Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum
Located in the original Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company headquarters in the center of Bisbee, the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum preserves the legacy of the “The Queen of the Copper Camps.”
University Of Arizona Mineral Museum
In the basement of the Flandrau Science Center & Planetarium in Tuscon, Arizona is the University of Arizona Mineral Museum. While the footprint of the museum may be small, it contains a core collection of over 35,000 mineral specimens and a micromount collection with over 7,000 additional specimens of crystals too small to appreciate with the naked eye. The collection spans 1,561 different species and 2,000 types of minerals.
Copper Queen Mine
Bisbee, Arizona is built along the side of the Mule Mountains. Houses cover the slope from the valley floor nearly to the peak. The roads through Bisbee are narrow, steep, and aging. Many of the highest houses are only accessible by stairs. This was a town established not out of convenience, but out of opportunity. In…
Tombstone
Some people get so excited about visiting the site of the original shootout at the OK Corral that they forget what it was silver that drew so many wild and adventurous characters to Tombstone. Yet, the silver mines of this town were, in their own right, the stuff of legend. The town itself is named…
Asarco Mineral Discovery Center
Most active mining sites are tightly restricted from the public. Fear of claim jumping or accident keeping an operation weary of visitors. Yet, the Asarco Mineral Discovery Center not only houses educational displays on modern copper mining, but is the departure point for regular guided tours of the open pit mine and mill. The discovery…
Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum
Why is the Arizona Mining & Mineral Museum closed? The ornate building in downtown Phoenix contains a remarkable mining and mineral collection, worthy of a state whose history is filled with major mining events and towns built up around massive ore deposits such as Bisbee, Tombstone, and Jerome. One needs only circle round the building and outdoor displays to see that this still has the potential to be a world class mining museum. And, yet the collection remains locked away, on extended hiatus.
Jerome State Historic Park
Jerome may be considered a ghost town today, but between late-1880s and early 1950s it was the “Billion Dollar Copper Town,” with all the challenges and profits that came with a thriving mining operation. The town is perched over a copper mine that once produced 3 million pounds of copper per month. The Jerome State Historic Park chronicles the boom and bust of Jerome through the perspectives of the Douglas family as well as the Jerome area.