Ghosts from Arizona's past...

[PALADIN85020]

Palidin85020, we surely have passed on the streets of Bisbee as my wife and I go there at least once a month to play tourist and have dinner. An overnight stay at the Copper Queen Hotel is a requisite.. room 107 above the Saloon. Dinner at Rosa's Italian restaurant..
Scoutsdad, is there much between Rodeo and Paradise?
Krull, Bisbee to Tombstone is only 25 miles.

Mike

Mike,

We usually stay in the Julia Lowell Room, #315. In spite of the room's ghostly reputation, it's one of the most comfortable in the hotel. We often eat at Rosa's Little Italy in the Warren District of Bisbee, and breakfasts are either at the Bisbee Breakfast Club in the Lowell District, or Dot's Diner, next to the old Evergreen Cemetery, where my maternal grandparents are buried. For really 5-star dining, it's hard to beat Cafe Roka on Main Street. Really first class. Of course, the Copper Queen has Winchester's restaurant, which is quite nice, and next door is a fine Mexican restaurant, Santiago's, on the corner of Howell and Brewery.

John

 

[PALADIN85020]

Misty, this next pic is for you. There are active ghost hunting groups in Bisbee. This was posted on a telephone pole in Bisbee:

 

[PALADIN85020]

Yes, it does snow in Bisbee, adding to the charm and ghostly mystery of the town in the winter. This shot was taken last year at Christmastime, after dark; the POV was from the second story balcony of the Copper Queen Hotel. The structure to the left with the bell tower is the old fire station. At the turn of the century, the bell was used to signal shift changes in the mines. When rung continuously, it was all hands on deck for a fire. Bisbee had several disastrous fires in the late 19th Century and the early 20th, which is why the buildings on Main Street were susequently made of brick to be more fire resistant. I can remember my grandfather taking me to that fire station when I was just a toddler, to meet his buddies there, and sitting me on the fire engine. That same old fire engine is still around, but only brought out now for parades on the 4th of July.

 

[Krull]

Palidin85020, we surely have passed on the streets of Bisbee as my wife and I go there at least once a month to play tourist and have dinner. An overnight stay at the Copper Queen Hotel is a requisite.. room 107 above the Saloon. Dinner at Rosa's Italian restaurant..
Scoutsdad, is there much between Rodeo and Paradise?
Krull, Bisbee to Tombstone is only 25 miles.

Mike

Yea I know,that's why we're gonna swing through and have a look.

She likes the ghost stuff (as do I) so that's a draw for us.

 

[jkc]

One of the salutary effects of the Bisbee fires Palladin mentioned is that many of the town's core buildings were rebuilt at a time when the town was particularly prosperous --- so among the indulgences of the day was fancy and elaborate architectural sheetmetal work in the form of roofs, cornices, gutters and downspouts, and etc., many buildings have excellent examples of the period design and workmanship, and are worth "looking up". The Copper Queen is charming, its bar is a friendly watering hole peopled about equally by locals and tourists, and the hotel's Winchester restaurant is better than average. A "sleeper" place to stay, pun excused I hope, is two doors up the street from the Copper Queen, across from the "Y", the Gym Club Suites --- nicely remodeled, airy, generously sized (unlike the Queen's cramped quarters) apartment style suites with kitchens and implements --- an economical alternative to the Copper Queen, and far more commodious.

 

[rchance]

Thanks for the thread and pics. Very interesting.

 

[whitecoyote]

Very nice pictures & history!
I felt like I was walking through a time warp.
Thanks!

 

[ElToro]

looks like a hollywood back lot.

i hope to make there one day and see it.

 

[gunlovingirl]

Thanks John! For the pics and history and tour offer! I'll definitely let you know when/if I head that way!

 

[PALADIN85020]

Ghostly remnants of Bisbee's past...

This shot offers an interesting insight into Bisbee's past. These buildings were built in the 1890s in Brewery Gulch and it is believed that they housed a high-class bordello at that time. Prostitution was outlawed in Bisbee in 1907, and the buildings became an apartment complex. You can see the remnants of the second story balconies, once accessed by stairs. When the mines closed in the 1970s, the building fell into disrepair, and hasn't been used since. I suspect that ghost hunters would find a bonanza here...

Farther up Brewery Gulch was the cut-rate red light district. This shot was taken in 1907 just before the trade was outlawed. Notice the woman in the streets, attempting to hide her face, and the steps leading to the cribs on the right. When water came sluicing down the gulch during the summer rains, everything in the Gulch was often swept away. Hence the elevated buildings and the concrete steps.

Many of the old crib steps still remain at the top of Brewery Gulch. Here's a contemporary shot of some of them:

Someone with a sense of that area's history constructed this fence made of bedsteads above the old steps. These have been here for many, many years.

Bisbee is indeed a lady with a past. Is it any wonder people see and sense ghosts in this area?

John

 

[whitecoyote]

Back to top for one of my favorite threads.

 

[TACC1]

Thank you for the tour. As stated, you take wonderful
pics. A person could just about walk right into them. TACC1

 

[PALADIN85020]

I'm honored that this thread was resurrected! Here are some additional photos. The Old Copper Queen Hotel, which has been continuously operated since 1901, has been the subject of many ghost stories.

Here's an exterior shot of the hotel:

Here's the lobby of the hotel. It hasn't changed a whole lot in over 100 years. The original safe is still behind the counter.

This is the Julia Lowell room. Julia was a madam and prostitute who committed suicide in this room over being jilted by a lover in the early 20th Century. Many have reported seeing her ghost here; single men say she has tickled their feet... and other things. My wife and I enjoy staying in the room, and as mentioned, we found actual blood on the floor of the adjacent bathroom one morning. A bit strange, but not unusual happening. The TV show about ghost hunting did an episode in this very room.

For those of you who are John Wayne fans, here is the room that Duke often stayed in. The bed in the room is quite large. Wayne and Lee Marvin played cards until the wee hours of the morning at a table on the mezzanine of the second floor, not far from this room. Pilgrim, he still may be around in one form or another - who knows. This was a favorite place of his.

I think you all might enjoy visiting Bisbee. I do believe the population of the town is more than just those living there, and so do plenty of others!

John

 

[Hugh WW]

If you are going to take in Bisbee, which is a worthwhile trip, might as well go on down to Douglas. You'll find the Gadsden Hotel on the main drag, "G" Avenue. It is said to have spooks and haints and strange things going on there both night and day. I lived and worked in Douglas and Naco from 1987 till 1995. The only thing I ever saw coming out of the Gadsden was double!!

 

[Frank237]

A similar mining town with some real history and magnificent architecture; Butte Montana with Helena the State Capital a close second. The folks building the various "Blocks" had the money to get quite extravagent. A friend of mine owns the Iron Front Hotel in Helena. The facade is totally cast IRON!

Great thread.

FN in MT

 

[hiram2005]

This thread is great! Giving me some ideas for my next trip to Arizona.

 

[Hugh WW]

Hiram it just depends on what kind of country you like. I guarantee it is not all desert and cactus.

 

[Cyrano]

I live in Texas and I'm envious; Arizona has some of the most beautiful and varied country I've ever seen.

 

[Bullzaye]

These photos have brought back some memories.

Back sometime around 2002/2003 3 friends and I rode our bikes from Phoenix down through Tucson, to Tombstone and Bisbee. There were 2 BMWs, a Suzuki SV-650, and I was on my KLR-650...because my BMW was in the shop.

We took longer tooling around Tucson, going to an Air Museum, and then at Tombstone than I had expected. I didn't mind in the least, but I had my tinted visor on my helmet, because I hadn't anticipated that it would be dark before we arrived in Bisbee...and it was already dark when we left Tombstone. Boy...was that a dark little run from Tombstone to Bisbee.

It was kinda cool riding into Bisbee in the dark, though. It seemed like there were a fair number of people in the streets watching the 4 of us wind our way through the streets to the Copper Queen. Then we grabbed our saddlebags and made our way inside. There was a tiny flicker of an image in my mind of what it might have been like 100 years earlier, riding into town on horseback.

We dined that night on the patio at the Copper Queen. That was quite nice. That night, I wandered around the empty hallways of the hotel...snapping photos. If I recall correctly, there is a really interesting little stairway tucked into a corner at the back of one of those hallways...kind of a creepy feeling going up and down that staircase...at least at 3 AM. I remember thinking that I couldn't wait to look at the photos later, to see if anything unusual had appeared.

I also took quite a few exterior pics, some of them similar to yours. Unfortunately, somewhere on the ride back, my camera was either lost or stolen...I never have been able to figure out which exactly. Unfortunately, no one else took any photos of that trip, so I'm limited to my memories. Now, looking at your pics, I realize I'm ready to jump on a bike and make the trip again.

Tim

 

[badguybuster]

Those are fantastic pics.