A little over two years ago, I wrote a blog post about the 147-step Keystone Stairway in Miami, Arizona. (Click here to read that post.) That post generated a few comments and some tips on finding other stairways in the Miami – Globe area of Arizona. After two years, my dog Petey and I finally got a chance to check them out last week.

Our first stop was the mining town of Globe, Arizona on Highway U.S. 60 about 90 miles east of Phoenix. Our tip was to look for a stairway at the end of Apache Street and on Sutherland Street. We found both stairways and some other surprises.

We parked on Apache and found a sidewalk running perpendicular to the end of the street.

This is the sidewalk at the end of Apache

We followed the sidewalk to the 82-step Apache stairway. Unfortunately these stairs seem to be neglected and do not appear to get much use.

As you can see, the stairs do not get much use

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My dog Petey and I returned to Bisbee, Arizona to get more information for the Bisbee stairway guide that I have been working on for the past three months. And it’s a good thing we went back because we found some new (for us) stairways and many, many things we hadn’t noticed before.

The Bisbee project has been like peeling an onion without a core. There’s been no end to the layers and no end to all there is to find when you wander in Bisbee. I’m betting I’ll make new discoveries long after the book is done. But that’s why Bisbee may be the most interesting small town in America.

In my many walks, I have talked to many people who told me that they have lived in Bisbee for thirty-five years and they are still making new discoveries. In a meeting with Andy Haratyk, the City of Bisbee’s public works operation manager, he told me that he tries to climb every stairway once a year, but he can’t. He keeps finding ones that he never saw before.

For example, when I photographed a stairway to use as an example of one I would not describe in the book because it only led to one house, I noticed a walkway near the house. When we went down to check it out, we found that the stairway continued on to two more levels of houses. When we reached the end, we came upon a sidewalk that connected this particular stairway to four other stairways. We’ve truly been walking in a wonderful maze, and this 60-step stairway is now in the book.

It turns out that this stairway kept going beyond the house in front of us.

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