A color linen postcard of Mainstreet. The front caption on the top reads: “C-10 Main Street, Bisbee, Arizona” The back caption on the upper left reads: “At the head of Bisbee Canyon known to the earliest pioneers as Mule Gulch, where it meets Tombstone Canyon and Brewery Gulch, extending through the three canyons is the city of Bisbee, with a population of about 10,000. The Business area is 5,300 feet above sea level, and it is rimmed on all sides by mountains over a mile high. The postcard is unused and was published by the Lollesgard Specialty Company, Tucson, Arizona. Edward Francis Collection.

Once a small, winding pack mule road, Bisbee’s Main Street became the main artery of town. In the early years of the copper boom wood shacks, small businesses, and boarding houses sprang up alongside the dirt road. As miners, merchants and their families moved to Bisbee for the copper boom the area became crowded. It was battered by monsoon floods and scorched by fire; the great fire of October 14th, 1908 burned many of Main Street’s businesses to ash. As long as the mines were still productive, Bisbee residents had the will to rebuild they enforced fire codes and rebuilt in cement and brick, setting in the canyon a city that would survive generations. Among the many businesses that once operated on Main Street include the Fair Store, the Bisbee Daily Review, the Bank of Bisbee, JCPenney, DeSoto and Plymouth, Enna Jettick Shoes and F.W. Woolworths. Today along with its restaurants, hotels, and shops; galleries and antique stores have today become a staple of the businesses along Main Street.

1980.65.26