Tag Archives: Bisbee

Bisbee, The Gayest Small Town in Arizona

The first time I happened upon “Gay Bisbee” was really by accident. I was a tourist visiting Tombstone on a road trip. Bisbee is just down the highway a bit, really the last little city on the road that leads to the Mexican border.

Photo of downtown Bisbee, Arizona, by Jim Arnold used to illustrate his blog post on Bisbee - the gayest small town in AZ.
Shot of Bisbee, Arizona – taken in the ’90s on one of the blogger’s road trips.

I knew nothing about it but it had a weird and quirky name, so I had to see it. It’s small old mining town set in a valley, with houses dotting the hills above the main drag, which features a lot of turn-of-the-century era (the 20th century) brick buildings. The population is around 5,000.

Bisbee in the Past

Bisbee’s original claim to fame was mining. The Copper Queen mine (now closed, except for tours) was one of the biggest mining operations in Arizona for the period of the 1880s till WWII. The town of Bisbee grew up around it, hence the preponderance of architecture from that era, not only public buildings, but houses as well.

The population has been twice what it is now when the mines were active. So what happens when there’s an infrastructure for a larger town, but the people have left? Well, that brings us to:

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Bisbee Today

It always starts with those artists, now doesn’t it? Kidding, but no. Really. Artists almost always need inexpensive living and studio space, and what better location could there be than an old mining town that has lots of vacancy and low prices? That’s a bit of what happened in the 1970s to Bisbee, and the galleries followed that, the coffeeshops and B&Bs followed that, then it was attractive to Boomers retiring . . . and you can guess the rest.

Photo of downtown Bisbee, Arizona, by Jim Arnold used to illustrate his blog post on Bisbee - the gayest small town in AZ.
Shot of Bisbee, Arizona – taken in the ’90s on one of the blogger’s road trips. Lots of houses and other buildings are perched on the hillsides surrounding the old town.

“Gay Bisbee” got its rep as a gay-friendly place by passing Arizona’s first same-sex civil union ordinance, back in the days before marriage equality. The town was already quite diverse and progressive – and continues that way. A bit of bright blue in a bright red state (which is increasingly becoming “purpler” and will no doubt become reliably blue in the future).

Bisbee in the Future

Boomer and other retirees? I imagine that trend will continue. With the popularity of AirBnb, the area will only get more popular as a tourist and getaway destination, a fairly easy drive from both Phoenix and Tucson and even El Paso. For myself, I look forward to spending more time there in those quiet, peaceful desert hills.

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