Jerome, Arizona

Jerome, Arizona located southwest of Sedona was once a rich mining town where miners carved, dynamited and carted away millions of tons of earth from the surrounding mountains. Mainly it was copper that they were after. The first miners attracted to the area came there during prehistoric times and they were after colored stones. Later on the Spanish searched for gold, but only found copper and they moved on. It wasn’t until 1876 that the first mining claims were filed. Then Jerome quickly went from a tent city to a prosperous company town. It was built on the side a mountain they called Cleopatra. Jerome became a wild, wide-open town, notorious for its prostitution, gambling and vice. It was Jerome’s mixture of ethnic groups, American, Mexican, Croatian, Irish, Spanish, Italian and Chinese, that added a rich flavor to the excitement of its early days. The New York Sun called it “the wickedest town in the West.”
    Jerome was the talk of the Arizona Territory. It made millionaires out of promoters and investors. At first burro pack trains and freight wagons pulled by mules and horses carried supplies in and the copper out. Later, steam engines and trucks replaced them. Fires swept through the boomtown, destroying large sections, but always Jerome was rebuilt. Sometime in the early 1950s, all the mines closed after producing well over a billion dollars in copper, gold, silver, and zinc. The town went from a peek population of 15,000 to a mere 50 people.

    As we drove around, I noticed that many of the buildings cling desperately to Cleopatra Hill and a few of them have actually slid off their foundations. You would too if you were sitting on the 30-degree slope. Gravity and aging is a constant companion in this “village on the move,” (pun intended).
    In 1967 Jerome was designated a Historic District, and a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Today the funky little village is alive, attracting a steady flow of tourists. It’s a place where one can buy works of art and pottery in the more than thirty galleries and working studios and where two travelers from Capitola had a nice lunch, while clinging to a 30-degree slope.