The Bisbee Deportation

Nearly 100 years ago, a quarter of Bisbee's population rounded up and deported another quarter of Bisbee's population. It was known contemporarily as "The Great Wobbly Drive" if you were sympathetic to the 'patriots' who rounded up their neighbors. It is now known as the Bisbee Deportation of 1917.

It started with a strike at the mines, where miners wanted safer practices in their inherently dangerous jobs, and a fair wage system in which the same work would warrant the same pay. It ended with almost 1200 Bisbee citizens being abandoned in Hermanez, New Mexico. What happened in between  - and why - is still debated.

For a critical analysis of the events, click over to my essay on the Deportation and its causes, here https://archersbones.wordpress.com/2016/04/26/bisbeedeportation/

Also, if you're in town, you can check out the Bisbee Mining & Historical Museum's exhibit on the Deportation. They're open 10-4 every day.

The University of Arizona has a great web exhibit, too. You can find it here http://www.library.arizona.edu/exhibits/bisbee/index.html

Story: Baseball teams, 1944

I'm reading "Chihuahua Hill: Bisbee, Arizona" this morning. It's a memoir by Chris Dabovich, about his life in Bisbee. I came across this passage about the baseball teams they had as kids. Anybody else know a story about these teams?

(June 1944)
"At this particular point in my life, I was seventeen and would be eighteen in six months. I was going to start my senior year at Bisbee High School, but for now I was more interested in going to town to see what was going on. There were always guys hanging around. I'd go there, tell a few jokes, look at the girls, etc. Sometimes we, (the guys and I) would get together to play a baseball game. We use to play a lot of baseball in those days. Everyone had a glove, bats and balls. These were the names of the teams: The Chihuahua Hill Indians, The Tin Town Rats, The Warren Pretty Boys, The Don Luis Bastards, and The Brewery Gulch Gangsters. I lived on Chihuahua Hill, but played on The Brewery Gulch Gangsters team. Why? I guess it was because most of the guys I palled around with were on the Gangsters team."