Visit to Bisbee, Arizona

Steve and I visited Bisbee, AZ today. Bisbee was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco in 1920 and is located 90 miles southeast of Tucson in the Mule Mountains...home of the Copper Queen Mine. We stopped for lunch at the "Winchester's Restaurant" in the Copper Queen Hotel which was built in 1902 by the Phelps Dodge Mining Company as a place for dignitaries and investors to relax in luxury. The hotel was recently featured on the Sci-Fi Channel's "Ghost Hunters" episode "Spirits of the Old West". We were told there are three resident ghosts at the Copper Queen Hotel. This small bird perched next to us as we enjoyed lunch on the patio...even the locals eat at "Winchester's Restaurant"



After exploring the town of Bisbee we stopped at the Lavender Pit Mine...it is a huge multicolored hole which produced 94 million tons of copper. The mines were productive in Bisbee until 1975. The Queen Mine produced copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc...the mine is owned by the Phelps Dodge Corporation which has long been one of the largest copper producers in the United States.


Next stop Naco, AZ Border Station...Steve had to get out and take pictures of the fence that our "border jumpers" injure themselves on trying to get into the United States.

Titan II Missile

Steve and I visited the Titan II Missile Museum last Thursday. If you remember your history the missile is a relic from the Cold War which held a nuclear payload 214 times as powerful as the bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

The tour took us down to the control center where the crew lived and prepared to fire the 165 ton rocket. I was allowed to sit where the crew chief would work and turn the key if it would have been necessary to fire the missile.

After learning about the control center and the process that would be followed to fire the missile we continued to the missile silo. The nine story silo showed us the work that went into maintaining the missile in a "ready state".

After leaving the missile silo we traveled to Tubac for lunch and shopping. Tubac was established in 1752 as a Spanish presido...today it is home to 100 shops which include art galleries, artist studios and gift shops.