Bisbee, Arizona

Issue #067 - Sedona, Arizona

At an elevation of 5,400 feet in Tombstone Canyon, Arizona, a rich deposit of copper was discovered in 1877. As soon as claims were filed, prospectors, speculators, and merchants poured into the area named Bisbee in honor of DeWitt Bisbee, one of the early stockholders in the new mine. The town grew quickly and filled with saloons, hotels, restaurants, and boarding houses as soon as copper production was running at maximum speed. The Bisbee Copper Mine reached peak production about the time America was becoming electrified. Around 1915, copper wire became a very valuable commodity and the air conditioner was invented making life in the desert possible. It gets hot here in the summer. During the peak of copper production, Bisbee had the largest population of any city in Arizona.