Artist Series – Bisbee Author Lance Von Prum

Lance will be signing his lastest book:

“Bisbeeland: The Weird, Strange and Unusual History of Bisbee, Arizona”

Bisbee is a weird place for so many reasons, both past and present. From the alcoholic bear that lived at the Stock Exchange Saloon to the thumb that ran for mayor. From the one book bookstore to a $20,000,000 wager on a footrace with a horse, Bisbee has been weird, strange and unusual from the beginning. Bisbee’s fate rested on a guy that found a couple rocks next to a spring. Bisbee may be the most haunted city in America with at least sixteen ghosts that reside at the Copper Queen Hotel, plus the dozens of others who have been seen in nearly every old building in town. There is also a ghost cat, a ghost bear and a haunted jukebox. Around 1910, Bisbee had a population of over twenty-thousand people, almost all men, with over one hundred saloons, breweries and brothels, making for countless strange, often violent happenings. Geronimo liked to camp near a stream that was where the Stock Exchange Saloon is today. You’ll read how John Wayne threw Lee Marvin through the front window of the Copper Queen Saloon. When the mines shut down in the 1970’s, the hippies moved in, a different kind of weirdness took over. Nearly the only two jobs in town were dealing drugs and stealing turquoise off of the mine tailings. The hippies have slowly transformed the city into a great tourist destination with great art galleries, tremendous music venues, fantastic restaurants and a fun place to explore. From its beginning in 1877 to today, Bisbee has gone from an Apache territory, through its long and tumultuous mining era to the quaint and beautiful city it is today.