Tombstone, Bisbee and Cochise Stronghold

Because we had a two hour drive to our destination we left our rental unit a little early this morning.  We arrived in Tombstone a little before 10 am and got a parking spot beside The Birdcage Theater, an infamous brothel.  We walked along the street as shops were opening and the town was preparing for the day.  We purchased a guided tour on the trolley for $12 each that included a gunfight act. 

Our trolley driver and guide was very knowledgeable about the history of Tombstone and told us that the town was founded by an ex-military man who planned to search for silver ore in the area.  His commanding officer told him that all he would find there is his own tombstone.  When he discovered a rich deposit of silver he founded the town and called it Tombstone.  A few years later in the 1880s the town had over 20,000 residents, over 120 bars, many brothels and was a true sin city.  There were also a number of cultural features including many churches and even an opera house.  The house that Wyatt Earp built is still standing as is the Oriental Saloon, the Crystal Palace Saloon, City Hall and the Courthouse, all built between 1880 and 1882.  

I was impressed that nearly all of the structures in Tombstone were original to when the Earps ruled the streets.  The “newer” structures were built in the 1880s after fires in 1881 and 1882.  Of course, most of the buildings have been renovated or repurposed over the nearly 140 years but at least the town wasn’t built recently to look like old buildings.  A helpful guide at the Tombstone City Hall told us that at one time Tombstone was the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco.  The trolley tour ended at the site of one of the silver mines where there was a western comedy show.  The humor was corny but we really enjoyed it.  The actors did a good job of working the small crowd and bringing some western figures to life in a humorous way. 

After the show, we walked around town some and stopped by the OK Corral.  The actual gunfight between the Earps and the Cowboys took place a few yards from the OK Corral but that was the nearest feature.  The weather was very nice at nearly 70 degrees with a light breeze.  Since Tombstone is over 4500 feet, the weather was cooler than in Tucson even though Tombstone is further south.  When we returned to the car we drove the short distance to Boot Hill Cemetery.  We saw the graves of the Clanton and McLaury boys who died at the OK Corral.  We also enjoyed the iconic tombstone of Les Moore (killed by two shots from a .44, no less, no more) and one poor guy who was hanged by mistake.

The drive to Bisbee took about 20 minutes where we went to lunch at the Bisbee Breakfast Club.  This restaurant was reviewed in Roadfood and received excellent recommendations.  We all had burgers of one kind or another and all found our meals to be quite good.  However, the highlight of the meal were the pies.  Their cream pies were at least 6 inches thick.  Mary and Mark had the coconut cream, Cindy had strawberry-rhubarb and I had chocolate cream.  While all of our pies were great, everyone agreed that the coconut cream was spectacular.  The pie filling was more coconut than cream and had a thick layer of whipped topping.  The crusts on all of the pies was thin and crispy complementing the flavor of the pies.  The prices were very reasonable and the portions were large. 

After our meal, we walked around Bisbee and nearby Lowell.  These small towns are just a few miles from the Mexican border and nearby disappeared in the 1970s after the copper mines closed and everyone moved away.  However, a group of artists moved in to take advantage of the affordable property and the nice weather.  This has driven the value of property up in Bisbee.  This is in comparison to Tombstone where many homes, businesses, ranches and lots were available for sale. 

We stopped at the now closed copper mine reading the informative signage.  The mine pit is still open although the mine hasn’t worked in over 40 years.  The pit isn’t as large as the Kennecott Mine that we saw many years ago in Utah but was still a large open pit mine. 
As we drove north on Arizona 80 we came to a Border Patrol checkpoint.  Since Bisbee is only about five miles from the Mexican border it is understandable to have a checkpoint here. While one officer checked our citizenship, the K-9 officer walked around our vehicle.  We made some small talk with the officers for a few minutes then went on our way.  As we continued north we noticed many white passenger vans filled with farm workers heading back south.

After being inspected by the Border Patrol we drove to the Whitewater Wildlife Area when we saw 20,000 sandhill cranes overwintering.  It was quite a sight to behold.  We also saw two species of teal, pintails, shovelers and other waterfowl.  There were lots of birders and naturalists in the area to watch and photograph the birds.  We stayed a good while and enjoyed watching the birds interact including doing their characteristic dance.  It still struck us as odd that there was a large wetland in the middle of the desert but the stream in the area provides the water that is used to do controlled flooding of fields to provide for the needs of the migrating birds.

Along our drive we remarked how different the ecology of the Tombstone and Bisbee areas are from Tucson even though they are only about 100 miles apart.  Unlike Tucson, Tombstone and Bisbee have very few cacti and no saguaros growing.  The dominant vegetation appears to be desert shrubs like mesquite, creosote and sagebrush.  We saw a number of yucca and even some Schott yucca that resembled Joshua trees.
perhaps because of the higher water table there was a great deal more agriculture in this area than we have seen in most of Southern Arizona.  We were even surprised to see large fields of cotton.  As we read up a bit we learned that Pima cotton originated in Pima County Arizona and is probably named for the Pima Apache nation. I guess we assumed that cotton originated in the Mediterranean region.  

We drove up into the Dragoon Mountains to the Cochise Stronghold area where the Chiricahua Apache leader Cochise and about 1000 tribe members held off assault from the US Army for over 7 years.  The area is very rugged and provided a way for the Apaches to live following an accusation of murdering a couple of young white men.  This area is very different still from either the Tucson or Tombstone areas because of the rugged mountainous terrain.  The stream cutting through the mountains allows cottonwood and sycamore trees to grow.  We saw several of the Coues deer that didn’t seemed bothered by our presence.

It took about two hours to drive from the Cochise Stronghold back to our rental in Tucson.  Mary & Cindy played cribbage in the back seat and reminded me of when we would travel in the West with Sarah & Emily in the back of the car.  Mark & I watched for birds and other animals from the front.  We saw several Harris hawks, a few grey hawks, one red tail hawk, one harrier and one great horned owl.  There were many raptors in the distance that were impossible for us to identify.

We stopped off at Fry’s Supermarket to pick up food for lunch tomorrow.  An old Mexican woman was selling her homemade tamales in the parking lot so we picked up six chicken tamales for our supper on Friday.  Since we were still full from our large lunch we had some snacks and crashed a bit before turning in for the night.