Copper mining became huge in southern Arizona during the late 19th century, and many settlements sprang up as mining boomtowns. Most eventually became ghost towns as mining eventually waned, but Bisbee (above, population just under 6,000) is an exception. Located about two hours southeast of Tuscon and just a few miles north of the Mexican border, it was founded in 1880 and reinvented itself after the shutdown of the last mining operations in the 1950s by turning its Copper Queen Mine into a tourist attraction as well as attracting the creative and the countercultural, who transformed it into an eclectic place filled with art galleries, restaurants, and quirky little hotels, and ruled by an open, welcoming, and accepting ethos.


Read more in Tripatini member Beni Restea's post Top Musts in Southern Arizona.