Douglas, Arizona

Thur - March 25th

Queen Copper Mine at Bisbee, Az. The mines here have produced 8 billion pounds of copper, plus gold, turquoise, silver, lead and zinc. Nestled in the Mule Mountains, it was crowned one of the prettiest 20 towns in America by Forbes Magazine.

It has been featured on the Food Network and on Discovery Channel with Reed Booth, the killer bee guy.

The Douglas Depot was built in 1913 and saw as many as 8 passenger trains a day in the 1920s. It was restored in 1992 and is now police headquarters.

Gadsden Hotel billed as the "Last of the Grand Hotels" was built in 1907, destroyed by fire in 1927, rebuilt the following year and marketed as "fire proof". It has twin sweeping marble staircases, gold leaf topped pillars and a 42 foot Tiffany stained glass mural. Pancho Villa once rode his horse into the hotel and up the marble staircase. His horse made a chip in the seventh step that is still there. It has the mail cupboard behind the desk with a pigeon hole for each guest's mail.

Douglas is right on the border with Mexico. We went across to Agua Prieta with another guy from our campground for lunch and margaritas. He was having some dental work done there because it is so much cheaper in Mexico.

The John Slaughter 100,000 acre ranch is just outside Douglas for touring. We didn't go. He was at one time a Texas Ranger, wanted outlaw in New Mexico, sheriff in Tombstone, a senator and a rancher.

This church is on the corner of a block that has a church on each corner. It is called Church Square and has been in Ripley's "Believe it or Not" since 1930 as the only place in the world with four churchs on one block.

Moving on tomorrow. Expect to be in Iowa in a couple of weeks to spend some time with friends and relatives.

Tarra