From Tombstone to Douglas

4/5 We left Tombstone in the morning headed for Coronado National Memorial to get another stamp in the National Park Book. We figured we should look at all of them while we were close by. It wasn't a long drive from Tombstone but it sure was a pretty one as all the drives have been so far.
So if you remember anything about early history and Spanish exploration of the US, then you might remember  Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and his hunt for the Seven Cities of Gold. All he found were hostile Indians and mud huts. The National Park Service put up this memorial to memorialize the trip the Coronado took through the area all the way to Kansas. When they figured out that they weren't going to find anything but heartache and misery, they killed their Indian guide and went back the way that they came.
The Memorial is in the hills because no one knows for sure where he walked exactly and all the land in the valley where he probably walked is owned privately so they just built it in the hills on some state land.

There was a forest fire at some time, all the trees were scorched or dead. Some were green and alive.
Inside the small building was a collection of artifacts, a movie and some gear like the soldiers would have worn. The chain mail shirt was 22lbs and the hood was 12. So we tried them on.

A type of house that Coronado and his men would have seen on the trip.

We had lunch and then we left. More views of the valley. I wanted to head over the mountains to the west but the road turned into dirt and stone and they did not recommend that I take the camper over the mountain pass. So we went east.

 We bought some Mexican chocolate there. Just chocolate and cane sugar. Muy excellente!

We drove on down to Bisbee, AZ to check out the Bisbee Mining Museum. It was in the old Phelps Dodge and Company building that was built in the early 1900s when Phelps Dodge bought claims there and started mining for copper. They built a stable community as copper mining wasn't the flash in the pan that silver and gold was.

There were mountains of mine waste everywhere and the colors in the rocks were stunning.

Patrick demonstrates his skills at spinning a crank to light a bulb.

This pic never loaded the right way up for some reason but it was a good rule.

There are three of these circular bases that were once part of the concentrator for extracting the copper from the ore.

This pit ran for a long ways along the road. It was gigantic and the pictures do it no justice on massive it truly is.

 After we left Bisbee, we headed for Douglas to find a spot to park the camper. We ended up at the Douglas Golf Course and RV. Behind the pines you can see the stands for the fairground horse track.

The Route for the day

We didn't make it very far but we saw a lot of cool things and enjoyed the ride. Stay tuned for New Mexico..........