Monday, August 13, 2018

Bisbee and the Lavender Pit Mine

I've been missing for awhile and behind on reading blogs let alone writing a post.  I will be catching up this week though.  I have another post on our wonderful trip to Arizona to share today.
¥.  ¥.  ¥.  

  We left behind the ghost mining towns to explore one that hasn't gone bust and faded into the desert: Bisbee, Arizona.  

 In the 1880s, Bisbee grew up in the Mule Mountains adjacent to the Copper Queen Mine.  By 1910 its population had swelled to 9000 miners and their families.  Open-pit mining came into practice as the need for copper soared during World War I.




    



Coming out of the desert and up the mountains into the town, you are welcomed to Bisbee with the promise of a Scenic View.




  The Lavender Mine is what you see.  The open pit is 4000 feet wide, 5000 feet (that's nearly a mile!) long, and 850 deep.  It's stunning.  

  My first reaction was dismay.  I've never seen such desecration of nature. This is not the awesome beauty of land opened by Nature over eons of time, like the Grand Canyon or even Chiricahua National Monument.  It's more like ripping open a private part of the earth never meant to be seen and leaving the insides of its carcass lying exposed.  I felt like a bug standing next to such a vast hole.  

Looking at the photos now, I can be awed by the human feat of engineering it is, the beauty in the colors, and the opportunity to see what is hidden deep beneath our feet.   

  The colors of the layers visible are from the different minerals in the pit.  The surface red rock of the mountains is oxidized sulfide.  The gray is a granite layer containing small amounts of copper.  The yellow is a layer of rocks embedded in clay that surrounds the granite, and the lavender is limestone and conglomerate rocks cemented together which is considered waste as it has no copper in it.  

  Copper is an excellent conductor of electricity.  I'm not sure what it was needed for in war, but it became vital in every home, car, electronic device, appliance, etc. etc.  By the 1970s Bisbee's mines had run out and they closed.  A sign says that with new technology for extracting the small amounts of copper left in Bisbee and an increasing demand for copper, Bisbee's mines could open again in the future. 

  I didn't get very good photos of Bisbee itself. The streets of the town are built into the mountainsides, winding steeply one above the other.  It's now the home of artists and eccentric old-timers, a cute little town with shops in the old buildings and old miner's cottages colorfully painted, surrounded by clever little flower gardens and rented to tourists.  

 Many of the cottages are reachable only by steep old stairways.  














  We ate lunch in a restored building with a nice view of the hilly streets.  


  A mining museum is the centerpiece of the town, located in the old post office and surrounded by sculptures and places to sit it the shade.  






This one was my favorite because it shows off the minerals and gems of the area, including the turquoise which I love and is a byproduct of copper mining.  




13 comments:

  1. I've been reading J. A. France's Joanna Brady books that are set in Bisbee. Enjoyed the pix.

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  2. A great tour of a fascinating town. I am surprised it has survived and not become a ghost town like so many others.

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  3. Those open pit mines are a real obscenity in my opinion. If Trump has his way your whole country is going to get raped.

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  4. Fascinating report of the open cut mine.
    Quaint old town which I gather and hope gets plenty of
    tourists.
    You have done very well with this report and I look forward
    to further blogs made on this trip to Flagstaff.

    As for the above report by Gascoigne, I think you know my views of
    the "Herr/Comrade/Demented" resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.
    Cheers
    Colin

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  5. Nice to see Bissbee! I saw some VBRO homes near there and was wondering about the area! Since then we learned about Valley Fever and have crossed the South West off our list for good...taking no chances. Have friends who bought a home in AZ and she had Asthma and now has Valley Fever...a fungus found in the dirt. They are putting their place for sale :(

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  6. That open pit reminds me of meteor crater. Never heard of this town nor of valley fever mentioned above. I wonder what the lands that have lost their national park monument status because of T. will look like? Bisbee?

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  7. Small shell casings in ammunition were made of brass, which contains a lot of copper (approx. 65%) and everything that needed electrical wiring used copper, too. But.. wow, the scenic view!!! I understnad your comparison between the Grand Canyon and this mine, but the geology itself is intriguing and as you say, the engineering on behalf of the war effort, too. Interesting to read about your trip.

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  8. Loved Bisbee when I visited my daughter who lived in Fort Huachuca and Sierra Vista. Beautiful little town. Did you travel up the Huachuca mountains and take a look at the petroglyphs? That was a rough trip up with the truck but worth it.

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  9. Those landscapes are so beautifil in your country', I love the photos.

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  10. Remindful of the open pit iron mine that once dominated northern Minnesota or the copper mines in Montana. Everything was ugly about them except to the few who profited so much...

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  11. What an interesting town. Those big holes are a wonder. We have one in WA like that. The sculpture is beautiful.

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  12. I love your poetic description of the beautiful sounding Lavender Mine, I can really picture you as a little (but gorgeous, perhaps a ladybird) bug, on the side of the vast chasm! I am behind too on my visiting, so lovely to catch up on your travels!
    Wren x

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