Bisbee, AZ

Further south of Tombstone we visited Bisbee, a copper mining camp in the 1880s.  By 1910 it had become the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco.

When the copper mines closed in the 1970s many families left to find work in other mining towns. Along came the hippies, seeking an escape from the city and finding inexpensive housing and an easy going lifestyle. It is now an eclectic town at the base of the Mule Mountains with old volkswagons, old hippies, and quaint shops.

It was a great place to have a cup of coffee and observe the locals and tourists alike. It wasn’t hard to distinguish many of them. The town has a good feeling about it.

Notice the shop built on the concrete slab that is placed over the creek that flows between the street and other property.  This is typical all down the street and not anything I have ever seen.

As we left town we passed the mines.

We drove near the Mexican border as we took the less traveled route back to Sierra Vista.