Cheap, Fun Travel-Spot For Your Family - Guns, Ghosts and Galleries in Arizona"s Old-West Jerome
It was a snowy morning in March and pines crowded our hairpin road, 89A north from Prescott, Arizona; one twelve mile section has 158 curves! We were on the prowl for a cheap, fun travel experience for our family (we had our fur children in the back seat) and we'd heard about this shoot-em-up town.
So we drove our RV slowly and carefully, our eyes straining for a glimpse of "The wildest, wickedest town in the old west", Jerome, Arizona.
Small cottages began to appear; perched precariously on Cleopatra Hill's 30-40 degree incline, they were built for miners and merchants who came to town beginning in the 1870's when three million pounds of copper ore were taken from the mountain every month.
Then around a final curve, Jerome spread out before us.
We gasped at the sheer nerve of this town clinging to the side of a mountain, sparkling and thriving after 140 difficult years.
While the original copper miners were the Tanzigoot people, the first mining claim was filed in 1878 by US Cavalry Scout, Al Seiber.
His success catapulted Jerome into the position of fourth largest town in Arizona (Pop: 15,000 in 1920) as folks came from all over the world to mine or service the miners.
In town we passed the restored brick buildings, read the historical markers and could almost hear the old- time music spilling out of 25 saloons, the laughing voices of miners drinking, playing cards, and pairing up with women: And plenty of fist fights and shootings.
We saw the luxurious Hotel Connor built in 1898 that boasted 26 overnight rooms with call bells, the Liberty Theatre built to entertain 536 people, The Mile High Inn, once the establishment of Jennie Banter, the town's most popular madam (who is still there with her cat, in spectral form), the artist's Community Center standing on the old "Cribs District" (across from the English Kitchen), and the restored and splendid Grand Hotel.
We lunched at the Red Rooster where the food is reasonable and good and the owner is a jazz musician.
As we left the café he told us that he'd owned the Rooster for a year and now he's ready to start a jazz band! During the depression the copper claims were sold to Phelps Dodge, who, despite the waning demand for copper, kept the mine going throughout the war years.
But finally in 1953 Phelps Dodge was forced to close down operations and the population fell to 100.
What were they to do? Town folks formed an historical society and brainstormed ideas to save their town.
Tanzigoot National Monument curator, Jimmie Brewer, came up with the idea of Jerome becoming the largest ghost town in America! Soon tourists were flocking to see Madame Jenny Banter; Headless Charlie, a decapitated miner who haunts the mine tunnels under Jerome; Scotty, a maintenance man at The Grand Hotel found murdered in an elevator shaft and who haunts the place 'til this day, and many other ghostly manifestations.
The Historical Society eventually bought Jerome's downtown and in 1967 the whole town was designated an historical landmark.
Today, tourists walk through modern galleries and antique shops and still feel the presence of the hard-drinking miners, Jennie and her girls, lawmen shooting it out with gunslingers, and the mothers and children who made Jerome home; past and present blended together in the largest intact frontier town in America.
So we drove our RV slowly and carefully, our eyes straining for a glimpse of "The wildest, wickedest town in the old west", Jerome, Arizona.
Small cottages began to appear; perched precariously on Cleopatra Hill's 30-40 degree incline, they were built for miners and merchants who came to town beginning in the 1870's when three million pounds of copper ore were taken from the mountain every month.
Then around a final curve, Jerome spread out before us.
We gasped at the sheer nerve of this town clinging to the side of a mountain, sparkling and thriving after 140 difficult years.
While the original copper miners were the Tanzigoot people, the first mining claim was filed in 1878 by US Cavalry Scout, Al Seiber.
His success catapulted Jerome into the position of fourth largest town in Arizona (Pop: 15,000 in 1920) as folks came from all over the world to mine or service the miners.
In town we passed the restored brick buildings, read the historical markers and could almost hear the old- time music spilling out of 25 saloons, the laughing voices of miners drinking, playing cards, and pairing up with women: And plenty of fist fights and shootings.
We saw the luxurious Hotel Connor built in 1898 that boasted 26 overnight rooms with call bells, the Liberty Theatre built to entertain 536 people, The Mile High Inn, once the establishment of Jennie Banter, the town's most popular madam (who is still there with her cat, in spectral form), the artist's Community Center standing on the old "Cribs District" (across from the English Kitchen), and the restored and splendid Grand Hotel.
We lunched at the Red Rooster where the food is reasonable and good and the owner is a jazz musician.
As we left the café he told us that he'd owned the Rooster for a year and now he's ready to start a jazz band! During the depression the copper claims were sold to Phelps Dodge, who, despite the waning demand for copper, kept the mine going throughout the war years.
But finally in 1953 Phelps Dodge was forced to close down operations and the population fell to 100.
What were they to do? Town folks formed an historical society and brainstormed ideas to save their town.
Tanzigoot National Monument curator, Jimmie Brewer, came up with the idea of Jerome becoming the largest ghost town in America! Soon tourists were flocking to see Madame Jenny Banter; Headless Charlie, a decapitated miner who haunts the mine tunnels under Jerome; Scotty, a maintenance man at The Grand Hotel found murdered in an elevator shaft and who haunts the place 'til this day, and many other ghostly manifestations.
The Historical Society eventually bought Jerome's downtown and in 1967 the whole town was designated an historical landmark.
Today, tourists walk through modern galleries and antique shops and still feel the presence of the hard-drinking miners, Jennie and her girls, lawmen shooting it out with gunslingers, and the mothers and children who made Jerome home; past and present blended together in the largest intact frontier town in America.
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