Today’s agenda is to visit Bisbee and Tombstone. We drive through landscape which was once green grassland but is now mostly barren, the result of overgrazing by the cattle industry. Bisbee is nicely situated in the Mule Mountains, about seven miles from the Mexican border. It was founded as a mining town – copper, gold and silver – in 1880, and named after DeWitt Bisbee, who was the primary investor in the Copper Queen Mine.
Downtown Bisbee
When the mine first opened, all mining was underground as they followed some very rich copper veins. The work was all manual. The miners were primarily Americans and immigrants from eastern Europe, attracted by the opportunity to work. Working underground was the highest paid job at this mine; they were paid $0.33 per hour. After a few years, in order to increase productivity, they brought in hundreds of mules to pull the loaded rail carts out of the mine. The mules lived underground for years, but were treated well – supposedly better than the miners. The hours and number of days they could work were strictly limited.
Interesting aside: after working underground for four years, the mules were brought out to retire in grassy fields, never to return underground. While working underground, the only source of light were candle lanterns carried by the miners. Tunnels fitted with rail tracks for the carts they pulled, were almost always dark as was their underground ‘barn.’ The mules’ eyesight atrophied- they became blind. When they eventually came out of the mines, they had to learn how to see again. During this rehab period, their eyes were covered with leather shrouds, with only a pin hole to let in light. As their eyesight started to return, the size of the holes was increased until eyesight was fully restored. At that point they were gifted to miners for use as personal transportation.
Open pit mining was started in 1950 near the original Copper Queen mine, in order to increase production to meet demand. They took down the top of a whole mountain. Open pit mining permanently scared the beauty of the area. Ultimately, mining stopped in 1975 because the price of copper dropped below the cost of mining it. During the years of production, the mine produced almost eight billion pounds of copper, three million ounces of gold and a hundred million ounces of silver – in addition to lead, zinc, and manganese. After mining stopped, it stayed open for tours to attract the growing tourist industry.
Queen Mine
Ready to enter the mine.
We thought that a great way to start our immersion into Bisbee was to take a tour of the Copper Queen mine. After donning the necessary equipment – helmet, light, and yellow slicker coat – we boarded a miners’ train and headed down into the mine. We were very fortunate to have a knowledgeable guide. Joe is a 76 years old veteran of mining. He worked underground for 12 years. At that point he decided the work was too hard and the future too bleak. He used his savings to return to school and graduated in law. He became a judge and somewhere along the way he also owned a pizza restaurant, but that work was also too hard. So he decided to run for Sheriff. He won.
Joe, explaining how the dynamite charges were arranged to explode towards the inside.
Riding the miners’ rail cars.
Now, he loves to give tours and tell stories of how life was during those mining days, and how it changed and improved over the years. Fascinating! Some of the things we learned: only white men were allowed to work in the mines; Mexican and Indian men could only work above ground and were paid considerable less; black men could only work as entertainers; all other races were excluded; the mining company was all-powerful and trumped (or is it TRUMPed?) any civil rights.
Evidence of the last point was the miners’ strike of 1917. The company was the law. At the company’s request, the Bisbee sheriff rounded up the 1,300 striking miners and loaded them into railroad cattle cars provide by the El Paso and Southwestern Railroads. They transported them 200 miles into New Mexico, where they were unloaded in the desert and warned never to return. They completely ignored the fact that many miners had families who were still in Bisbee. The deported miners had no recourse.
After finishing the mine tour, we spent about half an hour with Joe – educated, successful, articulate – to discuss the possibility of an El Norte nation based on blended cultures. He does not think that will ever happen. It’s not about culture but rather about the economic differential. There is no animosity between the two sides of the border, but the Mexican side is extremely poor, whereas the Arizona side is well-off. The relationship is very symbiotic. Most residence of Bisbee cross the border for medical and dental treatment – it is inexpensive, high quality, and available at any time without appointments or long waits. He will be going there for a root canal next week. The Mexicans come here to work and purchase goods.
Bisbee museum
According to Joe, the Mexicans don’t want to live in the US. They just want work and earn enough money to improve their life in Mexico. So what could reduce the barrier to converging on a common culture? We agreed that a guest worker program could potentially reduce the economic disparity and thus lay the groundwork for a melding. So it’s not about religion, or language (almost everyone speaks Spanish in addition to English), or culture. It’s all about economics! The situation is becoming more tense with increasing economic disparity; the result of our huge investment in the Border Patrol (and potentially that ridiculous wall). Earlier, when he was a judge, law enforcement and the Mexicans who came across the border had a casual relationship. Whenever Washington sent an order to arrest and deport 100 Mexicans, they would meet the quota, while another hundred passed by without being hassled. The weird thing is that the investment in the Border Patrol (you would not believe the hundreds of Patrol cars and trucks that are everywhere) has caused them to be a notable component of the Bisbee economy – so Bisbee likes and hates it! Go figure!
One thing has been validated: In the May 2000 issue of Modern Maturity, AARP gave Bisbee the runner-up award winner for “Quirkiest” town in America. It is, if “Quirkiest” is equivalent to “Most Prejudiced.” Please don’t ask me who the winner was.
The original Tombstone Court House – County Seat
The Tombstone court room.
Care for a ride in an old stagecoach?
Our final stop for the day is the silver mining town of Tombstone. It is most famous for the gunfight at the O.K. Corral which involved Wyatt Earp, Virgil Earp, Morgan Earp, and Doc Holiday. Silver mining is long gone, so the theatre around the gunfight for tourist is the main source of income. There are several re-enactments of the gunfight everyday, or you can ride around town in a stagecoach narrated by a driver – who lost any enthusiasm for his rote speech a thousand iterations ago. We avoided the ‘opportunities’ by ducking into the original court-house which provided a history of the town. As we left, we made a quick stop at the Boot Hill Cemetery where many notorious outlaws are reportedly buried. It’s all show. Almost all the headstones are new with fake markings. We decided not to pay the $5 for an in-depth look. As we’re leaving a big sign identifies this as the Boot Hill Graveyard and Jewish Memorial! Where did that come from…out of left field? Another winner of the “Quirkiest” town?
Boothill Graveyard
We couldn’t figure this one out!
Granted, my process of testing the idea of an El Norte Nation is not robust, but I’ve talked to more than a dozen people so far and visited several historical sites to get a sense. I’m somewhat disheartened. While I strongly believe that America needs to organize differently (not using distinct states), using culture as the unifying parameter may not be valid. But, serendipity may be at play here. The New York Times published an opinion piece a couple of weeks ago, A New Map for America by Parag Khanna, which talks about moving towards economic-based metropolitan and regional clusters, built on a foundation of great cities. As Khanna writes: “The Northeastern megalopolis, stretching from Boston to Washington, contains more than 50 million people and represents 20 percent of American’s gross domestic product. These city-states matter far more than most American states – and connectivity to these urban clusters determines Americans’ long-term economic viability far more than which state they reside in.” The movement to metropolis-first configuration has already started with regional cooperation and planning initiatives like the Western High Speed Rail Alliance that will link Phoenix, Denver, and Salt Lake City with high speed trains. Regional planning is at the top of the list at the National Governors Association. While leadership for restructuring will never come from Washington, it could come from the regional economic centers.
While the idea of repartitioning America is the ideal outcome, the economic driver may prove to be the more likely unifying element, and not culture. It seems consistent with what I’ve learned so far.
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