Bisbee, Arizona, USA,

Bisbee was founded as a copper, gold, and silver mining town in 1880.  Today, the city is a focal area of a thriving downtown cultural scene.

Queen Mine Tour: 478 N Dart Rd, Bisbee, AZ 85603

The Queen Mine was one of Bisbee’s richest and operated from 1877 to 1975. It has seven levels with 143 miles of passageways. The Mine has natural ventilation due to the many shafts and drifts. The average temperature is 47 degrees. Visitors are also issued hard hats, slickers, and miners’ headlamps before taking the underground train deep (1,500 feet) into the former Copper Queen Mine. Retired miners narrate the tour and show how the turn of the century mines operated.

Into the tunnel.

At 700 feet deep.

Retook the train and went down to 1,500 feet.  Showing how the drill was used.

The dynamites’ holes.

Came back up again to the downtown street. Started to walk uphill.

Looking back and walked down back to where I started.

Walking around the city blocks.

The neighbors playing some kind of ball game.

Less than a mile from the city center, this giant hole is made to extract coppers.  They dug up the copper for 60 years, from the 1910s to the 1970s.  A panoramic view from left to right.

Right next to the Pit is a city street called Lowell.  The residents in this street abandoned houses and automobiles and then moved away from the area, probably because of the Pit dust.  Now it is a ghost town (street).

Next to the street is the Pit.

Some stores like this one were opened for tourists.