Let's Just Go Somewhere: Jerome -- Arizona's Largest Ghost Town

On Tuesday, we did a day trip to Jerome, Arizona, the largest ghost town in Arizona. Jerome is located about 16 miles northwest on a very curvy and steep Highway 89A. Our first stop was the Douglas Mansion of the Jerome State Historic Park.

The mansion is now a museum devoted to the history of the town of Jerome and the Douglas family.

James S. Douglas built the mansion on a hill just above his Little Daisy Mine.

The 8,700 sf house built at a cost of $150,000 in 1916 and was designed as a hotel for mining officials and investors as well as a home for his family and featured luxuries unheard of for the time like a marble shower and a central vac system.

Central Vac

The house was made of adobe bricks that were made on site...

and has spectacular views of the valley below...

...the snow-capped mountains beyond...

...and the town of Jerome behind on Cleopatra Hill.

The mining history of Jerome began in 1876 when three prospectors staked claims on rich copper deposits. They sold out to a group called the United Verde Copper Company in 1883. The mining camp consisting of shacks was named in honor of Eugene Jerome, the venture's principal backer, and became the name of the mining town. The United Verde Copper Company folded two years later.

It took the vast financial resources of the new owner, William A. Clark, to bring a railroad into the town to reduce freight costs. By the early 1900's, the United Verde was the larges producing copper mine in the Arizona Territory. At this point, Jerome became a frame and brick town and even had two churches, an opera house, and a school.

In 1912, James S. Douglas purchased and began development of the Little Daisy Mine and by 1916, the town of Jerome has two bonanza mines. Copper production peaked in 1929 but the Great Depression and low grade ore deposits forced the Little Daisy Mine to shut down in 1938. Phelps Dodge took over the United Verde in 1935, but the loss of profits brought the operation and Jerome's mining days to and end in 1953. The family attempted to sell the mansion for $10,000 in the 1960s but ended up donating the building to the Arizona State Parks in 1962.

At its peak, Jerome boasted a population of 15,000 but by the late 1950s, the population had dwindled down to only about 100 people. In the 1960s and 1970s, the town became a haven for artists who renovated homes and opened abandoned shops to sell their wares and before long, the newcomers and old-timers were working together to preserve the history of Jerome. It is now a destination for tourists and is an artistic community of around 500 people.

As soon as we entered the mansion, we watched a very good and entertaining video about the history of Jerome before walking inside and around the grounds of the mansion. (The information provided above comes from the brochure we received in the mansion.)

Model of the town of Jerome and its mines below.

Know what this is? A carbonator.
It makes carbonated water for soda fountains, bars and restaurants
...and it makes a lot of noise!

Stretchers used to haul out injured miners.

The town of Jerome has experienced multiple fires over its history and is also built on a seismic fault. It's a wonder the town hasn't slid right off the hill!

Real-time display of seismometer located in the basement.

Although the pay was good for the time ($3.50/day for 12 hour shift in 1895), the miners had a very difficult job and worked in very difficult conditions. In the early years, hundreds of miners died of consumption because the compressed air drills that were used at that time stirred up clouds of razor sharp, silica dust which would lodge in the men's lungs.

After we had looked at all the exhibits inside the mansion, we walked around the outside that also had many exhibits and signs that pointed out what certain buildings had been previously in Jerome's history.

Old mining car the miners would ride in down to the mines.

Formerly was United Verde Hospital.
Now is the Jerome Grand Hotel.

Little Daisy Hotel used for 20 years as housing for workers.
Closed in 1938 and later stripped for salvage.
Now it is a private residence.

Little Daisy Hotel with headframe to mine in foreground.

Red circle - United Methodist Church still active since 1900.
Yellow circle - Mexican Methodist church now a private home.

Yellow circles - former homes for executives of Little Daisy Mine.
Now, private residences.
Red circle - old electric substation.

Red circle - honeymoon cottage James Douglas built for his son.
Below all that remains of old miner camps and shacks.

As we walked around the grounds, we spotted this agave plant (in the foreground)...

...that was beginning to burst open with color.

After leaving the Douglas Mansion, we drove into town and walked around a little bit. Several of the towns roads are on a narrow steep incline.

It's a wonder some of the buildings (or portions of them) are still standing.

In between some of these old buildings was a glass blower's shop. He was in the video and was one of the "hippies" or artists that moved into Jerome in the 1960s, We watched him give a glass-blowing demonstration.