The history of Jerome, Arizona is a much longer
one than that of the town itself. Before Jerome was Jerome it was
the site of a small dig mined by the local Yavapai tribe. The
Spanish were the first Europeans to explore the Verde River area in
the 16th century. Antonio de Espejo and a troop of Conquistators
came through the area looking for El Cibola (the mythic Seven Cities
of Gold). Local natives showed them a spot on what later became
known as Cleopatra Hill where they mined copper for their jewelry.
Legend has it that the Conquistators found a large vein of gold,
mined it, and hid it somewhere in nearby Sycamore Canyon. An old
coot named Jerry the Miner spent nearly thirty years in the canyon
looking for the treasure. He claimed to have found a helmet and a
breastplate left by one of the Conquistators. Some people said that
he actually found the gold, but these claims have never been
verified.
It wasn't until 1876 that American pioneers became
interested in the area. An ex-calvary scout for General Crook named Al Sieber was
exploring the Verde Valley looking for gold. When he saw the old
mines on the side of Cleopatra Hill, he thought they had potential
and so he staked a claim. It wasn't long before other fortune
seekers followed his lead. One of those fortune seekers was Nora
"Butter" Brown, an enterprising Madam who opened Jerome's first
bordello. Her story can be found at "Opening
Night" Others, such as Angus McKinnon and M. A. Ruffner filed
claims not long after. In 1883, investors bought the McKinnon claim
for $15,500, and in 1888, Montana Senator William A. Clark leased
the mining rights and in 1889 bought control of the claim and formed
the United Verde Copper Company. The United Verde Mine eventually
produced over $1 billion in copper, gold, silver. Jerome was on its
way.
It was the eye of the hurricane of America's wild west.
It attracted people looking not only for riches but for a newer
freer life. This drive for freedom and adventure caused the lives of
the most unlikely people to cross in Jerome. A fascinating example
can be found at Meeting In Mescal1 and Meeting In Mescal2
The town of
Jerome was incorporated on March 8, 1898 when Arizona was still a
territory. It is said that Jerome was named for Eugene Murray
Jerome, a New York investor in the early mining operations of the
United Verde and cousin of Jennie Churchill. Jerome was incorporated
(over the objections of certain property owners) because it suffered
three catastrophic fires within an eighteen month period. From the
beginning Jerome was a wild town with minimal law enforcement,
building codes, or real government. It was so wild that it earned
the title "The Wickedest Town in America". Some wags said that
Jerome's sinful ways finally got the attention of higher ups. They
attributed these fires to divine retribution. Regardless of the
source of these fires, by incorporating, the citizens of Jerome were
able to adopt a strict building code and establish a fire
department. One of the department's first challenges was a fire in a
major mine shaft. The shaft collapsed, killing close to a dozen men.
Fortunately, many men were saved due to the efforts of the local
firemen and an unlikely ally. Read about it in The President's Friend
Jerome's
reputation for gambling, alcohol, drug abuse, gun fights, and other
assorted mayhem only grew after it incorporated. The population grew
by leaps and bounds through the next few years, and, when World War
One came the price of copper soared and, along with it, the number
of miners needed to tear the ore out of the mountain. They came from
Mexico, China, and all over Europe - Irish, Italian, Hungarian,
Polish, Slovakian, German - to work the mines in the unlikely town
of Jerome, Arizona which clung stubbornly to the side of a mountain
5000 feet in the air. During the war, the International Workers of
the World tried to stage a strike to obtain better pay and working
conditions for the miners. The strike was brutally crushed by the
mine owners with the help of the National Guard and the strikers
were actually deported out of Jerome in railroad cattle cars and
dropped off at the California border. For one local boy the event
was a traumatic learning experience. His name was Billy Daily
It was during the boom
years of the twenties that Jerome reached its roaring peak. The
population of the town swelled to 15,000 people. The mines were
working twenty four hours a day. Hotels were dedicated solely to
servicing miners. Hotel rooms were rented in eight hour shifts to
accommodate the 24 hour working schedule. And because the miners
were working all day and all night, the businessses of Jerome were
also open around the clock. Prostitution and gambling flourished.
Bootleggers supplied the town with all the illegal alchohol it could
consume. Opium dens were as numerous as laundries and run by the
same Chinese owners. There were three movie theaters, bars,
restaurants, schools, tennis courts, swimming pools, bowling alleys,
pool halls, drug stores, department stores, churches, brothels,
opera house - all the virtues and vices of a classic wild west
boomtown. It was a time when women were beginning to realize their
own strength and independence. In Jerome, there was one that led the
way. Her name was Vivica. Read her story in Loaded Gun.
But, as with almost
all the other boomtowns, the good times finally came to an end for
the town of Jerome. High grade ore became scarcer and harder to dig
out of the mountain. The price of copper fell. And in 1929 the Great
Depression began. As quickly as it built itself into a money
producing machine, Jerome fell into the depression along with the
rest of the country. The mines closed in 1930. There are few records
of the town during this period. People were hanging on with their
hopes and prayers. There was no other real employment for a hundred
miles in any direction. Finally, in 1935 Phelp Dodge bought up a
majority of the mining rights in and around Jerome. They decided to
blast the ore out of the mountain, creating a huge open pit just to the north of town. For the
next few years, Jerome suffered the consequences of this type of
mining. The company would explode up to 250,000 pounds of dynamite
at a time, blasting the mountain to smithereens and carting the ore
to the smelter in Clarkdale by way of a full scale underground
railroad. This constant blasting shook the town down to its roots. One
whole commercial block of downtown Jerome actually slid down the
hill. A movie theater, a pharmacy, a pool hall, a JC Penny's, and
other businesses crumbled, slid downhill, and had to be dismantled.
Jerome's famous "Sliding Jail" can still be seen hundreds of feet
downhill from its original location. It was during this period that
the father of the Atom Bomb made a brief and life changing stop in
Jerome. His story can be found at The
Drift of Stars.
When the second World War came, copper
prices surged once again and the town experienced a mini rebirth.
However, once again, good high grade ore became harder and harder to
get out of the mountain, and, after the war, the prices dropped once
again. During this period some of the strangest events in Jerome's
history occurred. To this day no one is sure if the stories told by
Bernie Peoples are true, but you can decide for yourself after
reading, The Peoples' File.
Finally, in 1952, Phelps Dodge closed its operations in
Jerome. This time the closing was final. There was no other work for
the unemployed miners and the company made no provisions for them.
They had no union to look after them after the owners broke the back
of the unions in 1917. Consequently, Jerome suddenly became a ghost
town. Families sold their houses for bus fare out of town. Those who
couldn't sell just left their homes, many with the furniture still
in them. The population dwindled down to perhaps fifty hard core
individuals and families. They were suddenly faced with governing a
town with an infrastructure designed for a population of 15,000
people. Needless to say, many buildings, streets, facilities, and
utilities began to deteriorate. All through the fifties the few that
had stayed behind tried valiantly to save the town they loved. They
established the Jerome Historical
Society The Society bought up as much property has they could,
concentrating in the commercial district. In spite of their efforts
many structures were lost to slippage, vandalism, and speculators.
Their attempts to promote the ghost town aspect of Jerome met with
some early success, however. There were always those fascinated by
the old wild west and would go out of their way to experience what
was left of that romantic period. Two visitors found more than
nostalgia when ran into each other on a beautiful spring day in April, 1957
The town remained quiet,
empty, and out of the way through the early sixties. It was the
perfect place for someone who didn't want to be found to hide -
someone who needed some Operating
Room. It wasn't until 1967 when a new group of pioneers found
the deserted town. A group of young people, disenchanted with what
they saw as the hyped-up over-commericialzed and life destroying
American dream and looking for a place to live a simpler life,
closer to the land, stumbled onto Jerome. They moved in and started
rebuilding and restoring the town. Initially, there was some
resistance from the residents that had stuck it out and gone through
the hard times, naturally enough, but when it finally became obvious
that the odd looking young people loved the town and were determined
to make a go of it, the diverse elements became a community. To read
what it was like in the beginning, check out The White Ship.
Through the
seventies, slowly but surely, the outside world began to intrude
upon the town. Speculators moved in attempting to create tourist
friendly businesses. House prices rose steadily. Large structures
such as the old grade school were purchased and remodeled into
restaurants and bars. It became a place where, once again, a person
might make a dream come true - a dream of wealth, a dream of
enlightenment, a dream of romance. For two people it went even
deeper when they had their final Meeting in
Mescal.
By the eighties, the town was in full swing
rebirth. It was roaring once again. No longer out of the way, it was
being drug kicking and screaming back into the mainstream. One
frightened girl thought that it was still a good place to hide. She
was wrong. She would be found by someone who really was The Missing Person.
Jerome has always
held an undefinable ghostly, mystical energy. You can ask almost
anyone who has spent any time here. For one local in the nineties
that energy took him to places beyond anything he was prepared for.
I Sleep To Wake is a chronicle of his
otherworldly adventures.
Since those days, Jerome has slowly
built itself into a town that is haunted, over the shoulder, by its
past while it moves, lurching in circles, into the twentyfirst
century.
What does the future hold? Perhaps The Goodbye Party is an indication . .
.
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Other
works:
The
Haight - a screenplay about
early Haight Ashbury
Quanah -
a screenplay about Quanah Parker, The Last Chief
of the Comanches
Fields of
Praise - a sequel to "i sleep
to wake"
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Jerome
Links:
Lodging: The Surgeon's
House Bed and Breakfast, The Connor Hotel, The Mile High Inn , The Cottage Inn, The Miner's Cottage, Heavenly View B&B,
Dining:
The Asylum, The Mile High Grill, Belgian Jennie's
Pizza and Bistro, The Jerome
Winery
Information: Jerome Chamber
of Commerce, Jerome
State Historic Park, The Jerome Historical
Society
Galleries: Pura
Vida, Gallery
527, Raku, Jerome Artists' Coop,
Aurum Jewelry, Made In Jerome Pottery, My Mind's Art,
Individual
Artists: Anne Bassett, Mark Hemleben,
Literature Links:
Online Novels, Free Online Novels, LitVillage.com - Free Literature
Directory, The library of
free e-books, WebRing,
Eden Robins, Your Bedtime Story
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