Situated ninety miles southeast of Tucson in the Mule Mountains is the small mining community of Bisbee, Arizona. The city's website claims that it is an "American Original," and after visiting the city on July 21 on a UBRP field trip, I know first-hand that it is truly a unique place.
Our day in Bisbee began with the Queen Mine Tours-a good place to start since there are nearly 2,200 miles of mines in the city's vicinity. Although copper was the major metal extracted from the mines during its one hundred years of operation (1870's-1975), gold, silver, zinc, and lead were also excavated in tremendous quantities.

After being equipped with a yellow mining jacket, hard hat, and mining lamp, our tour group boarded a train that sped into the pitch black entrance of the mine. We were taken 1,500 feet into the mine, stopping twice for further exploration. Our knowledgeable tour guide, a retired miner from the Bisbee area, provided commentary throughout our excursion about the mine's history, the different mining tasks, and his own experiences as a miner.

After leaving the 47-degree interior of the Queen Mine, we did some local sightseeing. The streets of Bisbee are lined with a variety of small shops and historic buildings. We were able to tour the luxurious Bisbee Copper Queen Hotel, which has entertained several celebrity guests over its 101-year history, including the legendary John Wayne.

We had a quick lunch at a small café that had a "meatloaf sundae" as one of its main dishes; none of us, however, had enough courage to try it! The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, a member of the Smithsonian Institution's Affiliations Program, was the final stop on our itinerary. The museum's exhibits captured the history of Bisbee, the lives of its miners, the array of native minerals, and other aspects of the city and its people. Personally, my favorite part of the museum was "The Miners' Ten Commandments," which included a list of witty unspoken rules that the miners had followed.

The long drive back to campus was interrupted by a quick stop in the tourist-friendly town of Tombstone, Arizona. After getting some ice cream, we loaded back into the van, resisting the urge to see the O.K. Corral Gunfight Show.

Looking back at this eventful day, Bisbee was the perfect destination for our final UBRP trip of the summer. We enjoyed a brief glimpse into a miner's life, explored the streets of Bisbee, and delved into its rich history.

Peter Knepler, Visiting UBRPer from Carroll College, Waukesha, Wisconsin working in Dr. Giovanni Bosco's lab, Molecular and Cellular Biology