Sacramento Pit - Bisbee, Arizona
Posted by: 
BruceS
N 31° 26.153 W 109° 54.008
12R E 604522 N 3478433
Much larger mining pit which incorporated the old Sacramento pit in Bisbee, Arizona.
Waymark Code: WMHFH0
Location: Arizona, United States
Date Posted: 07/05/2013
Views: 11
"SACRAMENTO PIT, SE. Post Office Plaza, is a hole 435 ft. deep, cored out of Sacramento Hill. In 1911 a shaft was sunk into the slopes of the high east wall. In 1917 a dynamite charge blew off the top rock of the crown, and dredges were worked to excavate the pit s ore bodies. By 1931 the pit floor was too narrow for dredges to work in; the ore was taken out by caving-in the walls into the lower mine tunnels. Between 1917 and 1931, the pit, which covers 35 acres, yielded 20,843,667 tons of ore. Today the abandoned pit is a funnel-shaped hole with copper, green, and rust-colored rock walls. A narrow-gauge railroad, cut into the pit walls, winds from the highest shelf of the man-made crater to its floor." - Arizona: A State Guide, Bisbee section, pg. 178.
The old Sacramento Pit was incorporated into a much larger pit called the Lavender Pit. The lower grade ore Lavender Pit opened in 1950. It was named in honor of Harrison M. Lavender(1890–1952), who as Vice-President and General Manager of Phelps Dodge Corporation, conceived and carried out this plan for making the previously unprofitable low-grade copper bearing rock of the area into commercial copper ore. The Lavender Pit ceased operations in 1974. The pit now covers 300 acres and is 900 feet deep.
The coordinates listed are for the view point above the pit where some information signs about the bit are located.