Abandoned Towns
Vintage cars parked along Erie Street in front of brick storefronts with old signs

Copper mining town

Lowell

A copper town of more than 6,000 people that the Lavender Pit swallowed in the 1950s. One block of Erie Street survives, lined with old storefronts and parked vintage cars.

31°25′49″N 109°53′38″W · ≈5,080 ft

Photo: Al_HikesAZ, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Part of Bisbee

Lowell has been part of the City of Bisbee since 1959, and people still live around it. Erie Street is a public street; the storefronts and the parked vintage cars are private property. A video posted on October 11, 2026 shows the cars, gas pumps and signs still on the street.

Overview

The town under the pit

Lowell grew up just southeast of Old Bisbee around the Lowell Mine, which Frank Hanchett of Lowell, Massachusetts bought in 1899. Saloons and a livery stable came in 1900, the townsite and a post office in 1904, and by 1910 almost half the district's people lived in Lowell and neighboring Warren. Lowell had about 5,000 residents in 1915 and more than 6,000 by 1920. Erie Street was its main street, with eight saloons in 1908.

The mines that built Lowell also ended it. In 1950 Phelps Dodge opened the Lavender Pit on the site of the Sacramento Hill mine. More than 250 homes and 20 businesses had to be moved or sold, Highway 80 was rerouted around the pit, and Upper Lowell, Jiggerville and the Johnson Addition were destroyed. By 1957 few people lived in Lowell, and in 1959 it was annexed into the City of Bisbee. The pit produced about 600,000 tons of copper before mining ended in 1974.

What survives is about a quarter mile of the old commercial district on Erie Street. Volunteers of the Lowell Americana Project dressed it as a street of the 1940s to early 1970s, with hand-painted signs, gas pumps and old cars parked at the curb. Only a few businesses remain. A 1998 mining history tour called it a modern ghost town, and Wikipedia files it among Arizona's ghost towns, but Lowell is a neighborhood of Bisbee, not an abandoned site: the houses of Saginaw, Galena and Bakerville are next door.

Video

A walk down Erie Street

Two visitors and their dog Blondie start at a busy cafe, then walk the sidewalks of Erie Street past a Lowell marquee sign, the Broken Spoke truck, Gulf, Texaco and Chevron pumps, rows of 1950s cars, a Greyhound Scenicruiser bus and a building signed Lowell Police Dept. with an old patrol car in front. They look at an Indian motorcycle display through a shop window and walk under an old railroad bridge.

Play “Lowell Arizona-a town trapped in time.” from YouTube
“Lowell Arizona-a town trapped in time.”, by Wild Rumpus Adventures on YouTube. The player loads from YouTube when you press play.

Timeline

From the Lowell Mine to the Lavender Pit

Striking miners marched from Lowell during the Bisbee Deportation, July 12, 1917
Striking miners marched from Lowell during the Bisbee Deportation, July 12, 1917 · Photo: Dix, George C., copyright claimant, Wikimedia Commons, Public domain
  1. W.S. Salmon locates the claims that later become the Lowell Mine, but does no work on them.
  2. Frank Hanchett of Lowell, Massachusetts buys the property and forms the Lowell & Arizona Copper Mining and Smelting Company; the camp most likely takes his hometown's name.
  3. The first businesses open: two saloons and a livery stable.
  4. The Copper Queen Consolidated Mining Company owns the Lowell Mine by October and finds a major orebody.
  5. The townsite is laid out and Lowell gets a post office.
  6. Four tons of dynamite explode at the Denn Mine, breaking every window in Lowell.
  7. Erie Street has eight saloons. The Warren-Bisbee Railway's electric line starts service on March 12.
  8. About 5,000 people live in Lowell, and more than 6,000 by 1920.
  9. The Bisbee Deportation: striking miners are marched from Lowell and shipped out of the state.
  10. Lowell School is built across the road from Evergreen Cemetery.
  11. Phelps Dodge opens the Lavender Pit on the site of the Sacramento Hill mine.
  12. More than 250 homes and 20 businesses are moved or sold; Upper Lowell, Jiggerville and the Johnson Addition are destroyed. Few people live in Lowell by 1957.
  13. Lowell and the other district towns are annexed into the City of Bisbee.
  14. Mining in the Lavender Pit ends.
  15. Vintage cars, gas pumps and a Greyhound bus still line Erie Street, per a video posted October 11, 2026.

What is left

Erie Street

The Lowell Harley-Davidson storefront with an army-green car at the curb, December 2018
The Lowell Harley-Davidson storefront with an army-green car at the curb, December 2018 · Photo: The44thEditor, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0
The empty Sprouse-Reitz variety store on Erie Street, June 2010
The empty Sprouse-Reitz variety store on Erie Street, June 2010 · Photo: StellarD, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Erie Street runs for about a quarter mile off AZ 80 just south of the Lavender Pit. Its storefronts include a restored Gulf station and a Shell station, an old movie theatre, a pool hall, a Harley-Davidson shop, a five-and-dime and a hat shop. The tiled front of the Sprouse-Reitz variety store stood empty in a June 2010 photo. The Junction Shaft headframe stands above the street. Evergreen Cemetery is nearby, with the 1931 Lowell School across the road from it.

The cars are the street's draw: a yellow Broken Spoke taxi, a green Ford pickup, a 1936 Chevrolet truck and an old Greyhound bus have all been photographed at the curb, and the photos here, from 2010 to May 2026, show the scene barely changing. The Lowell Americana Project's restoration has drawn film and video crews. The Bisbee Breakfast Club opened its first restaurant in Lowell's old Rexall pharmacy building; its website now gives an address on Tombstone Canyon in Old Bisbee.

Treat the storefronts and cars as private property and look from the sidewalk. The Lavender Pit is company land; see it from outside the fence.

  • Erie Street storefronts
  • Gulf and Shell stations
  • Lowell Theatre
  • Vintage cars and gas pumps
  • Junction Shaft headframe
  • Evergreen Cemetery
  • Lowell School (1931)
  • Lavender Pit

Old and new maps

Watching the pit take the town

The 1902 sheet shows Bisbee and the railroad climbing Mule Gulch, with almost nothing where Lowell would grow. By 1927 the map is crowded with Lowell, the Sacramento Mine, the Junction and Denn mines, Bakersfield, Warren, South Bisbee and Tin Town. The 1958 sheet has the Lavender Pit where Sacramento Hill stood, with Lowell squeezed to its southeast edge beside Evergreen Cemetery, a traffic circle and the new settlements of Saginaw, Galena and Bakerville. The 1996 sheet shows the same shape, with the Lowell label on the edge of the pit and tailings dumps all around.

USGS topographic map of Lowell, Erie Street and the traffic circle on AZ 80
USGS The National Map, topo. Lowell and Erie Street at the traffic circle on AZ 80, with Saginaw to the east and Galena and Bakerville to the south.
Aerial view of Lowell beside the Lavender Pit
Aerial imagery, same area. Lowell sits on the southeast rim of the pit.

Historic maps

Lowell on USGS maps, 1902–1996

Crops from the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection, centered on the townsite. Each sheet shows what surveyors mapped that year; compare them with today's topo and aerial on this page.

USGS topographic map around Lowell, 1902
Bisbee sheet, 1902, 1:62,500 · U.S. Geological Survey, public domain · catalog record

Map & directions

Getting there

Lowell is 1.7 miles from Old Bisbee on AZ 80, the highway around the Lavender Pit; Erie Street turns off it just before the traffic circle. From Tucson, take I-10 east to Benson and AZ 80 south through Tombstone and past Bisbee.

USGS topographic map of Bisbee, the Lavender Pit and Lowell, with routes drawn on it

Base map: USGS The National Map (public domain). Routes: OSRM on © OpenStreetMap contributors data (ODbL), computed October 2026. Times assume dry roads.

From Main Street, Old Bisbee1.7 miabout 4 min
  1. From Old Bisbee, bear right onto Historic US 80.0.2 mi
  2. Turn right onto AZ 80 and follow it around the Lavender Pit.1.3 mi
  3. Turn right on Erie Street.0.2 mi
Google Maps directionsApple MapsOpenStreetMap

Directions go to Erie Street, Lowell, where the drive ends, not to the townsite.

Road and safety notes

  • Erie Street turns off AZ 80 just before the traffic circle at Lowell.
  • The storefronts and vintage cars are private property. Look from the street and sidewalk.
  • The Lavender Pit is company land; look from outside the fence.

Photos

Lowell in photos

Visitor reports

Been to Lowell?

Been there lately? Tell the next visitor what you found: whether you could get in, the state of the road and what's still standing. Photos are welcome. We read every report before it appears here.

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Nearby

Other sites near Lowell

Straight-line distance from the townsite to other mapped sites in our Arizona index.

Sources

Sources and credits

  1. ghosttowns.com, "Lowell", read October 29, 2026: fact sheet fields (2WD road, climate, best time, about 20 storefronts and a theatre).
  2. Wikipedia, "Lowell, Arizona", read October 29, 2026: the GNIS coordinates and elevation, the miners who worked the Lavender Pit, the "Ghost towns in Arizona" category.
  3. Legends of America, "The Rise & Fall of Lowell, Arizona", Kathy Alexander, updated December 2025: the 1879 claims, Hanchett and the 1899 company, the 1900 businesses, the Copper Queen in 1902, the 1904 townsite and post office, the 1907 Denn explosion, the 1908 saloons and railway, the 1915 and 1920 populations, the 1931 school, the Lavender Pit's opening, the moved homes and destroyed neighborhoods, 1957 and 1959, the 1974 end of mining and its production, the Erie Street storefronts and the Lowell Americana Project.
  4. Mining History Association, Bisbee field trip, June 5-6, 1998 (reconstructed 2020): Lowell as a "modern ghost town" of antique cars and a few businesses, its 6,000 residents, the Junction Shaft headframe, the Lavender Pit and Harrison M. Lavender.
  5. Wild Rumpus Adventures, "Lowell Arizona-a town trapped in time.", YouTube, posted October 11, 2026: the video on this page; the cars, pumps, bus and storefronts still on Erie Street.
  6. Bisbee Breakfast Club, read October 29, 2026: its first restaurant in Lowell's Rexall pharmacy building and its current Tombstone Canyon address.
  7. Serge Yatunin, photo of Erie Street, taken May 3, 2026 (Wikimedia Commons): the newest dated view of the street.
  8. Library of Congress, "Marching from Lowell [Ariz.] Deportation of I.W.W.'s July 12, 1917": the deportation photo.
  9. USGS topographic maps: Bisbee 1:62,500 (1902, 1927) and 1:24,000 (1958, 1996).
  10. Elevation: USGS 3D Elevation Program point query. Routes: OSRM on OpenStreetMap data, October 2026.

Photo and map credits