Bisbee Arizona: A writer’s retreat and a secret ghost hunt….

When I realized that I wasn’t going to be able to fly to Canada at the end of September, I decided to do something different that I never had the guts to do and that was staying in a hotel by my self. I’m one of those types of people who I guess you can say never does anything by her self. I’m a big believer in safety in numbers. And this weekend I’m breaking all the rules and conquering all my fears.
I’m taking two days out of my week vacation and I’m heading off to a local historical town name Bisbee that is known for its appearance in Syfy Ghost Hunters and also crossing my fingers I can sit my butt to the chair and start rewriting something I wrote five years ago.. Wish me luck!
Bisbee started out as a copper mining town in the late 1880’s through I think the 1980’s. For those who never heard of the place the town is 90 miles southeast of Tucson Arizona and is hidden in the Mule Mountains. The Mule Mountains were named after the mule packs that had to be used to reach Bisbee. The community (which is now what we locals call hippy ville, more about that later) was named after a man named Judge Dewitt Bisbee who was a financial banker for the Copper Queen mine.
Geesh, I’m beginning to feel like I’m writing a report on Bisbee. If it must drudge through this terrible history blog then I must continue on….
Once known as the “the Queen of Copper Camp” Old West mining camp produced three million ounces of gold and more then eight billion tons of copper, also silver and zinc. By the 1900’s, Bisbee was the largest city between St Louis and San Francisco. With the population well over 20,000 in the early 1900’s, becoming a very cultural city in the Southwest. And like all big camps, it had it’s rough edges with saloons and ladies of the night. The Brewery Gulch (more about that later) boasted about 47 saloons and was known as the “liveliest spot between El Paso and San Francisco” (Not my words), Bisbee also offered Arizona’s first community library, an opera house.
Bisbee was a thriving town until the mines became unprofitable in the mid 1970’s, people left and was replaced by the artistic free spirits (hence the hippyville comment earlier). My plan for this journey is to document my little two day event. This is just the beginning and not the end of my many blogs that will come in the next few days, so stay tuned…