Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

Wednesday was a "Twofer"- we managed to make it to both Tombstone and Bisbee, but only because we didn't spend too much time in Bisbee.  We packed a lunch to bring with us since the weather was awesome- in the low 70s and sunny. We went to Tombstone first, and the town did look like you would expect an old western town to look, complete with Stagecoaches. Tombstone was named by Ed  Schieffelin , who set out to look for gold in this area, an area that was known to have Apaches and rattlesnakes.  People told him that all he would find out here would be his tombstone. He discovered silver instead of gold, but he named his claim "tombstone".

     As soon as we arrived we bought tickets to see the "Shootout at the OK Corral", which, by the way, did not take place at the OK Corral- it took place down the street from it.  I didn't fully remember how the story went, but basically Virgil Earp was the town policeman in 1881,, and he deputized his two brothers and Doc Holiday when he heard that the McLaury and Clanton brothers were in town to stir up trouble. In the few minutes that the gunfight took, over thirty shots were fired- both of the McLaury brothers were dead, along with Billy Clanton.  Ike Clanton was supposedly unarmed and ran away.  The show was ok, but too long as far as we were concerned (25 minutes). Once it was over, we walked back to the truck to eat lunch, then headed to the Good Enough Silver Mine for a tour.

I have no idea how anyone could look at silver in its natural form and think it has any value! The process they used to extract the silver from the ore  involved using mercury. It was a long (and unhealthy) process that began with them essentially smashing the rock into sand size pieces. The whole process was only effective in removing about 60% of the silver- it wasn't until much later that it was discovered that by using cyanide instead of mercury, about 90% of the silver could be extracted. In fact, when they discovered that, they went back to the waste product and re-processed it to extract more silver.

I was curious as to how similar the mining life was here, as compared to the coal mining back in PA.  There was very little similarity actually.  The silver miners were highly skilled and respected,  and some of the highest paid workers in the area. They made $4 a day, whereas a cowboy would only have made $25 a month. Our tour guide informed us that no one had ever died working in that mine- a far cry from the coal mining life.

Later in the afternoon we headed to Bisbee AZ.  Bisbee is an old copper mining town.  The town was literally built into the side of the mountains.  When we drove the streets, all of the side streets were really steep offshoots of the main street. Between the houses there were steep staircases up to the level behind.

It was a nice town but we got the feeling of "been there, done that" in the sense that all of the stores seemed to be the same thing we have seen everywhere else.  We did stop at the abandoned (as of 1975) open pit copper mine, just outside town.  Its absolutely a huge hole in the earth.

Today we drove out to Kartchner Caverns State Park. This is a very young state park- its only about 10 years old, but it has an interesting history.  In the 1970s, two avid cavers discovered an absolutely beautiful cavern.  For a year they explored it without saying anything to anyone.  They finally approached the owners of the land (the Kartchner family) to let them know what they had found, and managed to convince them that it was important to keep the cavern's existence a secret.  They had seen the damage that had been done to other caves, not just from vandalism, but just from basic human contact, and didn't want that to happen to this beautiful cavern. For 14 years, the landowners worked with the state of Arizona, in secret, to sell the land to the state and turn it into a state park, racing to get it done before the public found out about the cave.  They were finally successful, and the result is that no damage has been done to the cave and it remains in pristine condition. The state used state of the art technology to put in walkways (built inside plastic bubbles, to protect the cave from dust during construction) and get it ready for the public.
I can't say I know from first hand experience that the cave is beautiful, because I elected not to take the tour.  I have been to several caves/caverns, and I am not a happy person when I am underground.  Paul did go on a tour and he said that compared to Mammoth Cave, it was obvious that it was in much better condition-there was no grafiti, no soot, no broken stalagtites, etc.  In fact, the tour of this cave is so state of the art, that people are put through a mister on the way in, to dampen all of the lint on their clothing, so that it doesn't fall off into the cave. While Paul toured, I soaked in the sun, and once he was out, we hiked the 2.5 mile Foothills loop trail, which was good exercise, fun, and had nice views  but wasn't really unique in any way.

This evening we sat outside for a bit with a very confused and frustrated cat.  Last night while we sat outside with the cat, within a 30 minute span, 3 rabbits approached us, and therefore, him.  I have no idea why these rabbits thought it would be ok to wander within 10 feet of a CAT, but apparently they thought it was no big deal. Dozer had a great time stalking them, but I guess he knew he'd never catch them because he only tried to pounce once.  The rest of the time he just stalked them, belly to the ground!  He waited and waited tonight, but no bunnies showed up, so he was very disappointed.

Tomorrow we leave here, maybe headed to Silver City, NM.