Visiting the small haunted town of Bisbee, AZ

In the spirit of Halloween, spooky season, I wanted to take the time to recall our trip to the small haunted town of Bisbee, AZ earlier this year.

Bisbee, Arizona (February 2023)

We drove to Bisbee in February of 2023, which was roughly a 3 hour and 20 minute drive south of Phoenix. It is extremely close to the Mexican border. The plan was to visit the small mining town, since we heard it was haunted. I had just returned from New Orleans from a work trip and in taking a haunted tour, I wanted to explore what we had here in Arizona. Bisbee came up in the searches and we booked a weekend trip.

Stay tuned for the end of the blog for our experience and what actually ended up giving me a good scare.

When we arrived, the first thing we did was fight to find parking. The town is on a mountain and there is not much room for parking. We finally found a spot semi-close to our hotel after circling the area a few times. Then we checked in to our hotel. Little did we know, I had booked us a haunted hotel called Hotel La More. When you walk in, it is creepy right off the bat. With guest books of guests' haunted experiences, a seance decorated lobby area. There are also pamphlets that literally say "DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL". Great marketing by the way. More on the history and our experience here later!

After checking into the hotel we did find a local pub to eat some lunch. I had a personal sized pizza and David had a burger. I did not take any pictures, since we were starving at this point, we inhaled the food.

We also checked out some of the shops before heading to our mine tour. We checked out some thrift shops and got some cute cupcakes while we walked the town. One of these thrift shops is where we got our coasters of a german shepherd and chihuahua that look identical to Charlie and Chance.

Queen Mine Tour:

We did do a mining tour at Queen Mine Tours after lunch. This was actually an amazing experience. You get to wear the hard hat, headlamp and safety vest upon before entering the mine (like a true miner). Then you ride an original mine train 1,500 feet into the mine. The tour guide makes stops where you can get off the train, learn about the mine and take pictures and videos. It does get cold down there and some people may experience light headedness. Luckily, we did not experience this and got to fully enjoy the tour.

Old Bisbee Ghost Tour:

The ghost tour starts off by meeting the tour guide outside the steps of the Bisbee museum at a designated time. Then once everybody shows up, the tour guide walked us through the town of Bisbee sharing stories of the history of the ghosts of Bisbee. The tour guide took us through different hotels (notably the Copper Queen hotel), shops and showed us areas where they have seen sightings of ghosts. Then, they would show us pictures of sightings guest have seen on the same tour. They encourage you to take your own pictures then share them if you see anything afterwards. I did not see anything in mine, unfortunately.

One of the stops was actually our hotel we were staying in. The guide shared that there were sightings of ghost cowboys, a lady in a dress, and even a ghost cat! Imagine our terror, knowing we had to walk back to the hotel after the tour and actually sleep there.

The spookiest thing we saw all night was an actual (probably drunk) person stumbling through a dark parking lot next to us.

Slide for my attempt to capture a ghost sighting

Hotel La More:

I did not end up taking many pictures inside the hotel because quite honestly, it scared me. I did not want the pictures in my phone.

The hotel is vintage and looks like the beginning of an old school scary movie. The owners of the hotel are big into the supernatural and the world of creepy so they do their best to advertise it as such.

Not my picture, this is from ShareTrip

Hotel La More lobby, 2023

Seance themed hotel lobby

However, spending the night there was not as scary as we thought. The rooms were small and uncomfortable, but it fit in with the spooky aesthetic. I was unable to sleep, but mostly due to the noise outside. There was a bar pretty close by and our door had an open window on the top which allowed noise to come in. Nothing out of the ordinary happened throughout the night but the hotel decor in the room did occasionally scare me when I would wake up.

Ending Thoughts:

Overall, it was a great experience, but we will likely not return again. I do like a good scare and this was mostly a weekend to explore a quirky mining town with plenty of good, spooky history to share. Next time, maybe we will be one of the lucky (or unlucky) to spot a ghost on a tour.

I did end up developing a rash after this weekend. This was scary, since it looked like chicken pox, but I had already had chicken pox. I believe I started developing it from the hotel in New Orleans, the week prior. The urgent care doctor said could have been from new soap from the hotel sheets, but was nothing to worry about. It cleared up in a few weeks. Ultimately, it was the scariest thing I took home from Bisbee.

Stay Safe and Happy Halloween!

-Suly