Thursday, March 25, 2010

This morning we left campsite at 7:15 am heading for Bisbee & Douglas, via Sierra Vista for breakfast. In Sierra Vista there is the Fort Huachuac Historical Museum, home of the Buffalo Soldiers, (the Buffalo Soldiers were black men so named by the Indians for their dark tightly curled hair) but because it was on an operating Military Base only US citizens could go. Just out of Sierra Vista we were dazzled with mountains tipped with snow!

Bisbee, AZ is a very interesting old copper mining town. The mines were shut down in 1975 but the town has so much character. The fellows went on a guided tour of the Copper Queen Mine while Phyllis and I wandered thru the Copper Queen Hotel and toured the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum. The town was founded in 1880 and is nestled in the mile-high Mule Mountains of Southeastern Arizona, 90 miles from Tucson. It was a booming mining community with one of the richest mineral deposits in the world. Bisbee, once the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco, bustled with miners, shopkeepers, rollicking nightlife, and even its own stock exchange, with a population of 20,000. Today the city still reflects old world charm and culture. History clings to the hillside as the well-preserved Victorian architecture reflects both copper mining lore and western history. It is full of neat little shops of jewellery or iron works or antique shops. The first mines were underground, but in later years it was open pit - see picture. We could have wandered for a couple more days and not seen all we wanted. However, around 2:45 pm we headed for Douglas to visit the Slaughter Ranch Museum, but we were too late. The last tour was at 3:00 pm.

However, we did stop at the Gadsden Hotel for a bite. The 130 room hotel was built in 1907. The spacious main lobby is majestically set with a solid white Italian marble staircase and four soaring columns. Each capital is decorated in 14K gold leaf - worth $20,000 in 1929. An authentic Tiffany stained-glass mural extends forty-two feet across one wall of the massive mezzanine. An oil painting is just below the window. Vaulted stained-glass skylights run the full length of the lobby. It was quite a sight. Poncho Villa was supposed to have ridden his horse up the marble staircase, chipping a piece from the 7th stair. The dining room was very nice also. There were murals on the walls - have one picture. The food was reasonably priced and very good. Hope you can enjoy the interior of the lobby from these pictures. We got back to RV at 7:10 pm. It was a long day but a very enjoyable one, even if we did have to wear our jackets all day.