You’re looking straight down a 1900-foot-deep mine shaft in Jerome, Arizona
A Southwest Gem: Jerome, AZ
By Debbie Black
Follow in our tracks, as we travel a bit farther afield on our “Circle of the Southwest” RV trip, to Stop #3–Jerome, Arizona. Disclosure: I’m a history geek. Places like Jerome make me giddy! Even if history isn’t your thing, please read on. There’s something in here for you too! Note: Hwy 89A to Jerome is narrow with hairpin turns. Not for rigs over 30 feet! We did fine in our 24-footer. Well worth it!
You’ve likely heard of Jerome—the quaint 1870s historic mining town between Prescott and Sedona. Let me convince you to go exploring, to lose yourself for a few hours, or days, in the wild history of this energetic little town, replete with a haunted hotel, creepy mines and ghost tours but also delightful hippie-esque shops, galleries, restaurants and great wine-tasting. Sleuth out the Haunted Burger and savor one of their famous namesakes out on their back deck. Visit Zen Mountain Gallery for some beautiful jewelry. Go on a Jerome Ghost Walk to scare your socks off, or a popular Wild West tour — be sure to book ahead with Jerome Ghost Tours. Visit the Douglas Mansion and museum with fascinating (to me anyway) displays about Jerome’s mining history. Want a unique experience? If it’s open, check out the old Audrey Shaft Headframe where you can stand on a glass platform (or crouch on your hands and knees!) and look straight down into a 1900-foot-deep mineshaft — guaranteed to give you the willies! See? I may make a history geek out of you, yet!
Perched on the side of Cleopatra Hill, Jerome’s narrow, steep, and organic streets make parking a motorhome a lesson in patience. There’s one, and only one, parking lot for RVs —past the fire station, next to the gigantic Cleopatra mine. Enjoy strolling about this walkable, but hilly, town. Don’t miss the notoriously haunted Jerome Grand Hotel standing watch from its high vantage point on aptly named Hill Street. Wouldn’t you know, the hotel was originally a hospital back 100 years ago? The best haunted places are always old hospitals!
Besides ghosts, here’s something else to be wary of. Don’t take any RV larger than a van up the narrow, steep road to the hotel. We made the mistake of thinking we could and crunched a bottom corner of our motorhome attempting to turn right up a street that shot straight up like a graph of food prices. Maybe leave your RV parked below and walk up. Consider checking into famous, haunted Room 32 for perhaps a night of paranormal activity and some eerie souvenir memories you’ll never forget. You can’t pass up that!
The imposing three-story hotel indicates that Jerome once needed a hospital of that size for the town’s large mining community. During its 70-year heyday, Jerome extracted a whopping $1 billion in copper, silver, gold, zinc and lead. Its population grew to 15,000 (bigger than Morro Bay), then finally dropped to 100 when the ore ran out, a common fate of mining towns. Jerome would have continued to deteriorate into oblivion were in not for some intrepid artists and hippies in the 1960s who revitalized the town and saved it, not the first time the hands of humans affected its destiny.
Jerome is a testament to human ingenuity mixed with a bit of human arrogance. The complex system of extremely deep concrete-lined mine shafts plus the brilliant ways the ore was extracted are juxtaposed to the somewhat slap-dash mentality of digging and blasting under the town itself. This caused some of the town to slip downhill and methane-fueled fires to erupt, blanketing Jerome in lethal gases. No wonder Jerome was called “The Wickedest Town in the West.”
I thought about home, and what history will have to say about our current Estero Bay towns which are as old as Jerome and they, themselves, sit atop ancient village histories of the Salinan and Chumash peoples. Every town has its own story. Los Osos, Morro Bay, Cayucos, Harmony, Cambria, and San Simeon each have fascinating histories already spanning hundreds of years, with various cultures, languages, industries, villains and heroes. Great deeds were done and mistakes were made. Now, during the years that we’re here, may we be good stewards of these special places. History will tell.
The day was getting late. We had to say goodbye to Jerome and head downhill to the east, toward our next destination — Stop #4, Sedona.
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