Jerome, AZ

Jerome, AZ  is a town in  Yavapai county and is located on the side of the Cleopatra hills.  It sits at 5000 ft above sea level and has a popution of 353 with a median income of $27,800 and a median age of 46. The mines where Jerome is located have been in existence since the Spanish rule in the 1600s.  Jerome was established in 1883 and was named after Eugene Murray Jerome, a New York investor who owned the mineral rights and financed mining there.  He never visited his namesake town.  Jerome was incorporated in March 1889.  The town housed the workers in the nearby United Verde Mine.  During the 70 years of operation of the United Verde Mine it produced over 1 billion dollars in copper, gold and silver.  During the next several years Jerome's population grew due to the mines but so did it reputation and became notorius for being a "wild west" town due to its prostitution, gambling and vice.   In 1903 the New York Sun proclaimed Jerome as the "wickedest town in the west".  By 1915 the population grew to 2500.  The Jerome mines were beginning to have issues with their workers and the miners started unionizing.  Production was slowed due to work stoppage and  strikes began to spring up.  In July 1917 armed agents, representing the mine owners, loaded suspected labor union organizers and unioned miners into a railroad cattle car and shipped them to Kingman, AZ (a two day trip) and told them never to return to Jerome or they will be killed.  It is referred to as the Jerome Deportation.  Jerome had two major fires that destroyed most of the town in 1897 and 1899.  After the second fire Jerome put a building code in place that buildings had to of brick or masonry.  By 1926 Jerome's population was 15,000 and Arizona became the nation's leading copper producer.  In 1932 the copper market crashed and in 1935 the United Verde mine was closed followed in 1938 by Jerome's second largest mine.  Miners and workers left Jerome and by 1953, when the last mine closed, the population dropped to 50.  Jerome literally became a ghost town.  In 1967 Jerome became a Historic District and became a historic landmark in 1976.  In the 1980's several artists had moved into the area because it was inexpensive to live and a good environment to work on their art which began the rejuvenation of Jerome.  Today, Jerome is a tourist destination with many abandoned and refurbished buildings from it boom town days.  Jerome is now known as an art destination with more than 30 galleries and working studios. 
I visited Jerome in the late 1970's and it was nothing but empty worn buildings with a couple of art studios.  I was amazed on how the town had changed and the one time ghost town is now a thriving tourist attraction.  One interesting side note; Tim and I visited Jerome on Friday and Friday night on "Ghost Travelers", a TV show on the Travel Channel, they were visiting Jerome and checking out the haunted places.  They did find that Jerome truly is a Ghost Town.  Jerome is only about 10 miles from our RV resort and so we will be returning to it next week to check out some of the haunted places and to have lunch at the Haunted Hamburger.