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Queen Mine Underground Tour and Lavender Open Pit Mine Tour
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Photo Credit: Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau
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This is largest and most complete tour of one of Arizona?s oldest copper mines. Visitors are issued a hard hats, slickers, and miner?s headlamps before taking the underground train deep into the Copper Queen Mine. Retired miners narrate the tour and show how turn of the century mines operated, including history, drilling tools, blasting methods and ore loading. The Queen Mine was one of Bisbee?s richest and operated from 1877 - 1975. It has seven levels with 143 miles of passageways. The Mine has natural ventilation due to the many shafts and drifts. The average temperature is 47 degrees, so visitors are advised to bring a warm sweater or jacket.
From the Copper Queen Mine, visitors can also take a tour of the Lavender Open Pit Mine, a narrated, 13-mile bus tour around a 300-acre hole, where more than 380 tons of ore and tailings have been removed. Phelps Dodge started open pit mining in 1954 with the Lavender Pit that eventually consumed Sacramento Hill and reached a depth of 1,000 feet. Operations at the Lavender Pit ended in 1974. Tours leave from the Queen Mine Tour Building located immediately south of Old Bisbee?s business district, off of U.S. 80 interchange.
Region: Tucson & Southern Arizona
Bisbee
Zip: 85603
Email: queenminetour@cityofbisbee.com
Phone/Fax: (520) 432-2071
Website: www.cityofbisbee.com/queenminetours.htm
Tours are available five times a day, seven days a week. Reservations are suggested.
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