Mayberry...on Acid

Mayberry...on Acid. Such was the bumper sticker that I still regret not buying. It was when we visited the little town of Bisbee, Arizona, tucked away in the southeast corner of the state, just a few miles from the Mexico border. It's a old western town known for being among the more lucrative copper mines in the western US. Teetering on the edge of the open pit and snaking up the hills surrounding the town, there is a wild collection of old western architecture as well as Victorian and Art Deco buildings, roads that wind around and suddenly end, antique stores, hippy shops, and an assortment of counter-culture facades that belie the otherwise conservative values one would usually expect in a "red" state like Arizona. It is actually pretty refreshing to me. 

         The main drag, or Tombstone Canyon Road.  

Bisbee was founded in 1880 with the discovery of copper and grew to a sizable community of more than 9,000 people. The adjacent Copper Queen Mine was the main employer and was eventually operated by Phelps Dodge Co. The open pit mine was started in 1915 and operated until 1975. The town floundered until the 1980's when it became a counter culture mecca. 

Art can be found in many forms and on many surfaces throughout Bisbee, and certainly reflective of the varied tastes and proclivities found in the community. Some are larger than life, using spray can media on the canvasses of building exteriors (and some are more subtle, such as the pair of rabbits in upper right corner of the window). 

Bisbee also boasts one of the longest (and skinniest) galleries I've ever seen. This one bore paintings and drawings on the fences and sides of buildings along an alley almost a block long. I'm not sure what the criteria for posting the artwork (or if there is any at all), but certainly entertaining.

Of course not all artwork comes in canvass form, or on a two-dimensional media. Some carry a message, as the rear window of the pickup truck 

 

There are many reminders of Bisbee's mining past throughout the town. Pieces of mining equipment, such as drills, winches and small rail cars are scattered at various locations. The grandeur of some of the larger buildings, like the bank and various stores along the main drag are all reminiscent of the opulence of days gone by. The Copper Queen Hotel, perhaps the Grande Dame of hotel accommodations in Bisbee is a stunning example of Edwardian architecture not commonly found in the Old West. Filled with Art Nouveau antiques, pianos and Tiffany chandeliers, one cannot miss the the glories of days past.

 

Then, of course, there is the mine itself. One can tour the 10,000-foot long Queen Mine tunnel into the mountain on special cars that used to carry miners to their shift. The underground mine was started around 1880. 

Just to the south of the mine tunnel are the Lavender and Sacramento Pits, which begun during World War I. Between the 900-foot deep pits and the tunnel, the mine produced 600,000 tons of copper, plus silver, gold and turquoise.