Pima Air Museum and Boneyard

On our way to our next campground in Tucson, we toured the Pima Air Museum.  This is one of the highest rated air museums in the country and the largest private air museum. 

 The museum has excellent docents, most of whom flew some of the planes on display. 

We entered beneath a Wright Brothers Flyer.  Neil Armstrong took a piece of fabric and a small piece of wood from the Wright Bros. flyer on his moon landing.

 Planes are from WWII, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and Desert Storm conflicts.  Some soar overhead and others are parked where we can closely examine them.  

A special section covers some of the women who were both military and civilian pilots.

Among the spy planes was this Blackbird SR 71A made of titanium to resist the high temperatures created by flying at Mach 3. 

It actually expanded as it flew.  The plane’s design was determined by engineers using slide rules since computers were not yet extensively used. 

Desperate to get planes and pilots to the European Theater in WWII, the military started by adapting the planes already in existence.  This 1935 DC3 had been modified to carry twenty-one passengers.  The military strengthened it for cargo, making it a C42 Sky Train with black and white stripes for identification by US ground troops. 

B24s rolled off the assembly line at the rate of about one an hour.  Women were a major part of the assembly line.  The plane was not pressurized so pilots so had to fly low. This type of plane was flown by Louis Zamperini as related in the book and movie Unbroken.

This symbol, Facis, was the emblem of the Italian Fascists.

The German V1 was the first “cruise missile.”  As it flew toward a target, a small propeller on the nose spun counting rotations until it reached its London target as determined by German engineers.  The propeller made a buzzing sound.  When people on the ground heard it, they felt safe.  When the couldn’t hear it, they knew the bomb was dropping.  Eight thousand were killed by these bombs.  This was an actual V1 that was captured at the end of the war.

After Pearl Harbor, with the Japanese in control of Pacific Islands, the military planned for bombers strike against the Japanese mainland.  The attack was to be from an aircraft carrier and then proceed into China for assistance by Chiang Kai Chek’s army.  Doolittle’s Raid was an example of the risks of doing this.  His sixteen planes had to take off from further east and fly in daylight instead of the planned dark.  Most of the squadron were killed or captured but the act of their flying excited Americans and raised the moral after having had our homeland attacked.

At the beginning of the war the Japanese had a better fighter than ours, the Nakajima Hayabusa “Oscar.”

The Curtiss C-46 was used to ferry troops and supplies over The Hump, the Himalaya Mountains from India to Asia.  Legends say new pilots were told to follow the trail of downed planes around the towering mountain range.

The Corsair was the best Navy plane because of its wing design.

This P51 Mustang bears interesting kill symbols.  Louis Curtiss, an Ace (five kills) pilot  was a POW in Germany, after downing 5 German planes and one Italian.  He escaped and was assigned to the Philippines.  On a mission toward a Japanese-held island, his wingman was shot down and Curtiss knew what would happen to him if the Japanese caught him.  Meanwhile a C47 headed right for the Japanese Island and Curtiss needed to stop it.  He shot out one engine but they did not stop so he shot out the other.  The crew bailed.  As it got dark, he had to leave them but he returned the next day to rescue them all.  His plane bears the flags of the planes he shot down, five German, one Italian, one Japanese and one American.  He received the Distinguished Flying Cross of saving their lives.

We got on the tram for the Boneyard tour, accessible only by escort and ID.  It opened in 1946 on the Davis/Monthon Air Base.  The Boneyard has five functions: Restoration, overhaul, storage (3800 aircraft), reclamation (spare parts) and disposal (backhoe).  The inventory of all the planes in the area is worth $35 billion.

The planes are coated with white spraylat to keep them cooler in this hot environment.

This humongous plane is a C5A Galaxy that can carry a cargo of 800,000 pounds.  It is 120 feet long and has 28 wheels.  It’s nose flips up and it kneels to load.

Aero Spacelines Super Guppy Cargo plane was designed to carry special cargo.

A special place of honor was given to two WWII aircraft.  The first is the B29 which was the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb ending the war against Japan.  This one comes complete with its own 500 pound bomb in the bomb bay.

The second aircraft was the B17 which was responsible for bombing the German homeland.  Thousands of missions were carried out by this plane which was equipped with the Norton bombsight,  a highly secret device at the time.

Here is the waist gunners view.

Outside displays included the only remaining B36.

This one is for you Pete, the B52 together with its tail gun.

Bisbee

Bisbee was built on copper in 1881.  Over a 93 year period miners dug more than 2000 miles of tunnels, 143 miles for the Queen Copper Mine.  They hauled out three million tons of gold, seven million tons of silver and eight million tons of copper.  They started with three to four hundred miners per shift and had 1200-1300 when they closed in 1974.

We donned hard hats, protective coats, belts and lanterns and pinned our number to our clothes.  Miners carried their lunch, helmet, four candles and tools.  The number they wore was returned at the end of the shift so that all members of that shift were accounted for.  Miners made 34 cents an hour plus more for extra tonnage.

We rode deep into the Queen Copper Mine.  Our guide Jose is the grandson and son of copper miners and he led an excellent tour. 

 The mine has seven levels and is 700 feet deep.  The temperature ranges from 47-50 degrees, cool for us but steaming for the miners.  We passed an ore shaft and its adjacent man shaft.  If the ore was muddy and got stuck in the hole, miners could either crawl into the shaft to dislodge it, force air into the shaft or, as a final resort, dynamite it.

Then muckers racked the ore to the chutes.  The miners pushed the ore carts to the chutes to pour it down to where it would be separated.  Later mules were used to haul the carts, they drew four carts each with one ton of ore.

Here the stoker drills 25 holes for the dynamite, placing 5 sticks per hole with the last hole having ten.  The wires, lit with magnesium, differed in length to control the blast. 

The cage carried men, equipment and mules.  Different bell rings signaled where the elevator was going.

 This vital piece of equipment is a two-holer or honey bucket, located in the hottest and wettest part of the tunnels.  New miners were told to turn the wheel thinking that would move the cart.  Instead it dumped the contents all over the floor and they had to clean it up.  The learning curve for that was very short.

The biggest danger in the mine after explosions was the silicon dust that caused lung disease.  The average lifetime for a miner was 35 years.

We all made it back and turned in our numbers and supplies.  Then we examined the exhibits in their small museum.  In addition to mining implements, there is an excellent diorama of the areas of the mine.

Mike, one of our caravaners, is a former copper miner and he confirmed what Jose said but said there was a lot more he could tell.  Hopefully, we can hear his stories later.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Copper Queen Hotel which dates back to 1902.  The current owner of the hotel related the history of the town. 

Judge Bisbee of San Francisco financed the first mine though he never came to the town that bears his name.  In its day, the town had the most millionaires in the US.  Pay was good, working conditions were safe by the standards of that time and copper mining is relatively clean.

The hotel originally had 72 rooms with each floor having a bathroom. 

 While most rooms were for wealthy guests, others had night/day-shift miners.  Still others were for “personal business” purposes. The mines closed in 1975 and the hotel went up for sale for $1.  Now restored, guests have included John Wayne, Harry Houdini, Bela Lagosi, and Johnny Depp. 

This is the John Wayne room complete with an oversize bed, small refrigerator and microwave oven.

The Julia Lowell room may be haunted.  On the wall is a license for prostitution signed by Virgil Earp.

Now the town is known for artists and tourism.

Our history lesson continued at The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum.  It is a Smithsonian Affiliate which means its exhibits are of very good quality.  The building originally was the offices for the Phelps-Dodge Mining Company.  The old town consisted of miners and their families.  There was a lot of money in the town so buildings were well constructed and hotels, restaurants and stores were of good quality. 

The town is built on hills too steep for roads so many houses to this day have only stair access.

Among the exhibits were samples of items containing copper, newspapers showing the diversity of the population

samples of the rocks and ores pulled from the mine and a recreation of the caverns before building tunnels caused the destruction of stalactite and stalagmite formations.

These are views of Bisbee and the copper pits.

Before heading out on our Trolley Ghost Tour we enjoyed another “Members Dinner”, this time lasagna, again delicious.   

Ghost Trolley Tour

Our ghost tour driver explained that spirits come in four stages: orb (light), plasma (streaks of light), vortex (smokey mist) and apparition (body).  We were encouraged to take lots of pictures in the hope of catching one.  The photographer was not successful in these efforts. 

Early Tombstone was a town filled with 140 saloons and “employing” 3400 ladies of the evening, so murders fit right in.  One miners’ cabin had more than 70 murders, opium tunnels ran through the Chinese Hoptown, hangings were held at the Courthouse and sometimes along the streets.  Revenge, unrequited love, jealousy, theft, or just being pissed off could be a cause for shooting someone.

The three most haunted buildings are the Birdcage Theater with shadows in the basement, aromas, sounds and gambling cards rearranged; Boothill with 2000 graves and a shadow man appearing from one of them; and Beauford House where a rejected suitor killed himself after he thought he killed the one he loved.  She lived, he died.

Tombstone, Day Two

Rain slowed us down but did not keep us in.  We went to visit Boothill.  We need to add a Blogger’s Aside.  The two of us had visited Boothll several decades ago when it looked like an old cemetery with wooden headstones carved by hand and standing atilt. 

Today all the head stones made of matching wood stand in neat rows.  These are the markers for the cowboys killed in the gunfight with the Earps. 

In the back there was a Jewish Cemetery that a Native American had respectfully cleaned and restored from its dilapidated and abandoned condition.  Today a monument pays impersonal tribute to the Jews who were buried there. 

 It was sad to see the Boot Hill that had a story to tell replaced by a sanitized version of any other old cemetery.

We left Boothill and went for High Tea near the Rose Tree at Sacred Heart Church. 

There we again enjoyed seeing men and women in the wonderful vintage attire including Nellie Cashman, The Angel of the Camp who would go out of her way to feed and care for hungry miners.

After tea, we headed over for the Gunfight at the OK Corral.  First we watched the excellent movie/diorama Tombstone’s Historama narrated by Vincent Price.  As the strain of How the West Was Won filled the air, the Historama told the history of Tombstone from Apache times to today.  This “true” story supports the Earp’s as heroes and the Clanton’s as rustlers and stage robbers.

Next to the location of the actual shootout, appealing “B” characters reenacted the events leading up to the shootout. The story went from the bating of the Earps by the Clantons to the murder of Tombstone’s Marshall.  Then Wyatt Earp proclaimed himself lawman. 

 After the shootout, in this version instigated by the drunken Clanton’s, the Earp’s left town and were later arrested and brought back for trial.  They were found not guilty.  Within a couple of months, two Earp brothers were shot.  They all left Arizona.  Wyatt, the most famous, went to Hollywood where he died in 1929 with his last word being “suppose.”  He is buried in Eternal Home Cemetery in Colma, CA.  His third wife Josie said he was Jewish so that he would be buried with her.

Correction: We went to The Epitaph, the office of one of the early newspapers.  In a previous blog post, we said it was Democratic and pro cowboy.  We were wrong, The Nugget was the Democratic paper.  The Epitaph was anti cow-boy and Republican.  It was started by John Phillip Clum who left Rutgers University for financial reasons.  He became an Indian Agent over the Apaches believing in their policing themselves.  He founded the paper, saying no Tombstone should be without an Epitaph.  He went on to become mayor and then traveled around the country doing various jobs.

Later in the 1880s Tombstone settled down and became “the town too tough to die,” surviving two major fires and the loss of its position as Cochise County Seat.  Now tourism is the major industry and having fun the main occupation.   
                               
Many evenings we enjoy “Members Dinners.”  Tonight was tacos made by several members and it was great.