The city was known as “the Queen of the Copper Camps”, this Old West mining camp proved to be one of the richest mineral sites in the world, producing nearly three million ounces of gold and more than eight billion pounds of copper, not to mention the silver, lead and zinc that came from these rich Mule Mountains.
By the early 1900s, the Bisbee community was the largest city between St. Louis, MO and San Francisco, CA.
Bisbee, with a population of over 20,000 people in the early 1900’s, had become one of the most cultured cities in the Southwest. Despite its culture, however, the rough edges of the mining camps could be found in notorious Brewery Gulch, with its saloons and shady ladies. Brewery Gulch, which in its heyday boasted upwards of 47 saloons and was considered the "liveliest spot between El Paso and San Francisco".
Bisbee offered other recreational pursuits in that it was home to the state’s first community library, a popular opera house, the state’s oldest ball fields and the state’s first golf course. Bisbee is the Nation’s southernmost mile-high city. In the year 1908, a fire ravaged most of the commercial district along Main Street, leaving nothing but ashes.
The residents of Bisbee quickly began reconstruction and by 1910, most of the district had been rebuilt and remains completely intact today.
