This isn’t Disneyland, it’s not a fake ride, it’s a real ride.
–Mike Anderson, Bisbee Historian.
Bisbee was in a lot of trouble. The year was 1975, and the legendary Copper Queen Mine to which the City more or less owed its existence was closing. The best ore, with a copper content of around 23% in the beginning, was now around 4-6%. The Phelps Dodge company was moving equipment and workers north to the more profitable Morenci Mine. World copper prices were in steep decline. The Queen Mine couldn’t hang on in these conditions, and so it closed, taking Bisbee’s economy and its population down with it.
Determined to avoid the boom-and-bust curse that made ghost towns of so many Old West settlements, visionary City leaders like Mayor Chuck Eads decided to take these lemons and make lemonade. Not long after the mines officially closed, Mr. Eads got to work with a willing Phelps Dodge company to turn the operation into Bisbee’s first tourist attraction.
It took about a year, over $800,000 in federal grants and over $100,000 in in-kind donations of equipment, timber and labor from Phelps Dodge. But in in 1976, 50 years ago, the Queen Mine Tour opened.
The lore often told is that expats from the west coast hippie scene, artists and creative types put wind in this town’s sails when it needed them most. Without a doubt their contributions were important to Bisbee’s post-mining survival.
But the Queen Mine Tour is what saved this town. It quickly grew into a major source of revenue for the City, and remains so to this day.
And so, over the last year Bisbee High School film students and their teacher Ms. Brianna Young of Rural Ranch Productions, Queen Mine employees including tour guides, local historians in partnership with the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum worked up a documentary to commemorate the Tour on it’s 50th year. Mining Memories: 50 Years of the Copper Queen Mine Tour wrapped up just in time to join the lineup at the Bisbee Royale’s third annual Film Festival.
(Oh, did you know Bisbee has a film festival each year? It’s true)!
The community-wide collaboration resulted in a great film. What really makes it special is the same thing that has made the Tour so special. The Tour guides have traditionally been miners who worked that mine in their day, and the last of them are still here, giving generously of their time to talk about their experiences. The film does an excellent job of preserving those memories, and the interviews are the best part—the namesake, really—of Mining Memories.
The interviews with local historians and lore-keepers like Doug Graeme and Mike Anderson are a close second. Graeme and his family go back to the very beginning of Bisbee, giving Doug a natural, easy way of talking about the Mine’s past since, after all, this is home in a way few can claim. Anderson might be of more recent vintage as a Bisbonian, but he is a fountain of knowledge, having studied, written about and lectured on Bisbee history for many years. His colorful way of speaking breathes life into any subject he’s on about, and this was no exception. Anderson says today Bisbee is still a mining town—only the product being mined are tourist dollars rather than copper ore!
And, like any good historical documentary, there are copious panning shots of old photos of the town in its heyday as a mining mecca. Those photos, showing how the town has changed over the last century will have Bisbee residents pausing the video to examine closely.
The development of the film was a class project for Bisbee students, and it was they who worked the hardest in making Mining Memories. Instructor Brianna Young led the effort. Joey Juhl was assistant director and grip; Ernesto Suarez was a co-director performing much of the camera work; Collin Helton also co-directed; Maceo Pearson led the interviews; Sequoia Scott ran camera; Laila Rojas worked cameras and sound. And the film class as a whole did the editing under Ms. Young’s supervision.
Turnout for the premier was excellent, with students, proud parents (like yours truly—great job Maceo!) and community members in attendance. Mayor Ken Budge was on hand, issuing a proclamation to commemorate the event.
Bisbee Royale Film Festival host Danny Hercules said the film was soon to become “required viewing for all visitors and new arrivals.”
Mining Memories concludes with discussion about Bisbee’s future, the balance between the arts and culture scene and its traditional mining economy and history, and the newer tourism economy made possible by the Queen Mine Tour. Taken together, the timing, the placement, the protagonists and the film’s subject, perfectly embodied the film’s conclusion. There at the June 4th premier, the gang was all here: old miners and Bisbee’s past history on display. On Main Street in a theater venue that was once a church attended by Copper City’s miners. During a film festival showcasing the creativity of Arizona filmmakers and hopefully draw visitors to town.
All put together by Bisbee’s future, namely its children.
Keith Allen Dennis is a Bisbee writer and musician, living the dream of becoming the songster he was meant to be. Find his music at keithallendennis.bandcamp.com.