TOMBSTONE + BISBEE
In my Arizonacore collection, I wanted to separate out some moments from a quick trip through Tucson & Tombstone to spend the night in Bisbee. I had an absolutely smashed iPhone camera so all of these photos I did what I could to salvage, but I still love them for what they are: kinda blurry. It’s called CAMP.
My journey begins at one of the only stops I made in Tucson on my drive through, the Lisa Frank Headquarters.
Although the factory now sits abandoned, you can still drive right up and snap some photos of all the colorful doors and wall art. And I crave more.
Heading into Bisbee, I had to stop and snoop around in Tombstone. Starting of course at the Boot Hill Graveyard.
Unfortunately when my family took this little weekend trip, it was January and we were inundated with rainfall, thus making our time in Tombstone uncharacteristically muddy.
The graveyard (even in the rain) actually restored my life force if I’m being honest.
Hands down my favorite thing in Tombstone is Big Nose Kate’s Saloon. It’s western, it’s tacky, they have giant beers, and it’s HAUNTED. The photos I took in here are unforgivably bad, but I just wanna talk about the main draw here.
My dude, The Swamper, lived a windowless existence in the basement back when this was a hotel. He worked as a janitor, but was a sneaky lil thing and dug his own entry into Tombstone’s bustling silver mines to hoard his own stash. They say his ghost is still around which is exciting for all involved, except for maybe those who work there.
Continuing on, we stayed the night at the iconic and super haunted Copper Queen Hotel. Named after the mines, this is a true piece of Bisbee history.
We didn’t mean to stay in the most haunted room. Not at all. Like I talk a big game, but I have never actually meant it when I get into these situations. So there our group was, crammed into ghost child Billy’s room. Nobody has been able to for sure identity who Billy is, but the rumor is that he was the child of a hotel employee and drowned in the nearby river. It’s a really sad story, and what makes it sadder is that guests have reported hearing a child crying when they run water for their shower. And honestly? That breaks my little black heart into a million pieces. Also, what a convenient excuse to NOT shower in the haunted bathroom to avoid making him upset.
The good news here is that Billy is also known for some major shenanigans so he’s having some fun in the afterlife too. Guests also report hearing children running down the halls only to open the door and not see a thing. Billy also likes to move things around the room while you sleep. He especially likes jewelry or anything shiny, or that would resemble a toy. Still, my black heart is shattered over this.
Also to file under things that are not chill - sleeping in a haunted room decorated with photos of the child that haunts the room.
TLDR; I saw a ghost
The sole reason we ended up in this room was we had five people in our group and it was the only room able to accommodate a group of that size. That of course meant somebody had to take the cot and that person was of course me. Would have been fine had it not meant I was then isolated in the corner, slightly below the level of the beds so I felt more like easy prey.
In the middle of the night at some point, I woke up on my cot and had to pee. Annoyed, I saw somebody move towards the bathroom and I laid back down. Pretty quickly I got irate at who the f*ck was taking that long in the bathroom and sat up in a fury only to see the bathroom door was wide open, and everybody was asleep. I had the sudden sinking feeling that what I had seen wasn’t one of them at all, but a shadow figure. Which, I’d never seen a shadow figure before, but the more I thought about it the more uneasy I got like wait a damn minute here, that thing moved faster than any of these people ever could. And was lower to the ground, say on my eye level on my cot, say CHILD HEIGHT?? Hard pass.
The next morning after I overshared my shadow story and was packing to leave, I couldn’t find my car keys. In a white hot rage I completely unpacked my suitcase, dumped my purse, accused my family members of stealing, the whole routine when one loses an important item. My sister decided to look in her stuff as I moved down the list of the accused. She found my keys in her camera bag. Which, let’s back up a minute here. Where did I set my keys? Easy, they were on the table near my cot because I literally never have them in a bag. Are my keys shiny? Of course. Do they look like a toy? Hell yeah, my apartment key literally had a cat’s face on it. Where was the camera bag? On the same long table as my keys, but on the opposite end. It had been laying open all night too, so I suppose it’d take a small amount of ghost energy to toss those puppies on into that nearby bag.
My other instinct is to, once again, accuse my family of jacking my keys, but the way my cot was squeezed into the corner they’d have to literally step over me in the dark. And do any of them possess that level of stealth? Absolutely not.
I wrote my story down in the massive ghost ledger book at the front desk. The front desk girls seemed kinda meh about both stories which leads me to believe that’s pretty standard ghost play at the Copper Queen.
Before heading out of town, it’s worth a visit over to Lowell (basically still Bisbee) for more desert content.
God I need to go back here with my camera…I’m so sad.
