Arizona’s real West

BISBEE, Ariz. — Finding the real Old West requires a journey to some of the most remote reaches of Arizona, far away from the urban sprawl that has transformed the Phoenix area from rural outpost into major metropolis.

Towns such as Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas in Arizona’s southeastern corner, by the borders of Mexico and New Mexico, are only about 200 miles from Phoenix, but they seem a century away. They are reminders of the days when the Wild West was still a wide-open frontier.

Traveling east and south on Interstate 10 from the Valley, as the Phoenix area is called, Tucson is about halfway to the Old West towns. A night or two in Tucson can be an introduction to the decidedly different southeastern part of the state. Less affected by corporate trappings and homogenization than Phoenix, Tucson retains influences from the past: Old World, Mexican and Southwestern charm.

The historic Hotel Congress (800/722-8848, www.hotcong.com), at 311 Congress St., was built in 1919 across the street from Tucson’s Southern Pacific Railroad station, which served mostly as a rest stop for travelers during the railroads’ heyday.

The Congress was a final hideaway of gangster John Dillinger. Accidentally sniffed out by authorities after a fire that destroyed the hotel’s third floor, Dillinger blew his cover when he asked firemen — who later recognized him — to retrieve his gang members’ gun-laden bags from their rooms.

The hotel rooms are sparse but fashionably furnished with antiques — and radios, but no TVs. On a recent spring evening, local singer-guitarist Salvador Duran entertained the lobby bar crowd with a lively mariachi- and flamenco-influenced set. The colorfully decorated great room is a meeting place for hotel guests and locals who dine at the Cup Cafe or drink and dance to the nightly live music at the Club Congress night spot.

Don’t plan on falling asleep early, for the Congress is a nonstop party hotel, and music from the club reverberates through many of the rooms, especially on the second floor, until the last number of the evening. Quieter accommodations are available, though.

The Tap Room, the hotel’s original bar, is a narrow, sometimes dark and smoky neighborhood joint that was featured recently in Southwest Airlines’ Spirit magazine as one of “seven classic bars” across the country.

Tucson and its surroundings can be a complete tourist destination, with enough sites and attractions to merit at least a week’s visit, but they also make an ideal stop for visitors continuing south.

As travelers venture more southeasterly along I-10, the terrain becomes more rugged by the time they reach Benson. A right turn to the south on Arizona Route 80 leads toward Tombstone, Bisbee and Douglas, sites of famous cowboy gunfights, Indian wars and the gold- and copper-mining rush in the late 19th century.

This is where the West really was won and once was Arizona’s most populated region.

Instead of circling the wagons as visitors used to do, the Shady Dell on the edge of Bisbee has a more modern circle of accommodations: vintage aluminum travel trailers, most of them from the 1950s, some even older. With their interiors designed for nostalgia, the trailers are available for overnight stays in one of the country’s most unusual motel settings.

A trip to Bisbee, and to the Dell in particular, is a journey into the past. The Dell is just off the traffic circle where Routes 80 from Douglas and 92 from Naco converge. The front of the office at 1 Douglas Road is painted like an old postcard. The central courtyard and trailer-park grounds look like something out of a Zippy the Pinhead cartoon, decorated with the comic strip’s signature antique roadside advertising icons and tiki statues.

Wesley and Laura Barchenger recently purchased the Shady Dell from its founding partners, Ed Smith and Rita Personett, who in 1994 converted part of what was a regular trailer park into a trailer motel based on their own vintage RV collection.

Originally opened in 1927 as Thompson’s Motor Court, it was called Snowbird Heaven before Mr. Smith and Miss Personett bought the place and renamed it the Shady Dell. It claims to be Arizona’s oldest continuously operating trailer court.

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