brothels. We drove to Brewery Avenue where one of the original bars, the St. Elmo Bar (1902), is still standing. Legends says that in the bottles lined up at the back of the bar are the cremated remains of every bartender who ever worked there – I think that custom has ended though because Obo knows the current bartender and he does not want his remains in a bottle behind the bar.

The street is referred to as The Gulch – I think because of the wild behaviour and drunkenness that happened there in Bisbee’s heyday when supposedly the street was just mud and slime. The Gulch hosted over 50 saloons. The women of Bisbee would never venture to the Gulch. However, there is a street higher up the mountain and closer to Main Street called OK Street where it was OK for women to walk.

Several paranormal investigators have been to Bisbee including a few TV shows, like Ghost Hunters. We visited a supposed haunted hotel that had a spectacular room filled with paper lanterns. It seems the custom for hotels in the old town is to have a visitor book where guests record their supernatural experiences. This hotel has a ghost cat and Obo showed us a picture of two glowing green eyes and a vague outline of a cat crouched on the staircase.

At our last stop, The Copper Queen Hotel, we joined up with the walking tour and heard great stories from their guide. The Copper Queen is the home of several ghosts and we heard about Billy who likes to play with children and hide items belonging to guests, a man in evening dress complete with cape and top hat who often appears in a cloud of cigar smoke and perhaps the most famous pf Bisbee’s ghosts, The Lady in White. The lady was Miss Julia Lowell who occupied Room 315 that had access to a fire escape. This allowed her many “gentlemen callers” to come and go anonymously. In the 1920s, prostitution was still tolerated in Arizona. Unfortunately, Miss Julia fell in love with a client who rejected her and she hung herself from the fire escape. However, she still plies her trade at the hotel appearing mainly to gentlemen guests. Some have reported being awakened by Julia, in the buff, tickling their feet or whispering in their ear. She also dances seductively and smiles as she fades away.

The Copper Queen Hotel - Obo is at the right edge of the shot.

Most of the walking tour people were staying here and hoping to encounter one of the spirits. The Copper Queen has an extensive collection of “guest books” on display.

It was so cold that we were quite happy to return to our cozy trailer.

The next day we ventured into town to see it in daylight. The fire on Main Street was the topic of conversation everywhere we went. Only two buildings were destroyed and part of the street was still closed.

Restroom in our lunch stop

After the fire

Mining remnants

Jerry found a very interesting coffee roaster in town and we just happened to be at the location when he was there for a pick up. Seth Appell, the owner of Old Bisbee Roasters, started out roasting in his home. He gives out samples of expresso on the weekends but does not sell coffee drinks, just beans. The business has become so successful that he’s moved his roasting facility to a larger warehouse and plans to use the downtown location to hold classes on how to roast your own coffee beans at home.

Bisbee is very interesting. In the 1920s, it was considered the place to be for speakeasies, rowdy saloons and entertaining guns fights. Many celebrities have stayed in Bisbee including Harry Houdini, John Wayne, Julia Roberts and Johnny Depp. Obo showed us the bar where John Wayne allegedly tossed Lee Marvin through the front window – it was NOT a scene in a film.

Mining is the reason Bisbee existed and open pit mining was operating until 1975. There is an immense hole just south of the Old Town called the Lavender Pit Mine, it covers more than 300 acres and is 950 feet deep. It is an ugly scar in the landscape. We were told that the open pit mines destroyed a good portion of the mountain and took over the entire town of Lowell. In 1917 during WWI, there was a miners’ strike led by the Industrial Workers of the World. Phelps Dodge dealt with the situation by rounding up more than 1000 striking miners and forcibly transported them, without food or water to Columbus, New Mexico. This event is known as the Bisbee Deportation of 1917. Apparently the company still has the rights to the mines and they may be activated again at anytime.

We really didn’t have time (or enough interest) to explore the mining history or tour the mine. Maybe next year. There are lots of other interesting things about Bisbee like Warren Ballpark, one of the oldest baseball parks in the US and lots of arts and crafts. After the mines stopped operating and many of the residents left, Bisbee’s historic district became a mecca for hippies and free-spirited creative people (mainly from San Francisco). Today, the town is just a little quirky!

In the afternoon we ventured to Whitewater Draw Wildlife Area near McNeal to see Sandhill Cranes. They migrate to this area every fall and stay until March or April when they head north again. We’ve seen Sandhill Cranes on our trips in Canada and now we’ve seen them in their winter home.

The drive through the desert to the Draw was lovely. When we pulled into the parking area I thought I was looking at dozens of greyish stones along the river. I was so wrong. These little humps were the cranes – thousands of them. As we walked closer we could hear them. They were quite vocal. We saw folks with two foot long lenses set up with lawn chairs and snacks too. It was quite wonderful to watch and listen to the cranes. We do have a video. The sound also includes the wind (we don’t have a dead cat for the phone) and some of the bird watchers were very chatty!