October 1-4

Benson, AZ

After leaving Apache Junction we traveled to Benson, AZ where we spent a few days at San Pedro Resort Community.

 

We found the resort on our Passport America App.  San Pedro Resort Community is mostly for full timers but they do have several open RV sites.  Everyone we encountered at the resort was very friendly and welcoming. 

 

The mobile home units are immaculate and the RV sites are very spacious. 

Every night we took advantage of the heated indoor pool and hot tub.  And the laundry room was one of the cleanest we have encountered on our travels.

Most of our stay at the resort was spent just relaxing but we did venture our one day to tour the Queen Mine.

The Copper Queen Mine led to the development and growth of the surrounding town of Bisbee in the 1880s.

In the 1900s this was the most productive copper mine in Arizona.

When copper mining declined in the area in the 1930s, the Copper Queen continued to be mined by the open-pit process during the years following WWII but eventually with decreasing returns, the mine closed in 1975.

The Queen Mine was opened to visitors in 1976.

After purchasing our tickets we strolled through the small museum and then assembled by the staging area with the other people in our tour group.

 

We were outfitted with a hard hat, miner’s lamp and safety vest.

 

 

Our guide led us outside where we boarded the tram that took us inside the entrance to the mine.

 

We learned how extremely hazardous the mining work was and how blasting practices were carried out.

 

 

Prior to engines being used to transport cars of ores, mules were trained to pull ore cars out of the mines.  The mules lived in the mines, even sleeping in stables in the mines.  After years of working in the mines, their eyesight deteriorated.  In order to adjust them to daylight, blinders were placed over the mules’ eyes with small holes poked in the material.

Two seater "honey wagon"

 

 

After a short time in the mine I was anxious to return to the surface so I couldn’t imagine spending long days in the darkness.

Following the tour we drove around the town of Bisbee.  The town is quaint but similar to many other small towns so it didn’t hold our interest for long.

On the drive back to the resort we stopped for a short visit to Tombstone. 

 

 

 

 

We had spent hours in the town during a previous visit some years before where we had toured the famous Bird Cage Theatre that opened in 1881.  It was originally intended to present respectable family shows but the economics of Tombstone didn’t support that aspiration.  The theater soon began offering baser entertainment that appealed to the rough mining crowd. 

On that previous visit we had also watched a reenactment of the Fight at the OK Corral.