Going Back To Bisbee

The author shares his fascination with a distinctive corner of the country--Bisbee, Arizona--with a narrative that reflects the history of the area, the beauty of the landscape, and his own life

The author shares his fascination with a distinctive corner of the country--Bisbee, Arizona--with a narrative that reflects the history of the area, the beauty of the landscape, and his own life

Bisbee, Arizona represents the emergence of industrialism in the Far West, the perfection of mining technology by Eastern capitalists to tap and exploit wandering ore bodies that were difficult to find and just as difficult to follow. Bisbee become synonymous with paternalism - a "White Man's Mining Camp," a feudal state in the desert, where labor and management eventually clashed head-on forever tarnishing the reputation of one of the nation's foremost mining companies and a number of distinguished families. The fascinating Bisbee story is told here.

Bisbee, Arizona, queen of the western copper camps, 1917. The protagonists in a bitter strike: the Wobblies (the IWW), the toughest union in the history of the West; and Harry Wheeler, the last of the two-gun sheriffs. In this class-war western, they face each other down in the streets of Bisbee, pitting a general strike against the largest posse ever assembled. Based on a true story, Bisbee '17 vividly re-creates a West of miners and copper magnates, bindlestiffs and scissorbills, army officers, private detectives, and determined revolutionaries. Against this backdrop runs the story of Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, strike organizer from the East, caught between the worlds of her ex-husbandÑthe Bisbee strike leaderÑand her new lover, an Italian anarchist from New York. As the tumultuous weeks of the strike unfold, she struggles to sort out what she really feels about both of them, and about the West itself.

Visually, the Bisbee of today remains a community frozen in time, with Main Street retaining its character from 1910. The discovery of copper deposits in the Mule Mountains brought forth a wealth that enabled a substantial community. Profitable mining ventures and a need for labor drew thousands of miners from around the world to work in Bisbee. These individuals added a distinct flavor to the area. Like countless other Western mining camps, Bisbee evolved from a rough frontier community surviving disastrous fires and floods into a town with a substantial population and solid foundation. Bisbee's seemingly inexhaustible mineral wealth resulted in the community becoming a center of economic and political power in an emerging territory on its way to statehood. It was Arizona's greatest copper camp.

In the early 1900s, it was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco, bustling with the raw material of Wild West legends. Bisbee’s infamous Brewery Gulch once supported 47 saloons and was considered the “liveliest spot between El Paso and San Francisco.” By the 1970s, opportunists had relieved Bisbee’s Mule Mountains of billions of pounds of copper, 102 million ounces of silver, 2.8 million ounces of gold, and millions of pounds of zinc, lead, and manganese. The ore reserves were depleted, and when the last pickaxe struck plain old dirt, a mass exodus of miners collapsed the real estate market. But the lure of cheap land was a magnet for retirees, hippies, and artists. Boarding houses were converted into charming bed and breakfasts. Antique stores, galleries, cafes, and restaurants replaced the saloons. These days, a vibrant and eclectic community of ranchers, politicians, and free spirits; a well-preserved architectural and historic heritage; and “the most perfect year-round climate” make Bisbee, the county seat, a one-of-a-kind gem.

Presents historic photographs of Bisbee from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, side by side with pictures of the same sites in the modern city, and accompanied by historical background.

The author describes his life and work as a prison volunteer in Arizona where he set up creative writing workshops for the inmates.