HUFFINGTON
05.19.13
LOVE AND HATE
mansions where mining executives
once lived. The grandest of them —
the former residence of the mining
company president — will soon be
converted into a treatment center
and residence for wounded veterans and their families.
But by the time the mine closed
down in the mid 1970s, Bisbee
was already in the process of remaking itself into an enclave for
artists, tourists and retirees. This
wasn’t an uncommon destiny for
America’s mining towns. Often
isolated from other major population centers, mining and gold
rush towns tended to either atrophy into ghost towns or were
repopulated by people with the
sorts of alternative lifestyles often
frowned upon in polite society.
Jerome, Ariz., is another example.
Jerome, like Bisbee, thrived as
a copper town in the early 20th
century, then became a hippie
enclave in the 1970s and 80s. In
1985, the entire town of Jerome
was raided by a team of federal
and state drug cops, who arrested
the police chief, two city council
members and the former mayor
on drug charges.
Today in Bisbee, you’ll find live
theater, art festivals, an annual
parade of “art cars” (functional
Comedian/
Bisbee
resident Doug
Stanhope
and Jenn
Luria, owner
of The Shady
Dell, a gayfriendly motel
in Bisbee.