Tag Archives: Jerome

Dec5

The Other Things We Did in Jerome

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This view of Jerome, AZ shows buildings nestled into the hillside, including the mile-high Jerome Grand Hotel.

After my friend and I explored the Douglas Mansion in the Jerome State Historic Park and spent some time trying to see the bottom of the mineshaft at the Audrey Headframe Park, we headed to downtown Jerome.

Jerome is a very small town. According to Google, as of 2016, the population was only 455. On the sunny Saturday afternoon in February when we visited, there must have been at least 200 visitors in town. There’s not much parking downtown (if a four block stretch of businesses even deserves that designation), but we were smiled upon by the parking gods, and my friend found a place to leave the vehicle. By the time headed home in the late afternoon, there were many cars circling to find a place to park, a lot of motorcycles thundering through town, and tourists all over the place.

While I don’t think my friend or I bought anything at any of the shops or galleries we visited, we sure had a nice time looking.

This photo shows a building in the Jerome shopping area. I believe that's the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery at street level. The windows on all the upper levels appear to be boarded up.

This photo shows a building in the Jerome shopping area. I believe that’s the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery at street level. The windows on all the upper levels appear to be boarded up.

One of the coolest stores we went into was Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes at 136 Main Street. Here’s my review of the store from Trip Advisor:

Fantastic!

This store is filled with kaleidoscopes and teleidoscopes too. There are a few inexpensive, toy kaleidoscopes, but most of the items in this store are works of art. Some pieces cost hundreds of dollars. Some cost thousands of dollars. There are other artsy knick-knacks here too.

Stop in here, at least for a little while, and be dazzled. (But beware, you will probably want to buy something.)

Be sure to step out onto the back balcony and take in the view of Jerome from that vantage point.

We also stopped in at the Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery at 502 North Main Street. This gallery is a great place for art lovers. Items available included visual art, wearable art (jewelry, t-shirts), mail-able art, paintings, ceramics, photographs, glass work, and probably many more things I don’t remember. This art is done by more than a dozen different artists. There were a lot of fabulous creations here, and it was fun to look.

We skipped the Jerome Historical Society Mine Museum at 200 Main Street. Although the price was right at only $2 for admission, my friend and I were all historied out. However, if I ever go back to Jerome, this museum will be on my agenda.

Before we headed out of town for the day, we did a drive-by at the Jerome Grand Hotel. My friend actually stayed

This photo shows the Jerome Grand Hotel.

This photo shows the Jerome Grand Hotel.

there once with her family, but I’ve never seen the interior. By the time we were in the car again, it was late afternoon, and I was exhausted. I did want to see the outside of the building up close, so my friend agreed to drive us up to it. The tiny parking lot was packed, so it’s a good thing I didn’t have my heart set on going inside.

According to the hotel’s webpage,
[t]his Spanish Mission style building, constructed in 1926, started out as the United Verde Hospital, opening January, 1927. In 1930, it was written up as the most modern and well equipped hospital in Arizona and possible the Western States.
This photo shows one of the old buildings in Jerome that really piqued my interest.

This photo shows one of the old buildings in Jerome that really piqued my interest.

I suppose my friend and I aren’t the kind of tourists the Jerome Chamber of Commerce is trying to attract. Other than the $7 we paid for admission to the state park and Douglas Museum, I don’t think either of us spent a dime. We were much more interested in looking at abandoned buildings than we were in buying art or rocks or t-shirts or lunch.

Oh, wait! I did spend a dime, or 51 cents to be exact. I made one of those squished pennies with a machine in the New State Building. I have a friend who collects those tourist pennies, so I make one for her whenever I see one of those machines. But other than that and museum admission, I kept my wallet closed.

 I want to visit Jerome again. In addition to missing the Mine Museum, we also managed to miss the Jerome cemetery (situated on a hill on the east side of Jerome, according to Waymarking.com), the sliding jail (Hull Avenue, near the intersection with Diaz Street, according to Trip Advisor), the Holy Family Church (the oldest Catholic structure
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This building had pretty clear “No Trespassing” signs–from Freeport-McMoRan, no less–so we used our zoom lenses and didn’t get too close.

in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and located at 101 E Hwy 89a, according to the church’s Facebook page), the Liberty Theater (110 Jerome Avenue, Trip Advisor says), and the Cuban Queen Bordello (1 Queen Street, according to Trip Advisor). I might even want to splurge and pay to go on a walking history tour of the town. Besides, there will probably still be cool old abandoned buildings to look at.

I took the photos in this post.
Dec4

Audrey Headframe Park

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Just down the road from the Jerome State Historic Park is the Audrey Headframe Park. It is a tiny “park” which includes a portable toilet and lots of mining equipment. The park is open daily from 8 am – 5 pm. A sign on the fence surrounding the park says there is a $2 donation requested per person, but when I visited (on a Saturday morning in February 2016) no one was collecting money at the gate. I don’t recall a drop box for donations either.

The Audrey Headframe is the largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona. It was completed in 1918, and towers over the mine shaft, which is 1,900 feet deep.

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According to the TechnoMine webpage,

This photo shows the Audrey Headframe, the largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona.

This photo shows the Audrey Headframe, the largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona.

Headframes…are structures present over the mine-shafts and are used to house the skips. It supports the hoists and is used to transport the workers and materials in and out of the underground mine…Headframes are also known by different names like gallows frame, winding tower, hoist frame, pit frame, shaft-head frame, or headgear.

The reference to “skips” in the explanation of headframes led me to the Encyclopædia Britannica which says,

Ore is transported to the surface in special conveyances called skips.

Of course, Jerome got its start as a mining town, so it makes sense that artifacts from the history of mining are displayed prominently.

Wikipedia says,

Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the State of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, it is more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level.

This poster compares the depth of the Audrey mine shaft to the heights of the Eiffel Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Great Pyramid.

This poster compares the depth of the Audrey mine shaft to the heights of the Eiffel Tower, the Chrysler Building, the Empire State Building, and the Great Pyramid.

The town owes its existence mainly to two ore bodies that formed about 1.75 billion years ago along a ring fault in the caldera of an undersea volcano….In the late 19th century, the United Verde Mine, developed by William A. Clark, extracted ore bearing copper, gold, silver, and other metals from the larger of the two. The United Verde Extension (UVX) Mine, owned by James Douglas, Jr., depended on the other huge deposit. In total, the copper deposits discovered in the vicinity of Jerome were among the richest ever found in any time or place.

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I think this is a cage used to lower miners down the shaft and into the mine. I didn’t make any notes when I took the photo, and I can’t find confirmation on the internet.

Because I’ve studied a bit about U.S. labor history, I  was interested to learn how the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) was involved in organizing miners in Jerome. According to the aforementioned Wikipedia article,

In 1917, two miners’ strikes involving the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), which had been organizing strikes elsewhere in Arizona and other states, took place in Jerome. Seen as a threat by business interests as well as other labor unions, the Wobblies, as they were called, were subject nationally to sometimes violent harassment. The labor situation in Jerome was complicated at the time by the existence of three separate labor unions—the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (MMSW); the Liga Protectora Latina, which represented about 500 Mexican miners in Jerome; and the IWW. The MMSW, which in May called a strike against United Verde, regarded the rival IWW with animosity and would not recognize it as legitimate. In response, the IWW members threatened to break the strike. Under pressure, the MMSW voted 467 to 431 to settle for less than they wanted.[35]

In July, the IWW called for a strike against all the mines in the district. In this case, the MMSW voted 470 to 194 against striking. Three days later, about 250 armed vigilantes rounded up at least 60 suspected IWW members, loaded them onto a railroad cattle car, and shipped

This photo shows my feet standing on the glass covering the top of the 1,900 feet deep shaft.

This photo shows my feet standing on the glass covering the top of the 1,900 feet deep shaft.

them out of town. Nine were arrested and jailed temporarily in Prescott though never charged with a crime; others were taken to Needles, California, then to Kingman, Arizona, where they were released after promising to desist from labor agitation.[35]

More information about the “Jerome Deportation” (of the Wobblies) can be found on the town’s website.

I thought the coolest part of the park was standing on the glass over the mineshaft. The shaft is so deep, I couldn’t see the bottom. Even though the glass is thick and probably safe (or else the lawyers for the Jerome Historical Society would advise keeping people out of there), it was still a little scary to stand above the shaft and look down, down, down and never see the end.

I took all of the photos in this post.
Dec3

Jerome, AZ

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Cleopatra Hill in Jerome, AZ

A friend and I visited Jerome, AZ in February 2016. We arrived mid-morning and left mid-afternoon. We spent our day learning about the town’s history and walking around looking at the old buildings and the new art.

The town’s website says,

Located high on top of Cleopatra Hill (5,200 feet) between Prescott and Flagstaff is the historic copper mining town of Jerome, Arizona. Once known as the wickedest town in the west, Jerome was a copper mining camp, growing from a settlement of tents to a roaring mining community. Four disastrous fires destroyed large sections of the town during its early history, resulting in the incorporation of the City of Jerome in 1899.

Founded in 1876, Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. The population peaked at 15,000 in the 1920’s.

Douglas Mansion Museum in the Jerome Historic Park, seen from a distance

This photo shows the Douglas Mansion in the Jerome Historic Park, seen from a distance. The Mansion houses a museum.

My friend and I started our day at the Douglas Mansion museum in the Jerome State Historic Park. Adults pay $7 admission to the park, but there is no additional charge to visit the museum.

The Jerome State Historic Park website has information about the mansion.

The Douglas Mansion has been an eye-catching landmark in Jerome since 1916, when James S. Douglas built it on the hill just above his Little Daisy Mine. This former home is now a museum devoted to the history of the Jerome area and the Douglas family. The museum features photographs, artifacts and minerals in addition to a video presentation and a 3-D model of the town with its underground mines.

I thought the admission fee was money well spent to learn about the history of the town. This museum was a joy to visit. The exhibits are nicely laid out and consideration obviously has gone into choosing artifacts to share. The items on display were very well-organized. It wasn’t overrun by stuff that was just old but not very interesting. Maybe because this is a state-run museum, there are funds and expertise available to do the exhibits well.

The rock room was GREAT! It housed a large variety of specimens Don’t miss the glow-in-the dark minerals in the

This piece of azurite and malachite is on display outside, not in the rock room, but it's a gorgeous specimen nonetheless.

This piece of azurite and malachite is on display outside, not in the rock room, but it’s a gorgeous specimen nonetheless.

small room on the side. Once you’re in the room, you press a button, the lights go out, and rocks light up in a variety of amazing colors. WOW!

I highly recommend  the short (half an hour or so) documentary about Jerome shown in the master bedroom. I learned a LOT about the town’s history from that video. When you arrive, ask the ranger when the next showing starts.

Parts of the documentary (like the ghost of a miner who narrates the movie) are a little cheesy, but the information I learned outweighed the silliness. (Perhaps the ghost character was there to make the film more interesting to children. Perhaps the filmmakers decided a movie about a ghost town required a ghost.)

Something I really appreciated about the documentary at the museum and the historical plaques s around town is the mater-of-fact presentation of Jerome’s rowdy past. The present-day citizens of Jerome don’t try to gloss over or clean up the town’s rough history. The good people of Jerome are proud of the town’s past as part of the Wild West. Yes, there were saloons in the town. There was gambling, yes sir, there was. Jerome had brothels and in those brothels were prostitutes, doing what prostitutes do. Jerome was a town of ruffians, and the current inhabitants want visitors to know all about it.

 The aforementioned Jerome SHP website gives more of the town’s history.
This building is a piece of Jerome's mining history visible from the state park. It is the Little Daisy Hotel, built in 1919 by the Phelps Dodge company as housing for their employees. It's now a private residence.

This building, visible from the state park, is a piece of Jerome’s mining history. It is the Little Daisy Hotel, built in 1919 by the Phelps Dodge company as housing for employees. It’s now a private residence.

Jerome’s modern history began in 1876 when three prospectors staked claims on rich copper deposits. They sold out to a group which formed the United Verde Copper Company in 1883. The resultant mining camp of board and canvas shacks was named in honor of Eugene Jerome, the venture’s principal backer. Hopes for the enterprise ran high, but the costs of operating, especially for transportation, outstripped profits, and the company folded in less than two years.
Wikipedia offers insight into to town’s past and present demographics.

The makeup of early Jerome differed greatly from the 21st-century version of the town. The original mining claims were filed by Whites, but as the mines were developed, workers of many nationalities arrived. Among these were people of Irish, Chinese, Italian, and Slavic origin who came to Jerome in the late 19th century. By the time of World War I, Mexican nationals were arriving in large numbers, and census figures suggest that in 1930 about 60 percent of the town’s residents were Latino.[54]

The ratio of females to males also varied greatly over time in Jerome. Census data from 1900 through 1950 show a gradual rise in the percentage of female residents, who accounted for only 22 percent of the population at the turn of the century but about 50 percent by mid-century.[56]

As of the census of 2000, there were 329 people, 182 households, and 84 families residing in the town.

Jerome is a fun and fascinating place to visit for anyone interest in the history of the Wild West, mining, or Arizona.

This photo shows a view of the mine from the Jerome State Historic Park.

This photo shows a view of the mine from the Jerome State Historic Park.

I took all of the photos in this post.