Bisbee Wandering Back to the 60’s 2013

 

BisBee, AZ is about 50 miles and 50 years south of here.  A small copper and silver mining town, it was founded in 1880 and hasn’t advanced too far in the it’s 1st hundred years.  We arrived around noontime, a mistake in early summer as it was about 88° with full sun.

We were unable to take the mine tour as it was 47° down there and we were dressed for 90° with t-shirts and shorts.

Down in town we started to wander through the streets that had about 2 miles of store fronts.  Pictures are worth a thousand words they say:

Eclectic doesn’t do it justice.  The restorations and rehabilitations move forward, MANY of the store fronts are 100% solar powered.  The shop owners are friendly and engaging, encouraging you to peruse their antiques, arts and crafts.

A great many places in the deep south west use swamp coolers.  They are only useful in very dry climates as they cool by evaporating water into the air supply and thereby increasing the humidity.  Their primary benefit is that they are very cheap to buy and run as compared to A/C.   When  used you have to use the cooler on one end of the structure and open windows/doors on the other end to make the cool air flow through.

Mine equipment is displayed in several areas.  The Philips-Dodge company ruled the miners with an iron hand in the early 1900’s.  Ruthless?  Read about the time the company in collusion with the railroad Deported over 1,186 miners to Mexico.  Our government did nothing to it’s citizens!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This 180 steps goes up 3 street level.  Not having nitro with me, I passed!

There is a hearse tour, again I passed as I was feeling quite well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This may be the only pink Masonic I’ve found on this tour.  I’m think the ladies of The Eastern Star supplied the paint.  Yes, It still meets

On the way home, we went through a ‘Hole in the Wall’ which symbolically brought us back to modern times.

7 Miles south of Sargasso CO-op, we found a Benedictine Monastery buried in the woods.  The cross was barely visible from the road. We drove in {sometimes you have to Search for Serendipity} and discovered a very pleasant setting.  The Brothers support themselves in part with a small campground.

 

 

 

 

We had a very pleasing 48th Anniversary dinner in town at the Horse Shoe restaurant where the kind lady mixed me up a batch of homemade ginger ale.  What’s that?  Sprite with a dash of cola.  Close but no cigar, the bourbon masked the taste.