The Copper Queen Hotel

Posted: 02.13.2025 | Updated: 02.13.2025

Located in the historic town of Bisbee, near Tombstone, stands the regal Copper Queen Hotel. Built at the turn of the 20th century to accommodate Bisbee’s booming copper mines, the Copper Queen Hotel is the longest continually operating hotel in Arizona. 

Although the hotel fell on hard times after the mines closed, it’s been reborn, as have the ghosts who haunt it. Staff and guests alike have reported all manner of paranormal phenomena, making the Copper Queen one of the most haunted hotels in the Southwest.

Planning a trip to Tombstone soon? Learn about all the haunted sites the area has to offer by booking a ghost tour with Tombstone Terrors today!

Is The Copper Queen Hotel Haunted?

There are at least three spirits who haunt the Copper Queen Hotel. One is a bearded man who lurks in the shadows of the hotel. The second is a woman who took her own life after being jilted by a lover. The third is a young boy who died tragically near the hotel. 

The ghosts at Copper Queen range from benevolent to sorrowful to menacing. What makes a stay at the hotel especially intriguing (and a little unnerving) is that you never know which one of these ghosts you might encounter.

History of The Copper Queen Hotel

Bisbee became a popular destination in the late 1800s thanks to the discovery of its massive copper reserves. Mines were opened and residents poured in. Much of this was funded by the Phelps Dodge Mining Company, which was also responsible for the Copper Queen Mine. With the mind growing rapidly and businessmen regularly coming to town, Phelps Dodge decided to build an upscale hotel.

Construction began on the hotel in 1898 and continued until the Copper Queen’s grand opening in 1902. Building the hotel was quite the feat since it was built into the solid rock of a mountainside. The hotel also needed to be temperature controlled given the blistering hot days and frigid nights in Arizona. As a result, the hotel’s walls were built two feet thick. 

Once completed, the Copper Queen Hotel was a majestic five-story building boasting 73 guest rooms with shared bathrooms on each floor. Tiffany glass chandeliers were installed in public spaces, the floors were covered in Italianate tile, and guests were greeted by an ornate Tiger Oak front desk. 

Businessmen, dignitaries, celebrities, and politicians all stayed at the Copper Queen in its heyday. Notable guests included President Theodore Roosevelt, Hollywood star John Wayne, and acclaimed spiritualist Harry Houdini. 

The Later Years of the Hotel

Not all was peaceful in Bisbee, though. Phelps Dodge underpaid its workers to help fund the Copper Queen, and miners went on strike in 1917. Rather than pay fair wages, the mining company had 1,300 miners arrested or deported for protesting the low wages.

The Copper Queen Mine closed in 1975, and Bisbee slowly turned into a ghost town. The town eventually reinvented itself as an artist colony, giving a second life to the Copper Queen Hotel. The hotel now has 43 rooms furnished in the Victorian style. In many ways, the hotel looks as it did in 1902, which could be why the ghosts feel so at home.

Hauntings At The Copper Queen Hotel

There are three spirits regularly seen at the Copper Queen Hotel, but guests and staff have reported more. Some have encountered the ghosts of Teddy Roosevelt and Harry Houdini, while others sense a male presence in the alleyway behind the hotel. 

Ghosts have also been caught on film. In a photo taken at a child’s birthday party, two little girls were seen standing in the background. No one had seen the girls or knew who they were. It was determined they were ghosts.

Likewise, a negative male presence can be sensed in room 401 where a former owner died. For years people have seen a bearded man wearing a top hat and cape. He is typically seen as a shadowy figure who lingers in doorways on the fourth floor. 

Those who witness this spirit tend to smell cigar smoke immediately before or after the apparition. Some wonder if this could be the man who died in room 401.

The Copper Queen Hotel is so haunted that they keep a logbook that’s filled with guests’ paranormal interactions.

Billy

The mischievous but friendly ghost of a boy named Billy is known to haunt the Copper Queen. Billy is thought to be a young boy who was the child of a staff member. 

Billy drowned and his body was brought back to the hotel, where his spirit still resides. Staff often leave toys and treats for Billy, and a large toy car has been seen moving on its own. 

Jenna Lampinen, daughter of the Copper Queen’s current owner, said she’s made contact with Billy. “I woke up in the middle of the night, three nights in a row hearing running back and forth and it was, you know, when a kid goes back and forth back and forth…at the foot of bed,” Jenna explained. “I left candy on one of the sides of the bed and then in the morning the candy looked like it had been dragged under the bed.” 

Julia Lowell

Julia Lowell was a sex worker who died at the Copper Queen Hotel decades ago. It’s said that Julia fell in love with one of her clients, whom she regularly met at the hotel. 

When she expressed these feelings to him, he rejected her and quit seeing her. A heartbroken Julia hanged herself in the hotel, and her spirit has been seen ever since.

Male guests at the Copper Queen report feeling someone crawl into bed with them and hearing a woman whispering in their ears. Julia’s spirit is typically seen on the west end of the second and third floors and has also been seen dancing at the foot of the grand staircase. 

The Copper Queen Hotel has honored Julia’s memory by naming room 315 the Julia Lowell Room.

Haunted Tombstone

Like many former mining towns, Bisbee has its fair share of hauntings. The Copper Queen Hotel embraces its ghosts and hauntings, making for the perfect spooky vacation spot.

Interested in learning about the greater Tombstone area and its ghosts? Be sure to book an immersive ghost tour with Tombstone Terrors today! Follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, and keep reading our blog for more real Arizona hauntings.

Sources:

• https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/copper-queen-hotel-arizona
• https://copperqueen.com/about/
• https://www.kgun9.com/news/local-news/cochise-county/the-copper-queen-hotel-in-bisbee-introduces-living-guests-to-permanent-ghostly-tenants
• https://www.hauntedrooms.com/arizona/haunted-places/haunted-hotels/copper-queen-hotel-bisbee