One of the most iconic and challenging foot race events in the country — with a 4.5-mile course crisscrossing century-old staircases and streets in the historic mining town of Old Bisbee — has been purchased by Wick Communications from Bisbee Vogue Inc. for an undisclosed amount.
The family-owned media company, whose flagship newspaper is the Sierra Vista (Arizona) Herald/Review, owns more than two dozen newspapers in 13 states along with dozens of specialty publications, websites and other digital media. It will take over operating the Bisbee 1000 The Great Stair Climb next year.
“Bisbee 1000’s infrastructure aligns with what our company is about,” Wick Communications CEO Francis Wick told the Bisbee City Council on July 6. The company was seeking council approval of a five-year special events agreement, which was approved.
“Why this relationship is very important is because we’re staking our name on it,” Wick said. “We were one of the founding sponsors of Bisbee 1000 and have always been a strong supporter of the event. Owning the stair climb provides us with an opportunity to continue serving our community and also helps us grow our footprint as a company. We’ve been involved with many large events so they aren’t foreign to us, though this specific one is new.”
Wick said he and BVI president and founder Cynthia Conroy began exploring the idea of Wick Communications purchasing the event about a year ago.
“For the limited staff we had, Bisbee 1000 was like a tiger we had by the tail that was dragging us through the event,” Conroy said. “With the level of professionalism and depth of resources Wick Communications brings in, it’ll be more like a trained tiger that will make for a better, stronger and more vibrant event that ensures Bisbee 1000 can continue forever.”
“BVI did this with luck and perseverance, and we’re passing that perseverance onto a very talented company with strong family values that is committed to our communities. And for BVI, it frees us up as a nonprofit to do more for Bisbee with seed money from the sale. It diversifies both organizations,” she said, adding, “It’s like a match made in heaven.”
Started in 1990 by Conroy through word-of-mouth, the race featuring nine staircases with more than 1,000 steps connected by winding roads initially drew 200 participants.
“I read in The New York Times that stair climbing machines were the big thing at that moment, and I said, ‘We have stairs!’” Conroy told the Herald/Review in 2021. “So I started it as a health event. But it’s really a celebration of the history of the heart of Old Bisbee.”
At least half the participants the first year were ages 7 to 15, she said.
“Then the kids dropped out because the adults began taking over the event,” Conroy added.
But it quickly turned into an international event when the popularity of the race — held the third Saturday of October — seemed to grow overnight.
Its numbers skyrocketed, eventually drawing 1,600 runners and walkers ages 8 to 89 from all 50 states and throughout the world. Its economic impact — with money visitors spent on hotels and restaurants — helped communities from Douglas to Tombstone.
The race itself is hardly a walk in the park.
Experienced runners consider it grueling. It looped its way through the narrow streets of Old Bisbee’s Tombstone Canyon, much of which was built along steep hillsides where a vast network of stairways and pathways was created in the 19th and 20th centuries for residents to get to their homes.
While many runners entering the race trained for months and came to win, others embraced the experience of a one-of-a-kind event in the historic, mile-high mining town.
Many dressed in flamboyant costumes that added a layer of sparkle and sizzle to the race, from firefighters competing in full turnout gear, some dressed as doctors and scientists, to a former Army Explosive Ordnance Disposal team leader packing a 70-pound EOD bomb suit in 80-degree weather.
Along with a wedding proposal that occurred on the course, teams from local companies also competed, including the Herald/Review editorial staff, which ran as the “Headliners” one year.
“We felt more like the ‘Deadliners’ when we got through,” a staff reporter recalled. “It was brutal.”
Whatever money came in from entry fees that ran as high as $130, the non-profit BVI made sure it stayed in the Bisbee community. It funneled the proceeds into scores of projects, from repairing Bisbee’s aging city pool to funding the Bisbee Outdoor Recreation Center, with basketball and pickleball courts and seven fitness workout stations.
A 2014 study showed that Bisbee 1000, when it joined with the Bisbee 1000 Craft Beer Festival that year, generated more $477,000 for the city, hoteliers, and restaurant and shop owners.
Nearly 74% of participants surveyed said they planned to return to Bisbee within the next 18 months, while 66% said they had done the event two or more times.
The study also found that the event had an 80% return rate, meaning participants found the challenge of running up more than 1,000 stairs in the mile-high city an adventure worth returning to year after year.
Twenty-two years after it began, Bisbee 1000 was officially designated as an Arizona Centennial Event, joining the other featured listings in the Arizona Highways Centennial Edition. In 2012, it received the prestigious Governor’s Tourism Award for Special Events in a Rural Area.
“If I had to say why the Bisbee 1000 has lasted, I’d say first the city of Bisbee, its architecture and its climate. The stairs and roadways are so European and attractive that once people get here, they want to come back,” Conroy said in 2015. “Second, it’s because there have been so many talented people at one time or another involved in this event — board members, volunteers, friends, businesses, city officials, county officials — so many key players all along.”
This year’s race will be the last one BVI will operate. Conroy said Wick Communications personnel will train side-by-side with her team at the event in October.
She said BVI couldn’t have found a better organization to take over the reins of the Bisbee 1000.
“We feel fortunate and charmed to have a company of this caliber to take over this event,” she said. “They’re a perfect fit. For Wick, it’s a solid investment for the future of the company and for what the event brings to this community. And for BVI, we have a large list of projects. The sale allows us to be the voice of cultural recreation in Bisbee for decades.
As a nonprofit, it enables us to move into our next chapter.”
