A Week in Bisbee Arizona Part 2

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We had watched the video at the visitor center about things to do in the Bisbee area. The first few suggestions were ones we had already on in past trips in the vicinity - Tombstone and Chiricahua National Monument (one of our favorites). So we figured we had likely seen all the highlights. But then the video described a visit to Fort Huachuca. I was a bit baffled because we have driven by the place a couple times and knew it to be an active army base. It didn’t seem like the type of place that allowed “visitors”. Back at the rig, we did a little online research and discovered there are several museums on base open to the public. One must go thru a background check in order to get a pass that permits entry to the base. We had done something similar when we were in Alamogordo New Mexico and wanting to see the missile museum near the entrance to White Sands Missile Range. In that case we got our clearance and were allowed to walk from the guard station to the museum.

The museums at Fort Huachuca are not anywhere close to the entrance. But after we dug into the information provided online, the base does a nice job of showing the various things to see on the map and made it sound like it was no big deal for non-military personnel to come in for sightseeing. A little more investigating made us realize that there is actually an active geocache on the base! That fact blew our minds. Nearly all National Parks ban physical caches, how can one get permission to be placed on an active army base?

Well that settled it. We figured we should still be able to pass a background check (we hope!), so we packed a lunch and headed towards Sierra Vista and the Van Deman entrance to the base. The procedure was fairly straightforward. Go into the entrance station, get a number (like at the deli) and grab a clipboard to fill in all your personal information. The form took a few minutes to complete but there were half a dozen other people ahead of us so it wasn’t an issue. There were three open windows so things went fairly quickly. However the guy at the window in front of me must have been running into some issues. I overheard the words “arrest” and “name change”. It didn’t sound promising. He was still sitting at his window when we exited the place. When our number was called, we handed the official our completed form and driver’s license. He typed info into two different computers and in a few minutes took my picture and handed me my laminated badge good for a full month! Grab one of the visitor maps from the center so you have some clue as to where you should head.

We got back into car, drove up to the guard at the entrance lane, he scanned our passes and we were off. The whole process was relatively painless and maybe took thirty minutes or so. We were surprised that we didn’t really get instructions as to what we could or couldn’t do. When we were in White Sands, they made it clear we could take pictures of the exhibits inside and outside of the museum but we were not permitted to take pictures of barracks or the entrance station. Oh well, hopefully we don’t do something bad and get tossed in the brig!

We're Legit!

This is a big place that looked much like a normal city with the exception of most the people walking around were wearing fatigues. We eventually found our way over to the Fort Huachuca Museum in the historic portion of the base. Given the base was established in 1877, there is plenty of history here. The first museum is on the first floor of a building. There are lots of exhibits and a volunteer to give suggestions of where to start and which way to go. Over the years the base has changed. In the early days this was the home to the Buffalo Soldiers. The four historic army regiments made up of black men from the mid 1860’s until World War II. There are lots of displays and depending on your interest in history or the military, it could take an hour or more to peruse the place. We were surprised to find a small gift shop in the back with another volunteer running the place.

At Historic Part of For Huachuca

Fancy Uniform

Just a block from this museum is what’s called the Museum Annex. The building used to be the theater on the base but has been converted into a museum covering the more recent times of Fort Huachuca which is now the home of the Military Intelligence Corps. This building has a wide assortment displays but is predominantly the home to a great many drones that have been used over the years. They even have the theater screen in use with a short movie about the history of the base. We’re not former military but still found it to be rather interesting.

Statue Outside Museum Annex

Old Drone

The next stop was to the historic cemetery located on the base. It’s a beautiful setting with lots of mature trees and a well maintained grounds. No services were taking place, so we were allowed to explore a bit.

Cemetery Entrance

Peaceful Spot

It was getting close to lunch by now and we knew there was some sort of picnic area near where the geocache is located so we tried to figure out which road we needed to get on. We needed to get to the Garden Canyon area of the base. We finally made our way thru the heart of the base to the road we needed to be on. We knew it was a several mile drive out the road and from a description we had read, not a well maintained road at that. Signs at the start of the road mentioned we were heading toward the shooting range. Boy I sure hope we are allowed to be on this road! It’s a pretty drive because we are heading away from the crowds and towards the mountains. One of the peaks in the distance just has a dusting of snow on top.

Dusting of Snow on Mountain

We do indeed go past several shooting ranges where groups are out practicing. We keep our heads low and keep on driving. By this time a white pickup truck is tailing us and I was worried we were going to get pulled over for being well off the typical visitor route. It turned out, the truck was just heading out to a static blimp area. We have normally seen the blimp floating around over the outskirts of the base, but it was presently pulled down much closer to the ground.

Surveillance Blimp

We finally got to a real picnic area with a beautiful setting. There are a few covered areas with picnic tables so we plopped down and enjoyed the view with lunch. Only one other car drove out this far. Actually it was a guy with a mountain bike and from what we could tell, there seemed to be a fair number of trails in the area. It might have been a great place to hike (or bike) but we were still a little nervous since it didn’t seem like we should be here.

View from Picnic Area

Picnic Area with Playground

After lunch, we grabbed our GPSr and headed the tenth mile or so to look for our geocache. We even brought along our bear spray since there were signs mentioning we were entering bear territory. How embarrassing would it be to be attacked by a bear only to have our spray in the car less than a quarter mile away! We finally spotted the cache and appropriately enough for an army base, the container was an ammo can.

Ammo Can on Army Base

We took the long and bumpy ride back into “town” to find the last museum on our list. The MI (military intelligence) Library and Museum. The parking lot for the rather small building was quite full. We head in and enter into a small cafe area that didn’t look like what we were expecting. Someone directed us thru a section of the library back to the museum. In passing the books, I suspect there is every single book ever written on the subject or military intelligence is in this library. The museum was pretty good sized but quite crowded. We appeared to be the only civilians in the place. The majority of the crowd were young men and women in fatigues. They were scurrying around from one display to another with sheets of paper. It appeared they were trying to find answers to questions and about 10 minutes later, they were all called into one of the side rooms that was setup for some sort of class.

MI Museum

With the crowd gone, we were able to walk around and check out the various displays. They were arranged by war (Revolutionary, Civil, WWI, etc) and specific to the military intelligence practices of the time. Most displays included a flat screen with several short clips to choose from to learn a bit more. We probably spent close to an hour going thru the place and usually only watched one of the 3 or 4 videos available at each stop. Possibly the neatest thing was one of the enigma machines the Germans use to send coded messages. As a geocache puzzle aficionado, I run into ones based on this encoding technique. I doubt they would appreciate my stealing it to help solve future puzzles.

Berlin Wall

Enigma Machine

Old Equipment

We headed out being surprised by how much time we spent on the base. There was much more to see and do that I would have imagined. I would highly recommend it if you’re into this kind of thing and can pass a background check!

One other sightseeing stop we learned about in the visitor center video was a place called Slaughter Ranch. It’s about 40 miles from Bisbee but sounded interesting. Since we had just visited Empire Ranch near Sonoita, we figured we could continue the ranch theme. The first part of the drive is easy into the town of Douglas. This is a small border town just across the Mexican border and the town of Agua Prieta. Douglas didn’t seem like there would be much there, but I had read about a hotel in downtown that looked interesting. We stopped here before continuing on to the ranch. From the outside, the hotel doesn’t look that special. Maybe a bit larger than the adjacent buildings but not very noteworthy. Even the main entrance wasn’t very special. If you were driving thru town, you likely wouldn’t be inclined to stop.

Hotel Gadsden

However, if you stop and venture inside the Hotel Gadsden, you will be treated with very ornate woodwork, marble tile and stained glass ceilings and windows. Originally built in 1907 and rebuilt in 1929 after a fire leveled the place. It is a beautiful 160 room hotel. One corner of the lobby had a couple relics from the past - a shoe shine station and phone booths!  I’ll admit, it’s not clear why this large of a place is, or ever was, needed for such a remote location. I was glad we took the 15 minute detour to check it out.

Elaborate Staircase

Fancy Ceiling in Restaurant

Vaulted Stained Glass Ceiling

Shoe Shine Station, Phone Booths and Fancy Drinking Fountain

It’s still a 17 mile drive due east to get to Slaughter Ranch. Only the first mile or so out of town is paved. The rest is a reasonably well maintained dirt road. The road more or less runs parallel to the Mexican border generally about a quarter mile away. Along the way, we notice a great deal of truck traffic. A mile or two before getting to the ranch, we realize the reason for all the construction vehicles and semis with large steel beams. We are at a border wall construction location. It is definitely a beehive of activity with fork lifts unloading semis, welders doing their thing and heavy equipment moving dirt and setting wall sections. It might have been interesting to actually stop and watch but we were on a mission so we headed on.

We arrive at the ranch and were a bit surprised to see 4 other cars here. I figured this was a remote enough spot that few visitors would bother coming here but I guess that’s not the case. We go into the visitor center to pay our admission fee ($5 per person) and get a small booklet with map and information to give a good self guided tour. It’s a pretty setting with a large pond - quite unexpected for this part of the country. There are a handful of buildings to explore. It turns out John Slaughter bought the land back in 1884 to raise his cattle and family. The place it now overseen by a group trying to preserve the ranch.

We Have Arrived at Slaughter Ranch

Main Ranch House

Pretty Pond

There are lots of interesting displays and many of the rooms are furnished. However much of it isn’t original to the ranch but are period appropriate to represent what it may have looked like in its day. John Slaughter was a rather famous character of the old west. So much so that a TV series was created back in 1958 to 1961 based on his life for the Wonderful World of Disney. There were a great number of articles from newspapers and magazines about this ranch that on display. The one that caught my eye was from “Rural Electrification Magazine” - now there is a specialized magazine I didn’t realize existed.

A 48 Star Flag

Living Room

Kitchen

It's for You!

Specialized Magazine

There are also a few trails on the east side of the pond up to the remains of an old fort that was there to guard the border with Mexico. There really isn’t much left of the fort other than a pile of rocks which didn’t look much different than those found next to farmers fields. I guess you need to really use your imagination to see what it looked like. The terrain is just a bit higher here and provides some good views of the mountains to the north or the border barricade about 800 feet to the south. I forgot to ask the person at the desk whether the border wall is going to be constructed here as well.

Looking North with Stones from Old Fort

Looking South to Mexico and Border Barrier

With such a beautiful setting at the pond and a handful of picnic tables, we headed back to the car for the cooler with our lunch. I grabbed the long telephoto lens to see if I could get a picture of some of the ducks out on the pond. One of them looked rather odd. It was small with a mainly brown body and black and white head. The the real striking feature was the baby blue bill. It didn’t look real to us. Take a look at the picture and I’m sure you will assume I used Photoshop to doctor it but I swear I didn’t. Later investigation gave us the name - the ruddy duck. Breeding males get a blue bill. Who knew?

A Ruddy Duck

I don’t think the ranch is used for herds of cattle anymore, but there is a rather large menagerie of animals running around the place. We saw a longhorn, a horse, a few donkeys, sheep, goats and three very friendly dogs. Definitely a neat place to visit.

Donkey

Friendly Dog

Sheep

Cute Goat

The ranch is adjacent to San Bernardino National Wildlife Refuge. We figured if we had bothered to drive this far out the dirt road, we might as well go a bit further to check this place out as well. I hadn’t been able to find much info about the refuge online but it looked like there was a pond and some trails if we could figure out where the entrance was. We found two “entrances” if you want to call them that. One had some faint trails heading from the end of the road. The other was a gravel road but it was gated so the best we could do was walk. We decided the area didn’t look that special to make it worth the several mile walk required to get to the notable features so we just headed back to Bisbee.

Sign for Refuge

For our last day in town, we decided to do a hike in the hills that start right from town. There are several that would have worked but we picked one called Chihuahua Hill. Being camped so close to town meant we didn’t need to drive in and find a parking spot which can be difficult in Bisbee. The hike starts out going up Ok Street but given how steep it is, I’m not sure I would name it Ok. For some reason going up a steep road isn’t as satisfying as a steep trail. The instructions we had read didn’t make sense initially but once we were within sight of the turn, “take a right at Jesus” was accurate.

Not Your Typical Trail Marker

There are a few intersections along the way but we were using a couple geocaches as our guide to help determine which way to go. As we gained elevation, the views of town got pretty good. Once near the top of the hill, we started to run into a large number of shrines built into openings in the rocks. Some were rather simple while others were quite elaborate. Some of them appeared too consistent to be natural openings and I think those may have been constructed from concrete. If so, I’m more impressed by the effort required to carry the bags of concrete and water up this hill rather than the actual concrete work.

Painted Shrine

Fabricated Shrines

Statue, Candles and Flowers

Six Foot Cross

Regardless, we were moved by the little trinkets and letters left in honor of people that passed before their relatives or friends were prepared for. We spent a half hour just walking around the area near the large cross that can be easily seen from town below. We then continued across the ridge to a steep downhill portion. We knew there was another area honoring Dr Martin Luther King Jr because the nearby geocache mentioned it in the description. It turns out in order to see it, you must be below it. From this area there look to be numerous trails across the valley.

More Shrines

Standalone Shrine with a View

MLK Shrine

Lots of Trails

We follow the obvious trail up to the top on another hill that we hope will give us a good view of our campground. It turned out there is at least one more hill in the way but it was still a pretty spot. We had brought lunch and this would have been an ideal spot for it, but we had gotten such an early start to our hike that we weren’t ready to eat yet. We backtrack towards the MLK shrine and head down a side trail.

Overlooking Bisbee

We suspected or at least hoped the trail would lead to probably the largest shrine we would come across in Bisbee - the Buddha Shrine. Again it was a geocache that acted as our tour guide to find this spot. The shrine is in a 10 foot deep opening in the side of the hill. It wasn’t clear whether the opening was natural or the start of a mine entrance that didn’t go very far. In either case, the whole inside of the opening is decorated with the main element being a decent sized Buddha statue. It’s not clear how something like this comes to exist or how long it has been here. We were just above a row of houses at this point, so this one is reasonably easy to get to if you come at it from town.

Outside of Buddha Shrine

Inside of Buddha Shrine

We took advantage of a small area to sit in the shade and had our lunch. Just as we were trying to determine the correct way to get from the shrine to the steps that will lead us back into town, some local people were making their way up to check it out. Once we got to the stairs, it was simply a matter of heading down until we hit some of the more major streets of Bisbee. Along the way, I noticed a pedestrian walkway between two rows of buildings that had dozens of painting hanging all along the walls of the buildings or the fences surrounding a yard. The variety of subjects and techniques made me suspect they were not all produced by the same artist but I didn’t investigate them closely. This type of decorated walkway represents the feeling the whole historic district of town feels. We probably could have spent a couple weeks in the area given all there is to see and do but this first week will need to suffice for now since we need to move on. Next stop Tucson.

Painting Exhibit?

Moo