Tag: bisbee

Bisbee and Naco Raided in Drug Bust

Bisbee and Naco area residents were arrested on warrants during the last 48 hours, on indictments for trafficking marijuana. Nine homes in Naco, Bisbee and Sierra Vista were raided, and several arrests were made.

KVOA leads with a lurid, hyperbolic headline: Feds take down members of a violent drug cartel. What they mean is that a bunch of juvenile delinquents have been smuggling cannabis in school backpacks. This qualifies as violence, under Arizona media guidelines.

Scenes From the Bisbee Deportation – 1917

On the morning of July 12th, 1917, a well armed band of vigilantes and lawmen rounded up and deported over one thousand members and sympathizers of the International Workers of the World, known as the IWW. Its members favored worker owned and operated industries, and proposed to abolish wages, while controlling industrial production through labor councils.

Cochise County Sheriff Harry Wheeler met with Phelps Dodge officials, and secretly organized a round-up of strikers and sympathizers within two local groups: the Citizen’s Protective League, and the Worker’s Loyalty League. Their members supported the mining companies, while distrusting the IWW’s growing support among Mexican and other foreign workers. These photos are from the Walter Reuther Library, and the University of Arizona’s Bisbee Deportation Collection.

Bisbee, Arizona in 1917

A traveling writer, George Wharton James, wrote about Bisbee, Arizona in 1917, in a book called Arizona the Wonderland. This book is available from Google books. The following is an excerpt on Bisbee in 1917:

BISBEE, THE COPPER MINING CITY OF THE SOUTH

Why they called them the Mule Mountains no one knows, yet it so denominated in the bond — on the United States maps, and when the camp was first located, the settlement that sprang up around it was called Mule Gulch; and near by was Mule Pass.