“Bisbee” by Alan Stark is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Bisbee, Arizona is a unique, historic, artistic, small city in the Arizona desert. It’s a quirky, artful place in a beautiful setting.
Here’s a condensed version of Bisbee’s history
Bisbee was once a successful mining town (copper, gold, silver and by-products including turquoise). Population grew quickly to almost 10,000. Then, mining declined over time and the population shrunk dramatically. Housing became available and affordable around the 1960s and 1970s. Artists and hippies moved in.
Bisbee is a beautiful mile-high town with a comfortable climate, interesting buildings, steps everywhere, and winding roads. With these assets, Bisbee evolved from a mining town to a tourist center and artist’s community.
Over the decades, Bisbee added more places to eat, drink, and find entertainment. Population grew to reach around 5,500 by 2018. Bisbee continues developing as an active, unique, creative environment. It has also been an LGBT-friendly leader among Arizona cities.
Hills and Stairs
Bisbee is a very hilly city with an abundance of stairs. Bisbee was once a thriving mining town with few roads but many pathways on steep hillsides. These pathways were more direct and functional than roads.
In modern Bisbee, a pedestrian can walk on paths and stairs through much of town, between and around interesting houses and yards, or up a hill to see a beautiful vista.
- For a nice blog post tour through the stairs, check out “Stair Wandering in Bisbee” at The Gentle Art of Wandering.
- A fitness event for runners and walkers that highlights Bisbee’s stairs and hills is the annual Bisbee 1000 The Great Stair Climb.
Bisbee, Arizona 1990, by Phillip Capper, is licensed under CC BY 2.0
Bisbee Map
(Sources: Wikipedia’s Bisbee, Arizona page, Bisbee, AZ Official Website’s Bisbee History page)
Old Bisbee Walk
If I lived in Bisbee, I’d walk to “Old Bisbee” for food, drinks, and entertainment… and possibly for my mail.
Why? Because there is no mail delivery to some parts of Bisbee. The historic Copper Queen Post Office on Main Street is a community hub where many residents check their post office boxes (see photo below).
In any case, I would enjoy pleasant walks on active streets with art galleries, bars, cafes, musicians, restaurants, tourists, and locals. Key streets in Old Bisbee include Main Street, Tombstone Canyon, and Brewery Gulch.
Main Street
“Bisbee Arizona” by Willjay is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
Copper Queen Library and Bisbee Post Office
“Bisbee Post Office-1900 and Copper Queen Library-1907” by Marine 69-71 is licensed under CC BY SA-4.0
Bisbee Tourism
Tourism is part of Bisbee’s economy and culture:
- The Queen Mine Tour takes visitors into the Queen Mine where copper ore used to be mined.
- People interested in architecture will find Victorian-style houses as well as the Art Deco-style Cochise County Courthouse in Old Bisbee.
- For folks interested in the paranormal, lots of places in Bisbee are said to be haunted, including the Copper Queen Hotel and the Inn at Castle Rock.
Notable Places In and Around Bisbee
Old Town – Old Town includes the downtown plaza and is the original part of Bisbee. The “Old Bisbee Walk” section on this page includes part of Old Town. Major Old Town streets includes Main Street, Brewery Avenue, and Tombstone Canyon. The heart of Old Town is around the confluence of these streets.
Brewery Gulch – A major street in Bisbee that used to be Bisbee’s mining-era red light district where breweries and saloons were prevalent. (Sources – “The Bisbee Red Light District” at Echoes of the Southwest, Brewery Gulch. Bisbee, Arizona at Arizona Memory Project)
Copper Queen Mine – Also mentioned above, this is the former copper mine that people can visit as tourists.
Lavender Pit – A former open pit mine near Bisbee and near the Copper Queen Mine.
Mule Mountains – This is the mountain range that Bisbee is nestled in.
Great Resources
Link to:
Discover Bisbee – This site introduces Bisbee as “a free-spirited place with a thriving arts/music/hospitality scene, amid a remarkably well-preserved historical architectural setting.” Discoverbisbee.com is a thorough resource for, like the title tells you, discovering more about Bisbee.
Lavender Jeep Tours – This website by a Bisbee tour company offers background on Bisbee area attractions and includes a blog. Tour leaders provide driver-narrated tours.
Bisbee, AZ Offical Website – The government website for Bisbee. A good resource for practical information for visitors and residents.
Thank you for reading
Published: August 6, 2022
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