the wickedest town in the west

Route 89A west through Cottonwood takes you back into the desert into a unique mining town perched on the top of Cleopatra Hill. Jerome was born a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents into a roaring community.

After its founding in 1876, Jerome was at one time the fourth largest city in Arizona with the population peaking at around 15,000 in the 1920’s. The Great Depression slowed the mining operation and the claim eventually went to Phelps Dodge, who still holds the claim to this day.

Today the mines may be silent, but Jerome has found new life as the largest ghost town in America. The steep drive up the narrow road passes by quirky shops, landmarks, and restaurants, concluding at Jerome Grand Hotel.

Walking over to the narrow parking lot over the cliff, you can peer down Cleopatra Hill to the town entrance road.

Descending down the hill from the hotel gives you the option of taking an alternative route back, which passes by more historical building and shops to the long abandoned Sliding Jail.

The concrete cell block was once part of a wood and tin building, but pulled away from the rest of the structure after some underground blasting in 1938 shifted the ground beneath a substantial portion of the town

Continuing the rest of the way down the hill, one last landmark along the perimeter is the Audrey Headframe Park.

Since he had obtained an option on the company in 1912, James S. “Rawhide” Douglas had dug in vain, counter to the advice of his own geological experts and others who claimed that the mine would never be profitable. Against all odds, Douglas persisted, and finally in December of 1914, with his corporate resources almost exhausted and much to the dismay of the mining world, his crews ran into the incredible deposit.

Before heading to the Gold King Mining Town nearby, a look across the valley to Jerome is a reminder of people’s ingenuity to build better into the present, even if it started rough around the edges.