Trip Across America

Today was my last full day in Arizona, and I couldn’t leave without visiting a copper mine. If Arizona wasn’t already known as the Grand Canyon State, the Copper State would be an appropriate replacement, as Arizona is responsible for 75% of the copper production in the United States. While copper mining is an important economic driver for Arizona, it’s also extremely important to understanding the state’s history. Throw a dart at a map of Arizona, odds are you’re going to hit a town with some kind of mining history.

I actually ended up touring several copper mines, but I’m only going to discuss my favorite. The Queen Mine in Bisbee, Arizona, which is one of the most productive copper mines in American history. Operating continuously from the 1880’s until 1975, the mine produced billions of dollars worth of copper. While few people today are familiar with the town of Bisbee, at one point it was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. Located in Southern Arizona just 10 miles North of the Mexican border, and 20 miles South of Tombstone, Bisbee was one of the great mining towns of the Old West. Luckily the town has preserved its mining heritage with the Queen Mine, which offers daily tours that are available to the public.

The tour starts with everyone getting outfitted with a mining vest, hard hat, and flash light. We all look like extras from the mining scenes in Zoolander. For anyone who knows me, I at least made it inside the mine before joking that I had the black lung. Once everyone is equipped, we head out to the train which will take us deep into the mine. You initially enter the mine through a narrow tunnel, blasted out of the rock over 100 years ago. The first thing you notice is how cool it is, both literally and figuratively. The mine is significantly cooler than above ground. The temperature outside was close to 100 degrees, but deep inside the mine it couldn’t have been more than 70 or 75 degrees.

All the tour guides are former miners, and have a healthy sense of humor. They walk us through how the mine worked, the tools they used, and day to day life. More importantly they shared some of the funnier material that mining can offer. I think my favorite moment on the tour, was when our guides walked us through how they used to “initiate” new miners. As you can probably guess, there are no bathrooms in a mine thousands of feet below ground. Instead they have a moving “bathroom” mounted on the rails, which run throughout the mine (see below). One piece of background information, all the tunnels in the mine were built on slight inclines so that any ground water that got in would drain down the tunnels. Naturally, this means the rails were also on a slight incline. So, for as long as the Queen Mine was in operation, when the new guy went to use the “bathroom” for the first time, one of them would kick off the brakes. Being on an incline, the comfortably seated newbie, would now be at the mercy of gravity. Rolling down the tracks and conspicuously lacking any pants. If this already seems cruel, it gets worse. After the car had rolled a good distance and picked up sufficient speed, another miner would kindly tell the newbie to turn the hand brake in the middle of the car. Unfortunately, it wasn’t actually a brake, but rather a valve that released the “contents” of the car. After cleaning up the spill, the newbie would be fully initiated, and part of the Queen Mine family. According to the story, every new miner for at least 40 years was initiated this way, it was a different time.

While the tour is certainly fun and filled with humor, it’s also very educational. I learned quite a bit, and would do the tour over again in a heartbeat. The only real negative I can think of is how remote the location is. The nearest city is Tucson, but that’s still 90 miles away. Despite the remote location, the Queen Mine attracts over 50,000 visitors a year, and over 1 million people have toured the mine since it was first opened to the public. I will say though, the town isn’t far from I-10, roughly a 45 minute drive South. If I can convince anyone to visit, my best bet is probably someone doing a cross country road trip via I-10. If that’s you, I would say the Queen Mine is well worth the detour. Alternatively, if you’re a long time resident of Tucson, you’ve probably run through all the local attractions. Do yourself a favor and make the drive to Bisbee, it’s worth the trip.