NEW YORK (Money Magazine) - Founded as a mining community in 1880, Bisbee became, by the turn of the century, the largest city between St. Louis and San Francisco. That early prosperity meant that Bisbee was built in a far grander style than most of the era's boomtowns. Today its historic downtown streets are lined with stately brick buildings and its hillsides crowded with Victorian homes--all remarkably well preserved.

None of this would justify a trip to southern Arizona in the summer, however, were it not for Bisbee's strategic position. Because it's located nearly a mile up in the Mule Mountains, temperatures are consistently 20[degrees]F cooler than in Phoenix and 10[degrees]F cooler than in Tucson. The climate and location together make Bisbee a unique place to enjoy the outdoors. Just outside town, hikers will find stunning views of both the Huachuca and Chiricahua mountains. And bird watchers flock to Bisbee in early July, when the nearby San Pedro River Valley turns into a hummingbird highway.

Visitors also love following the chamber of commerce's popular self-guided walking tour, which winds its way up the serpentine stairways and narrow paths of the neighborhoods surrounding downtown. Back on Main Street you'll find a range of galleries and crafts and antique shops.

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Tombstone's legendary OK Corral (where gunslingers Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday took on the Clantons) is just 20 minutes away by car. Kids love what is probably the best staged gunfight in the West. Many vivid glimpses of the area's history are even nearer at hand. Tours of the Copper Queen Mine, complete with hardhats and slickers, take you 1,500 feet belowground aboard open-car trains. As many as 47 saloons once served up libations to hardened miners in the area of town known as Brewery Gulch. (Beware: Most are now shops selling New Age art or Old West kitsch.) And the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum, one of the country's few small-town Smithsonian affiliates, highlights the area's mineral wealth.

Bed and breakfasts are plentiful, ranging from the small and exclusive to the eclectic and kid-friendly (for a complete listing, check www.bisbeearizona.com). The Copper Queen Hotel (800-247-5829), which was built in 1902 with no expense spared, is celebrating its centennial year with a summer package: $101 gets you a double room, continental breakfast and mine and museum tour passes. And the Shady Dell (520-432-3567) allows you to stay in its assortment of 1950s-vintage travel trailers, complete with period furnishings and the occasional phonograph (vintage records provided) for about $58 a night. Even if you don't stay at Shady Dell, come for a meal at the on-site Dot's Diner, a perfectly preserved Art Deco diner with hearty, inexpensive food and plenty of neon.