Jerome

Jerome History & Culture

Jerome was a mining town long before the Gold King Mind opened. Prehistoric Native Americans were the first miners here, followed by Spaniards seeking gold, but finding copper instead. Centuries later, after the town's 1876 founding, Jerome's Gold King Mine became the highest-yielding copper mine in the country,  producing an astonishing 3 million pounds of copper per month.

Once known as the "Wickedest Town in the West," Jerome grew from a tent city to a prosperous town as it followed the swing of the mines' fortune. Over 20 nationalities formed the mining community, a raucous mix that filled the streets with excitement. Fires ravaged the clapboard town again and again, but Jerome was always rebuilt and was incorporated in 1899, forming a fire department.

Underground mining was augmented by Arizona's first open pit mine after an uncontrollable fire erupted in one of the tunnels. Dynamite blasts rocked the town regularly. In the late 1930s an enormous charge of dynamite was set off and the surface began to shift as tunnels cracked. Entire sections of town slid down the steep mountainside. The famous "sliding jail" can still be seen today, some 225 feet from where it originally was built. The population peaked in the 1920's at 15,000 but within 10 years dropped to 10,000. Depression, war, and labor unrest – all had negative impact on the mining and in 1953 Jerome's mines closed. Within five years of the closing, Jerome became the largest ghost town in America – until the 1960s, when artists, writers and musicians discovered Jerome and began a new history here, combining the lore and beauty of the town's mining past with a rich, vibrant art scene.