Going Back to Bisbee

Rating:
Summary: A Virtual History Vacation
Review: This book is a gem! Besides the fact that Bisbee is one of my favorite places to visit, the author makes the trip there so enjoyable, you have a hard time remembering you've been there already. I especially liked the story of the Christmas 'Tree' he brought in one year for Christmas. Get this book and take it to a quiet corner to read. You will be transported.

Rating:
Summary: Going back to Bisbee
Review: This book is excellent! Richard Shelton wrote this book in a most unique style, you can see the thought process and the line of conceionce. i thouroughly enjoyed the book and i think everyone should go back to bisbee sometime in there lives and have a little fun. I enjoyed reading this book and there are so few of us that know how to slow down and smell the flowers. We all get cought up in lives little frenzies and rush to do everything. after reading this book i want to jump in an old van and drive around the great state of Arizona too.

Rating:
Summary: Down Memory Lane to a town that would not die . . .
Review: This book is part travelogue, part natural history, part regional history, and part personal memoir. After many years as a writer, poet, and university professor, the author takes an 80-mile journey from his home in Tucson to the old mining town of Bisbee in the southeast corner of Arizona. Just a stone's throw from the Mexican border, Bisbee has been the site of copper mines, starting in the 1880s and lasting until the 1970s, when conglomerate Phelps Dodge finally ceased operation, having created a huge open pit and left mountains of tailings.

A mountain town built in the twists and turns of a narrow valley, Bisbee was once the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. More amazing today is that unlike most mining towns that sprang up in the West, Bisbee is not a ghost town but still thrives, chiefly as an artists' center and a tourist destination. A high school teacher, fresh out of the Army in the 1950s, Shelton tells of life in a modern-day mining community, and great storyteller that he is, there are entertaining accounts of fitting in to the community, establishing himself as a young teacher, and taking on leadership of a Boy Scout troop given to embarrassing public pranks.

But by the time Shelton brings us to Bisbee in the closing chapters of the book, he has lingered lovingly over the flora and fauna of the desert and mountains, provided readers with several hundred years of history in this area once ruled by the fierce Apaches, visited Tombstone (represented as a tourist trap), recalled his tour of duty with the Signal Corps at Ft. Huachuca, got caught in a downpour and had lunch in a roadside diner, and driven his van way off the main road where he finds a young man panning for gold. There is a long, humorous account of a squirrel infestation at his Tucson home and the intervention of a bull snake named Henry. And on and on.

I highly recommend this enjoyable book for readers interested in the desert, Arizona, the culture of mining towns, and the social history of the American West. Shelton brings to life whatever subject he touches.

Rating:
Summary: Earned a permanent place in my home
Review: Two or three years ago, I borrowed the library's copy of this book, and I can't tell you how many times special parts of this book have come back to haunt me. There are events in it that I wish would have happened to me. But the next best thing is hearing Mr. Shelton describe them. He's funny and touching and entertaining and informative. It's a rich experience. Time to buy my own copy.

Rating:
Summary: Earned a permanent place in my home
Review: Two or three years ago, I borrowed the library's copy of this book, and I can't tell you how many times special parts of this book have come back to haunt me. There are events in it that I wish would have happened to me. But the next best thing is hearing Mr. Shelton describe them. He's funny and touching and entertaining and informative. It's a rich experience. Time to buy my own copy.