Just released . . .

A Brief History of Bisbee

Every year, tens of thousands of people travel to extreme southern Arizona to visit Bisbee, traveling back into the mountains to tour the Queen Mine (a cool 47 degrees year-round), taking in the Smithsonian-designed exhibits at the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum, climbing on board a Lavender Jeep to get to the parts of the canyons few are brave enough to drive to themselves, kicking back on the veranda of the classic Copper Queen Hotel and tromping in and out of dozens of art galleries and antique shops.

The 1880s-vintage city is so impressive that in 2006, Bisbee was the first Arizona town to be selected as one of a "Dozen Distinctive Destinations" by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Just what is it that makes Arizona's most classic mining town merit this interest?

To understand and fully appreciate Bisbee, you have to know its past, the dynamic heritage of what once was the wealthiest community in Arizona.

A Brief History of Bisbee looks at the community from its beginnings in 1877 through its decades of boom, through its demise in the 1970s and through its revitalization. It is a prelude to a visit -- certainly not a substitute -- that will give you the germ of an idea of what makes the modern city vibrate.

Bisbee has thousands of stories, just as thousands of miners once mucked the rich ore from deep underground, ore that contained the copper which built industrial America. A Brief History of Bisbee will introduce many of those stories, giving a visitor the basis for asking questions at the Mine Tour or the Museum or of the artists encountered in a walk through the classical architecture which dominates the narrow canyon bottom known as Main Street.

Because of the thousands of miners and their families who built lives for themselves in Bisbee over the course of more than a century, the stories and adventures that dot the landscape are as rich as anywhere in the American West. Big names, like Goldwater; a gunfight intense enough to be known as a massacre; a deportation of more than a thousand labor activists . . . . There's no end to the stories you will find in A Brief History of Bisbee.

You can get the CD from our online store before you visit Bisbee or if you want to send it as a gift to friends and family to brag about your latest adventure. Or buy it while you're in Bisbee to listen to on your return to your workaday life.

Visit the online store for A Brief History of Bisbee and start learning more about the Queen of the Copper Camp.