February 15/16
We moved farther east of Tucson to Kartchner State Park on the 15^th. The 16^th was a new day for exploration. We drove south to the mining town of Bisbee just north of the Mexican border. Wherever we go we pass through immigration check points. With desert as far as you can see on each side it doesn’t seem like illegals would be choosing to drive up the road knowing the car would be stopped. With all the money that is going into the check points I hope it is a deterrent. We heard that they had trails all through the mountains going north. They leave water bottles and socks behind. I guess the only things they take with them are clean socks. If only we didn’t want their drugs and if they could get a decent job in their own country we wouldn’t have such a problem. Too bad it’s not an easy fix.
Onward to Bisbee. The town was built along a gulch in one of the most mineral rich areas around. There are steps everywhere up the hills to miners cabins, now homes. Every year they have a 1000 Step Race climbing steps all over town as a fund raiser. Early miners mined for silver and gold in the 1880’s before the big copper mines began after the turn of the century. By 1920, there were over 20,000 people in this small area. We walked down Brewery Street where all the action took place. It provided the night life for the miners after being underground all day. They had their choice of ladies of the night, bar hopping, gambling and musical entertainment. By the 1920’s, the big copper mine owners had even installed a trolley. The church on the hill had beautiful Tiffany windows. The Copper Queen Hotel is the oldest continually used hotel in Arizona. Today the streets are lined with shops and galleries. In the 1970’s the mines were shut down and hippies and artists moved in saving the town . There is evidence of both today. It makes for a great tourist town! We had the West Texas Millionaires Burger for lunch that was really tasty. Sam Caliber, known as the West Texas Millionaire, was making burgers in West Texas and moved to Tombstone where he was eventually kicked out of town. It is said that people having the burgers for lunch didn’t want to stop eating in order to duck the gunfire in the street. The recipe was lost for decades. The recipe was found in Tombstone recently when they were going over the records about the shootout at OK Corral. They notified the great-great grandson and he recently sold the rights to the Bisbee Grill. The fabulous burgers are here to enjoy once again! The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum is a great spot for background knowledge on the town and mining, and also has a great collection of gems and minerals found in the area. It has the honor of being a satellite museum of the Smithsonian. Outside of town there is a trailer motel that has old reconditioned trailers for overnight stays next to an old diner. It was closed now but I guess the trailers are furnished in the 50’s style and even have magazines from that era! Very cute. The last thing to see was one of the open pit copper mines. It was a huge gaping hole!
While at the visitor center in town, we heard about the sand hill cranes enjoying their winter stay at Whitewater Draw State Wildlife Refuge and headed east to try to see them. Were we ever so glad we did. Thousands, up to 30,000, cranes make this area their winter stay. Looking out across the fields at thousands of these large 3 1/2 foot tall birds with 6 foot wing spans was an amazing sight. We often go to areas to try to see birds that are not usual for us to see but rarely have success. We could hear their cooing trill before we could see them. Someone told us to stick around until late afternoon and watch more come back for the evening. Many, 1000s, leave in the morning to feed in the fields nearby returning to the water source at the refuge in the evening. We did see a couple of large groups fly in before we left. We also saw some ducks that were new to us. We identified a couple different species but some we couldn’t find in the bird books. Walking back to the car we saw a great horned owl sitting up on a rafter. Our most successful bird watching endeavor yet!





Bisbee Mining Museum




Sandhill Cranes




Sunrise Over the Manor

 February 17

A tour of Kartchner Caverns was on our list for today. We had a wonderful guide who gave us some of the history and, of course, the geology we needed to really enjoy our tour. Two college students discovered the caverns and had the insight to conserve the integrity of the caves until the state eventually took them over. When they took their first trip into the cave they came to a small room where others had obviously been but by crawling though extremely tight passages they came into the large rooms that we get to see today. Throughout 14 years of exploring the caverns, they kept the caves a secret. They did not want them to be known to the public before steps could be made to preserve the integrity of them. Thank goodness they were conservationists! Eventually the Kartchner family, owners of the property, were let in on the secret and the process was started that led to the state very carefully developing the area for tourists. All along the way, the people that were involved in developing the paths, lighting and entrances to the caverns have felt such a deep feeling of respect for the caverns themselves and the desire of the college boys to have them be sustaining living caves for future generations to enjoy. Today we are informed on how to be good stewards of the caverns as we have the opportunity to explore them ourselves. It was an amazing story and the caves were magnificent. They used natural light to highlight the beautiful formations. I had been in caves before where colored lights were used and I liked this better. The final stopping place has Kubla Khan, a 54 foot massive living column! Needless to say, we were awestruck by the history and the formations in the caverns by the time we left!