Location Description and History

In 1880, the small mining community petitioned for a post office to be established, the group selected the name of Bisbee after DeWitt Bisbee who helped secure financing for the Copper Queen mine. During the 1880's the small mining community grew from a few hundred to about 1,500 individuals. Laws governing staking and claiming of mines were established and a few laws governing social behavior were created. Principally, Bisbee and the mines were to be reserved to "white men" only. The community grew. Small stores, bars and entertainment establishments grew. Originally located in tent buildings, these establishments gradually became frame of brick structures by 1900. In order to create these buildings and to heat them, the hills were stripped of vegetation which allowed for several torrential floods to periodically destroy the town. The flooding came annually with the monsoon rains, the townspeople grew to accept the floods until the first large flood of 1890.

After this flood, flood gates were placed in Tombstone Canyon and wooden flood channels were created to divert the waters. While this worked somewhat, floods still continued to vex the community, notably again in 1896, 1902 and 1908.

Disease (notably small pox and typhoid) also attacked the residents of Bisbee. The sanitation conditions were less than desirable. No sewer system existed and Brewery Gulch was described as a filthy, slime-filled street with rotting carcasses, food, and other waste products covering the street.
A third pestilence attacked the town of Bisbee, that of fire. Fire roared through the town in 1907 and 1908. By 1912 the town was rebuilt from these disasters to the point that it is reflected today.

Bisbee's town population grew. In 1910 it was considered the largest city in the territory with over 25,000 people. While in the 1920's, Bisbee was one of the three largest cities in the state with a population of around 25,000 people. Homes began to be built on the hillsides of the Mules, several of them only accessible by steep stairs.

Evergreen cemetery replaced the Old City Park cemetery in Brewery Gulch, which was up slope from the drinking water wells. Several astute folks of the late 19th century suggested that such a situation might pose a health risk to the early residents of Bisbee. By order of the Common Council of Bisbee in 1914, the transfer of the residents from the old cemetery to Evergreen had begun. Today, there are over 10,000 burials in the cemetery. Regardless, many locals refuse to go near the "old cemetery" and believe that not everyone was moved out of there.

The Bisbee Massacre On a winter night late in 1883 five men rode into Bisbee and robbed the Goldwater and Castaneda store, the largest in town, to which the payroll for the Copper Queen Mine invariably was consigned. After Joseph Goldwater handed over the little money in the drawer and opened the safe, the robbers forced his partner, Jose Maria Castaneda, from a sickbed and found a sack of money and a watch under his pillow. As two robbers left the store, their three companions outside indiscriminately and excitedly began firing at everybody on the street. Three men and a woman were wantonly killed. The robbers rode into the night. Posses were organized to hunt them down. In the process a local saloonkeeper, John Heath, was revealed as an accomplice as he tried to lead the posse on a false trail. He had helped the killer plan the holdup. The five men were rounded up: two in Mexico, one in a Deming, New Mexico, barber shop, and two more at Clifton, where one had given the watch taken in the holdup to a lady-friend.

Brought to trial, the five who actively participated in the crime were sentenced to death. Their associate, who had cowered behind the bar in his own saloon during the shooting, was given a long prison term. The county seat and jail were at Tombstone, across the mountains from Bisbee. The following morning a crowd converged at the jail, took Heath from his jailers and hanged him to a telephone pole. Dr. George E. Goodfellow gave as his legal medical opinion that Heath had died of emphysema of the lungs (lack of oxygen) "self induced or otherwise."

Ref: Arizona Pageant - A Short History of the 48th State, by Madeline Ferrin Pare with the Collaboration of Bert M. Fireman. Arizona Historical Foundation Tempe, 1875, pages 231-231

Bisbee, Arizona is thought to be one of the most haunted towns in southern Arizona. Founded in the late 1800's as a mining town, Bisbee has seen its share of mining accidents, barroom brawling gone bad, and tragedy in general. This has paved the way for a veritable cornucopia of hauntings, sightings, and other miscellaneous paranormal activity.

A woman with worms crawling out of her eye sockets was observed walking down the dark alleyways of Brewery Gulch. The majority of the sightings are after midnight. When approached, she just vanishes into thin air. The ghost of an old lady carrying a rifle was spotted smoking a pipe under a streetlight in downtown Bisbee.

The ghost of a cleaning woman was seen mailing a letter at a Bisbee post office. The eye witness was frightened and ran away.

The ghost of a young air force pilot was observed by a man camping at a campground outside Bisbee. Other sightings of this ghost have also been reported.

The ghost of an Indian chief was seen walking from house to house in the early morning hours before sunrise on a Bisbee street.

A woman with an axe sticking out of her head showed up walking by a road outside Bisbee. The witness fled when she saw the ghost.

A man with a large hole through his torso was observed sitting in a chair outside of a house near Brewery Gulch.

We then moved out of Brewery Gulch and into the downtown section of the city. No EM fields were located although we did get allot of photographs with "orbs" in them, many of them are more than likely dust particles.

Photographs

Click the thumbnails to view the larger image

Other than the sound of the footsteps, which we could not explain, nothing substantial was found during this ghost hunt.