Jerome, Arizona: once wicked, now peaceful

The view from Jerome

Perched on Cleopatra Hill overlooking some pretty awesome Arizona scenery, Jerome isn’t the town it once was. 

Some 140 years ago, Jerome was a wild copper mining town, known as the “wickedest“t own in the West. Founded in 1876 mining camp to retrieve the rich copper ore beneath the soil Jerome, at one time was the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. Its population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920s. But has shrunk to a mere 450 people today.  (Its low point was about 50 people in the 1950s and 1960s.) The city now bills itself as the “largest ghost town in America.” 

Downtown Jerome

The town is on the National Historic Register. As you drive by the commercial buildings and aging houses, it’s easy to see why. Many buildings boast plaque describing what businesses were there in the town’s heyday. 

Home of the deepest existing wooden mine shaft

Jerome was home to the largest copper mine in Arizona, digging up about 3 million tons of ore a month at its peak. Mining equipment is sprinkled around in a few places, including Aubrey Headrame Park, which  overlooks the city. 

The town doesn’t draw too many miners these days, but lots of tourists as it is reinventing itself as a tourist destination and artist colony. 

This northern Arizona town is just 20 miles from Sedona with its gorgeous red rock formations and 90 miles from Phoenix.

See more photos of Jerome on my YouTube channel.