The Copper Queen Mine is an underground mine in the town of Bisbee. As with all of the Bisbee mines, it closed in 1975 with the decline in copper prices, but it is still open for tours, with the former miners as the tour guides. Reservations are required for the tours, but we were able to make our reservation the day before. Tickets were $14 per person, with a minimum age of six. If you arrive for your tour early, there is plenty to look at.
As we started our tour, they fitted us with safety vests, hard hats and lights. Then they had us climb onto these engine pulled carts that we rode into the mine. These are the same carts that the miners used to enter the mine each day.
Our tour directors were Steve and Neal. They were both former underground miners in Bisbee.
The entrance to the mine goes into the side of the hill. Our tour went into the hill about 1600 feet, but they stopped about 150 feet in, just to make sure everyone was OK. If anyone left the tour at that point, they would have received a full refund.
Riding into the mine on the cart.
We stopped at these stairs and headed up to one of the tunnels for the first part of the tour. Here we learned about how the original miners broke the rock and built their supports.
We made several other stops in the mine, and learned about more modern methods and tools of mining.
This lift is how miners, tools, materials and even mules were moved between levels of the mine. This particular mine had seven different levels.
This is the bell system used for the lift.
This is the honey pot. As you can imagine, it was the object of the most mischief in the mine.
Steve comes from a family of coal miners, so it was really interesting for us to see what a life of work underground would be like.
You two really did Bisbee from top to bottom. It's been years since we were there and it appears more is open and developed since our visit. That, or we just missed it.
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