A colorized postcard of downtown Bisbee. The Copper Queen Store, Library, Copper Queen Warehouse, Copper Queen Hotel, YMCA and Presbyterian Church are visible in the image. The front caption at the top left reads: “Business Section, Bisbee, Arizona” The postcard was postmarked Bisbee October 30, 1909 and was sent by Mabel Eldridge to Mrs. I. N. Siek Columbus, New Mexico. The message on the back reads: “Lowell Ariz. Mrs. Siek, I received a card from you. I cant understand. I dont know you at least I have forgotten you if I ever did so please write me. Mabel Eldridge” The postcard was published by the Benham Company, Los Angeles.

Bisbee’s downtown district was the economic heart of the city. Multiple shops, hotels, restaurants, churches, library and post office provided rural Bisbee with a metropolitan lifestyle as comfortable as any bustling city back east. The most prominent among the buildings constructed were the Phelps Dodge offices for the Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company, the Phelps Dodge Mercantile, Copper Queen Hotel, the Copper Queen Hospital the YMCA, the YWCA, Presbyterian Church, Central School and the Bisbee High School. Of the buildings lost to time, the original Williams Douglas House, The Bessemer Hotel and the Orpheum Theater were among those demolished. The area survived devastating fires and monsoon floods that tore the district apart in the early decades, testing the mettle of its residents. As the copper ore had yet to give out, they still had the resources and determination to rebuild the town. Whereas countless other Arizonan boom town went bust and vanished into ghost towns, Bisbee remains as the nature of copper mining allowed it to do so. Visitors from all over the nation can come and appreciate Bisbee’s role in providing the metal that formed the backbone of our modern era.

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