One of the few activities I had booked in advance was the highly recommended Queen Mine Tour in Bisbee. I'm glad I did because not only does the tour sell out, it was an excellent excursion on our trip. After checking in for our tour we perused the minerals on display and watched a video about copper mining. When it was time for our tour we got a hard hat, safety vest, and light. We headed outside and took our seats on an original man cart that miners used to enter the mine through a narrow tunnel (the guide stops the cart a short distance in to ask if anyone is uncomfortable and wants to leave the tour). The Queen Mine is a huge mine; it has over 140 miles of passageways and seven levels. It operated for nearly a hundred years between 1877-1975. It had an extraordinarily high grade of copper at 23% and was a highly profitable mine. At the time it closed the orebody was less than 1% and it was no longer economical to operate the mine. In 1975 prices when it closed, the mine had produced metals valued over six billion dollars. Copper was the primary extract and the mine also produced gold, silver, lead, and zinc. Our tour guide was fantastic and a retired miner himself. The tour was very interesting; we learned about the history of the mine, the different jobs miners had, and other facts and tidbits about the mine. We visited several spots in the mine and at the end rode the man cart back out. We loved it!

We had time for lunch downtown before our appointment at the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum (in Covid times it is open certain days of the week and you need appointments other days; we were very fortunate it reopened just before our trip). We loved this museum - it was so well done and a great complement to the Queen Mine Tour. The first floor of the museum is about Bisbee and its history. The American west is dotted with ghost mining towns, but Bisbee escaped that fate. Because copper mining was more involved compared to gold mining - it required more infrastructure and knowledge - and mines would take longer to show a profit and the town became more established. Bisbee was also fortunate because the copper ore body was rich and the mine was already in operation when demand for copper wire increased drastically with the electrification of America. In the 1910s Bisbee boasted a population as high as 22,800 and was larger than Phoenix and Tucson (the population today is 5,575). The second floor of the museum displays a neat collection of minerals and has exhibits about mining. The second floor was really interesting too - this museum was terrific!

We had the rest of the afternoon to walk around downtown - we browsed in the shops, had gelato on the library balcony (unfortunately the library is still closed; it is still in the original building and looked neat inside), ate dinner, and took a final walk downtown when the lights turned on. Two nights was the perfect length of time to stay in Bisbee - we felt we got to see everything we wanted and had some downtime. The mine tour and museum were fantastic and we loved the cute downtown.