THE BISBEE BEST YEAR ROUND CLIMATE SIGN

 The History of the Bisbee District: Best Year-Round Climate on Earth Sign

by Britt Hanson

Photo by Britt Hanson, May 2026

This is the sign you see today: now sponsored by the Bisbee Foundation [click to view website], a charitable institution providing significant amounts of scholarships to Bisbee students, along with substantial grants to local non-profits.

This sign, and the slogan “Bisbee Has the Best Year-Round Climate on Earth,” are Bisbee icons. Everyone who lives here, and most people who have traveled through Old Bisbee, knows this sign: it is very, very large; it is high up the side of the building at 50 Main Street; and it faces a fairly ample (by Bisbee standards) parking lot, so that it is hard to miss. People who grew up here, and are now somewhat long in the tooth, recounted to this author that “it’s always been there, even when I was a kid!”

But for how long? And how would you know? 

I wanted to find out. I began with the Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum Photo Archives (link opens in new window). The museum, a Smithsonian affiliate, is located at 5 Copper Queen Plaza and was founded in 1971 to preserve Bisbee’s rich history. Over the decades, Museum staff have compiled more than 20,000 photos from residents, former residents, passersby, and anyone else who has generously contributed to the Museum's mission of capturing Bisbee’s history. The photos have been placed in an online archive, searchable through keywords. When placed in the archive, archivists document who provided the photo, where it came from, the date the photo was taken (if possible), and assign a unique identification number. Also available for viewing online, the Museum archives hold hundreds of Bisbee postcards.

This archive, it turns out, was an excellent place to start. This history, with the enthusiastic assistance and support of Museum Collections Manager Amanda Hetro, local photographer Charlene Mitchell, Museum Volunteer and Board member Kathleen Heard, Museum Executive Director Annie Graeme Larkin, and many others, is the result.

And it had an extremely surprising beginning: the slogan and sign began as a billboard at the top of the Divide Road long before it was relocated to the wall at 50 Main Street.

(Object ID: 2013.16; Collection: Lanyon, Mildred).

Mildred Lanyon, the woman who provided the Museum with this photo, guessed that it was taken in 1918. This is her description, as stored in the archives: “An unidentified man, possibly Willis Bell, at the sign that was near the entrance to Bisbee, in 1918. The sign reads "Bisbee has the best year-round climate in the world". This has been a lasting slogan for the community. The man is sitting on a motorcycle. The tank on the motorcycle reads, Bisbee Bums No.4. This may indicate that he was part of a motorcycle club, since the collection includes many photos of a group of local motorcycle riders. (I need to add that I’m unsure of the true date of the photo, as Mildred provided another photo (ID = 2013.16.106), of a girl with a Bisbee Bums motorcycle, in front of the same sign, that says “The back reads, Top of Divide / Bisbee 1925”).

This “Best Climate” billboard greeted visitors as they arrived in Bisbee; until the Mule Pass Tunnel on Highway was completed in 1958, the Divide Road was the only way in or out of Bisbee from the west.

As it turns out, the “Best Climate” billboard was a piece of a campaign by businesses to sell Bisbee as a tourist destination. Who wouldn’t want to travel to the best year-round climate on earth? Bisbee historian (and lifelong Bisbonian) Gary Dillard has documented this campaign. [Tell me about Bisbee - Bisbee and Cochise County History]

And it continued. Here is a photo of a young woman, Marguerite Amthor, sitting with a parasol in front of the “Best Climate” sign, taken on January 9, 1927.

 

(Object ID:2008.41.70; Collection: Sixt, Diane).

As for that hillside Divide Road billboard, the trail of documenting the “Best Climate” sign then goes cold until the 1950s. And as we will see, the slogan was revived--although in a surprisingly far different spot than the Divide Road.  

Even though documentation of the “Best Climate” sign goes cold until the ‘50s, thanks to the research of local historian Gary Dillard, we know that businesses continued the campaign to hook tourists by using Bisbee’s enticing climate. Moreover, we find a photo from the WWII era at Bisbee’s train depot that includes a sign touting Bisbee’s chronic sunshine and moderate temperatures.

(Object ID: 2005.29.19; Collection: Schaub, June)

The description in the archives states: “A circa 1940s image of the train depot in Bisbee. Two young men are standing outside, under signs at the depot. One sign is an advertisement for Southern Pacific Railroad, stating "It takes 8 tons of freight to k.o. one Jap”. The other is a promotional sign for Bisbee. The sign states Bisbee, Arizona The Copper and Sunshine Capitol of the West. Temperature (Illegible words) Sunshine 320 Days A Year.” (The photo would need to very much enlarged to read that print). This sign is not exactly the same as the “Best Climate” slogan, but it’s the same idea.

The “Best Climate” slogan pops up again in the 1950’s. However, instead of on the Divide Road, we find it on the side of the building at 50 Main Street. And in a very colorful way!

(Photo, contributed by Amanda Hetro, is not yet in the Museum archives.)

This dating is based on the cars in the photo. Imprecise, perhaps, but it seems pretty solid.

We know that the sign was not there in the late 1940’s. We know this because Collections Manager (and sleuth) Amanda Hetro found the following photos, with the side of 50 Main Street being blank, dated to that time period.

(Object ID: 1981.38.91; Pavlovich Collection, circa late 1940s, Main Street. The car in the right foreground is a 1946 Chrysler, probably a Plymouth. Allen's Home Supply on the left. Chihuahua Hill in the background.)

So we’ve established that the “Best Climate” sign was placed at 50 Main either in the very late 40’s or early 50’s. And we can see in the previous photo that it was sponsored by Arizona Insurance Agency, in bold white letters at the bottom of the sign. From the following photo, we know that this agency occupied that building during that time span. It makes perfect sense that the agency sponsored the sign on the side of its own building.

(Object ID: 1982.16.12; Collection: Jones, Wilma; Photo Taken: 1935-1945. Description: ”The front window of the Arizona Insurance Agency. The name is painted on the window. There is a Venetian blind on the window, with Christmas decorations displayed, including a chimney with stockings on the left, and a Christmas tree on the right. The agency was located at 50 Main St., Bisbee, and run by Bertram L. Smith and Louis C. Rupp."

Fast forward to the 1970’s: a “Best Climate” sign is still on the wall at 50 Main Street; Arizona Insurance Agency remains the sponsor, but the painted design has changed to a much simpler format:

(Object ID 2010.12.13 Bryan and Walters Collection. The back caption reads: “Bisbee, Arizona. A view of upper Main Street. Resting a Mile high in the Mule Mountains, Bisbee boasts its mild year-round climate.” The postcard is unused and was published by Campbell Graphics.)

Gone are the stark blue mountains. Gone is the rust-red background, which matches the actual hill (“B Hill”, aka Chihuahua Hill), which can be seen in the distance. Instead, the 1970’s sign displays a white background, and the slogan itself is written in thinner black lettering.

When this change first occurred, we simply didn't know. Nor do we know why. (Expense, perhaps?). 

But we do know that in 2006 Joe Delgado repainted the sign, replacing the title, Arizona Insurance Agency, with his own State Farm logo.

  

(Object ID 2008.45.643; Wittig Collection).

Prominent house painter Johnny Rabey painted most of the sign, with beloved Bisbee artist Rose Johnson handling the new Delgado lettering.

This version of the sign stayed only until 2011, when local business owner Grant Sergott had it repainted, now putting his business, Optimo Hatworks (located right across Main Street), as the sponsor.

   

(Photographer Charlene Mitchell, July 2011. Not yet in the Museum archive.)

Finally, in 2026, with paint fading and in some places peeling, the Bisbee Foundation [www.bisbeefoundation.com], a local fundraising philanthropy, undertook the restoration of the sign, which is what now graces 50 Main Street. 

Photo by Britt Hanson, May, 2026

So, the question is: Does Bisbee indeed have the best year-round climate on earth?

There is a pretty good argument that the answer is in the affirmative. 

Check this out:

Climate Bisbee - Arizona

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Average high in ºF	56	60	67	73	81	89
Average low in ºF	32	35	38	44	51	60
Days with precipitation	4	4	2	1	1	3
Av. precipitation in inch	1.31	1.14	0.88	0.19	0.28	0.48
Av. snowfall in inch	1	0	1	0	0	0

	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Average high in ºF	87	85	82	75	64	56
Average low in ºF	63	61	56	48	39	33
Days with precipitation	13	12	6	3	2	4
Av. precipitation in inch	3.81	4.25	1.98	0.98	0.74	1.07
Av. snowfall in inch	0	0	0	0	0	1

Month	Precipitation	Low	High
Jan	1.31	32	56
Feb	1.14	35	60
Mar	0.88	38	67
Apr	0.19	44	73
May	0.28	51	81
Jun	0.48	60	89
Jul	3.81	63	87
Aug	4.25	61	85
Sep	1.98	56	82
Oct	0.98	48	75
Nov	0.74	39	64
Dec	1.07	33	56

Bisbee  weather averages

Annual high temperature	73ºF
Annual low temperature	47ºF
Days per year with precip.	55 days
Average annual precip.	17.11 inch
Av. annual snowfall	3 inch

 

Yup.  We few, we happy few, here in Bisbee, are living the dream!