Bisbee's vibe lands it in 'Frommer's' top 10 for cool
by Scott Craven
Apr. 15, 2006 12:00 AM

If you capture killer bees for their honey, or ride a bike in your pajamas, or climb stairs leading to nowhere, Bisbee is a cool place to be.

Even if you don't do any of those things, Bisbee is still cool. At least according to Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel magazine, which named the Arizona community one of the 10 coolest small towns in America.

The choice was no surprise to O'Neil McGean, whose initial sighting of Bisbee occurred a split second before the thought, "This is where I'm going to live." advertisement




He saw a hamlet settled blissfully in a small canyon, with homes and cabins perched above. When McGean fled California three years ago to escape the masses, he wanted to find a cozy town in Arizona or Connecticut. His decision to call Bisbee home saved him a few thousand miles.

"All I knew about Arizona was that it was flat and hot and had no trees," McGean said. "Then I saw Bisbee. I was amazed."

McGean, who owns the Prickly Pear Café with partner Ryan White, has since learned Bisbee's charms lie with its people as well.

"Everybody is super nice or totally cool," McGean said. "It's just a great place to live."

Budget Travel wasn't the only one to notice the town's funky style. Fashion guru Kate Spade used Bisbee as the backdrop for a 12-page advertising section that ran last month in Vogue, Vanity Fair, Town & Country and T, the New York Times style magazine.

Bisbee also has character. The most obvious is in its landscape, where several staircases climb the walls, yet because of fires or people simply moving on, lead to vacant lots.

Frommer's also cited Bisbee's characters as a big reason for putting it on the list of America's 10 coolest small towns.

One is Reed Ford, who has created quite a buzz as the Killer Bee Guy. Ford, who arrived in Bisbee 20 years ago, removes killer bee swarms and then puts the bees to work, supplying his Killer Bee Honey shop downtown.

Ford has been stung hundreds of times by a breed of bee that really does not like to be disturbed. As he tends his hives "in the middle of nowhere," he feels as if he's being pelted with hail when bees attack him in his sting-resistant outfit. Still, he wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

"Bisbee is such a major party town," Ford said. "There was a party every night when I first got here when there were a bunch of artists and literary types. It's kind of gentrified now with lots of retirees, but there's a sense of community here. People stick together."

Tad Cheyenne Miller, an artist who runs the Sleepy Dog Guest House, sought only to escape from the Vermont winters when she explored Arizona looking for a new home. Phoenix was too big; Tucson too busy. Bisbee was just right, especially the more she got to know people.

Miller feels at home, she said, among the aging hippies, the quirky artists and the hefty dose of liberals.

You can be who you want to be, as residents don't care what car you drive, what clothes you wear (Miller often bikes in her pajamas) or even if you clean up your yard.

"There's no judgments, no keeping up with the Joneses," Miller said.

Arthur Frommer's Budget Travel also singled out the Shady Dell, Bisbee's salute to hip lodging. The Dell, run by Laura Chumley, boasts nine 1950s trailers, a 60-year-old bus outfitted with a tiki bar and a 47-foot-long yacht that commands $125 a night, the most expensive "room" at the hotel.

Chumley bought the Shady Dell two years ago, and although she spends most of the year in Soldotna, Alaska (not far from Homer, another top 10 small city), she enjoys being part of the Bisbee scene.

"It's like its own little world," she said. "It's got hippies, retired people, a whole array. It's very cool."



Reach the reporter at scott.craven@arizonarepublic.com or (602) 444-8773.