Bisbee and Tombstone Fieldtrip with the 4th Grade..Yeah!

Bisbee Arizona has not ever been on my list to do.  But when you are a mom you get opportunities that you normally would not have.  I often wonder do we know what we are signing up for?  Quince's big field trip this year was to Bisbee, which is famous for it's mines.  

We donned these stylish hats and jackets for our trip into the mine.  Each of us had a battery pack strapped to our backs so we could see.  Hopping on our transportation they took us 1500 feet into the mine and 900 feet below the surface.  (you can not be claustrophobic)  At 47 degrees it is nice and cool year round.  Our tour guide was a miner from Bisbee and he showed the kids how to drill dynamite holes and stuff them and then he said the most important thing when lighting the fuse was to walk casually away..(I am not sure he was kidding or if that is factual, I for one don't know if casual would be used to describe the manner in which I would walk away.) At the end of the tour we asked our Guide if he had every seen or experienced a cave in.  He responded, "Yes,  but all I remember is waking up in the hospital and it taking 3 years to recover."  I guess we will never know what it is really like.Bisbee was quite a town in it's time.  I was surprised to hear that it was even an option in its day to be the State Capitol.Many of the old buildings have been renovated.  I thought the town had charm and I would have loved to explore it.   Of course that was not on the itinerary for the 4th graders.  Maybe someday if we are in the neighborhood we will stop by.  
Being a mining town everything is a climb.  I think that explains how people kept in shape back then

       Tombstone

                                                      A city that is famous for gunfights.
We were only here long enough to suffer through their OK Corral show and watch a video at the Historama.  I am sure that there are a lot of fun and interesting things to do in Tombstone, but we did not have time to participate in them.  The boys really liked that there were guns everywhere,  and loved watching all of the shooting.  That was no surprise.