We took the turn and headed for Tombstone. Crossing several small mountain ranges and passing across the flat valleys between them we finally made it into town and found a place to park. Definitely a quiet day in town, very few tourists. Mainly we shared the streets with gunfighters, cowboys and various desperado's with a few tenderfeet thrown in for good measure.
Old Tombstone is really set up as a tourist area with staged gunfights and shops selling everything from old west trinkets to very high end clothes, jewelery and leather goods with several saloons and restaurants added to the mix of shops. Boot hill is at one end of town and the OK Coral is at the other. In between you find the Golden Eagle Brewery, Bird Cage Theater, Big Nose Kates and the Clanton General Store.
We spent a while walking around town and checking out some of the stores but decided that it was not as authentic as Virginia City, Nevada We had been in Virginia City several years before in our first motorhome and really enjoyed the experience.Leaving Tombstone, we continued south to Bisbee and the Queen Mine Tour. Arriving at noon we parked in the shade and left the kids in the car. Before we could enter the mine we had to put on rain coats, hard hats and battery powered miners lamps. Our guide for the tour, Tom, gave us a brief history of the mine before we boarded the electric miners train.
Once on the train and entering the mine we noticed that the tunnel we were in was only about five feet high and maybe three feet wide. Several sections of the tunnel were heavily shored up with timbers and cross members. We later found out that the shoring was less to hold things up than to provide a warning to the miners of shifting rock. The timbers would actually creak and groan if the rock above or around them shifted and took up the weight of the surrounding rock.About 700 feet into the mine we stopped at the mine bosses office, a space carved out of one of the side tunnels. Not very luxurious for an office but close to the work. Further on we stopped at a larger opening that lead up a set of stairs to a large opening called a stope which was an actual chamber where ore was removed. Finally we stopped about 1,500 into the mine and were told
that there were three levels below us, 100 feet apart and four levels above us also 100 feet apart. So we had about 650 feet of rock over our head at that point.We walked along another side cut and were shown some of the equipment used in the old mine. Then Tom gave Tina a safety lecture on how to handle dynamite, then showed us how it was placed in the bores. To remove a section of rock approximately seven feet deep and seven feet square, up to fifty, one inch diameter bores, seven feet into the rock face, were made in precise patterns. Up to thirty-two were packed with dynamite. Each of the dynamite bores had a blasting cap and fuse. The fuses were trimmed to specific lengths and lined up in a fuse holder. A punk was lit (like a sparkler) and each fuse was lit in sequence. Once they were all lit, the miners moved out of the area and took shelter in the main tunnel.
We also got to see one of the man lifts (elevators) used to take men and supplies from level to level. They were actually controlled by a man on the surface who operated the donkey, pulleys and cables that lifted or lowed the lift. Instructions from inside the mine were given with a system of bells controlled by a bell pull at the man lift station. Somewhat like morse code, there were over 300 distinctly different set of combinations that could be rung to instruct the lift controller what was wanted. This was a really fascinating tour for several reasons. One, our guide Tom had been a miner for over 35 years and was very knowledgeable about mine operations. Second, there were only four of us on the tour and Tom was not in a rush to get us out. Third, he was also very friendly and personable making each of us feel he was talking directly to us, sharing his experiences with enthusiasm.
After getting back out of the mine we headed across the street into Bisbee proper for lunch and a walkabout. Bisbee is a fascinating town with a lot of history. We toured the mining museum, checked out the lobby of the old Copper Queen Hotel and finished it all with an ice cream cone. Driving out of town we stopped to view the old Phelps Dodge Open Pit Mine which was closed in 1973 along with all the other mines in town.As it was getting late in the day we decided to extend our stay in Benson so we could visit the Karcher Caverns and the Ramsey Canyon Preserve.
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