Monday, February 16, 2009

Bisbee, Arizona

We took a drive today and went to Bisbee, Arizona. Bisbee is the site of the Queen Copper Mine. This quaint little town seems to be built right into the side of the mountain.

The Old City Hall was also a fire station. The bell in the tower warned of dangers from fires, mine cave-ins and Apache attacks.







The Stock Exhange was the only one
between San Francisco and Chicago.




The Copper Queen Hotel was built in 1902. Teddy Roosevelt and John Wayne have stayed there.


We also took a tour of the Queen Mine. This was a real working mine but was closed in the early 1970's after being 'mined out'. Our tour guide was a man who had actually worked in the mine.



We entered the mine on a small train.



It was an interesting tour. Men would go into the mine and work all day to make holes in the rock using something like a jack hammer. They would drill almost 12 feet and then pile the dynamite into the holes. They would use 8 sticks per hole. The first went in solid, the others they would cut and really jam in the powder. They would make 12 holes of these holes. At the end of their shift they would set off the dynamite and the next crew would come in a load the rock to be pulled out by mules. It took about a ton of rock to get a pound of copper.

He even answered the question of bathrooms. This was the honey wagon.



Fun and interesting day!

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