AZ Trip #6: Bisbee's Copper Mines - History

Rob and Dan ready for mining

In today's blog, we visited an old copper mine in Bisbee, Arizona. Copper mining was one of the industries that the town of Bisbee was built around and today we'll tell you about the industry and the Queen Mine (in the next blog we'll take you down in it).  Read on!

About Copper mining

THE TOUR - Everyone is outfitted in hard hat, miner’s headlamp and a yellow vest.  Tour guides, retired Phelps Dodge employees, lead the group 1,500 feet into the mine and recount mining days, techniques, dangers and drama.
 
HISTORY OF THE PROFITABLE MINES - Bisbee  was one of the greatest copper camps the world has ever known. In almost 100 years of continuous production before the Bisbee mines closed in 1975, the local mines produced metals valued at $6.1 billion (at 1975 price) one of the largest production valuations of all the mining districts in the world. This staggering amount of wealth came from the estimated production of 8,032,352,000 lbs of copper, 2,871,786 ounces of gold, 77,162,986 ounces of silver, 304,627,600 lbs of lead and 371,945,900 lbs of zinc! 

Dan ready to go

THE DISCOVERY OF COPPER - According to the Queenminetour.com, the story of Bisbee mining began in the late 1870’s when Lt. Dunn, in charge of a cavalry detail from the frontier Army post of Fort Huachuca, was on a scouting mission against the Apache Indians. Lt. Dunn and his men headed for a spring in the Mule Mountains to camp for the night. The party camped on a spot of fairly flat ground in the canyon below the spring—a site now occupied by the town of Old Bisbee.  On a walk after dinner, Lt. Dunn picked up an interesting rock. He found a few more pieces along the slope of the south wall of the canyon. 

DUNN'S CLAIM WAS UN-DUNN (like the pun?) -    Dunn took a prospector by the name of George Warren into his confidence and struck up a deal by which Warren would locate claims and work the property with Dunn as a partner. But on his way to the site, prospector Warren stopped to visit some friends and enjoy his favorite pastime—whiskey drinking. He soon has new partners and they staked a new group of claims and left Dunn out of the deal. When Dunn came along later to check, he was on the outside looking in.

Mining in the Queen Mine. Credit: Queen Mine

     Copper production began on a limited basis around 1880. Individuals and then companies with capital gradually became involved and took over individual claims and brought them into production. 
THE BIGGEST MINING OPERATION - Phelps Dodge Corporation, through a subsidiary the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, became the dominant force and eventually the sole operator of the mining district. Building on its base in Bisbee, Phelps Dodge had long been one of the largest copper producers in the United States.

For more info about the Queen Mine Tour, visit: http://www.queenminetour.com

NEXT; DOWN INTO THE MINE!