Bisbee: Private Jeep Tour of Old Pits & Lowell with Local Stories

5.00

(124 reviews)

What’s the experience like?

I didn’t expect to smell creosote in the air as soon as we hopped into the Jeep on OK Street—kind of sharp and earthy, almost like rain even though it was bone dry. Our guide, Tom (who’s lived here his whole life), waved at every other person we passed. He started off with this story about Joseph Muheim and his house that made me realize how much family history is tangled up in these streets. I kept glancing at the old brickwork and trying to picture what it must’ve looked like when Bisbee was buzzing with miners and saloons.

Brewery Gulch felt like stepping into a faded postcard—old neon signs, some half-lit, and a bar where Tom said his uncle used to sneak in after shifts. We stopped at the Lyric Theater for a second; he pointed out bullet holes in the metalwork (I missed them at first). The air was cooler up by the high school, and you could see all the way down to Main Street—honestly, I still think about that view sometimes. There’s something about how quiet it gets when you’re above everything.

The Lavender Pit was next—standing five feet from that drop made my stomach do a weird flip. Tom handed me a chunk of copper ore (felt heavier than I thought) while explaining leaching ponds and how they’d separate copper from rock. The wind picked up dust from the pit and I got a gritty taste in my mouth—guess that’s part of the day trip Bisbee mining experience. He talked about closed communities nearby; some houses just left behind when mining slowed down. It’s strange seeing so much history just sitting there.

Driving into Lowell felt like time-warping back to the 1940s—classic cars lined Erie Street, all polished chrome and sun-faded paint. We cruised through Shady Dell Hotel’s lot (Tom joked about staying in an Airstream but said he’d rather not relive high school road trips). At Lowell School he told us how he once got detention for climbing onto the copper roof—his mom still teases him about it. Last stop was Evergreen Cemetery; rows of headstones under mesquite trees, everything still except for a few birds arguing overhead. Not sure why that stuck with me.