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Jerome
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The former mining town of
JEROME
, high above the Verde Valley on US-89A about thirty miles south of Sedona, is conspicuous from quite a distance: an enormous letter "J" is etched deep into the hillside above it, and a large chunk of that hillside is missing altogether, having been blown apart for
opencast copper mining
. This land abounds in mineral wealth - thick veins of copper are interspersed with gold and silver, and an endless supply of limestone is still extracted for cement - but serious exploitation only started in 1876. The
United Verde
mine was partly financed by New Yorker Eugene Jerome (a cousin of Winston Churchill's mother, Jennie Jerome), who insisted that the new town bear his name. Until the current tortuous road was built, the only way up to Jerome was the precipitous rail line connecting the mine with the world's largest copper smelter at Clarkdale.
From the early 1950s, when the mines closed down, until as recently as the 1970s, Jerome was a ghost town in which it was possible to turn up and move into an empty house. Many who did so are still here, making a living from arts and crafts, and the town itself has made a dramatic recovery. It's a bit of a tourist trap, but is nonetheless fascinating to explore. The hillside is so steep that the stone houses (it was far too expensive to haul timber up here) tend to have two stories at the front and four or five at the back. Under the repeated concussion of more than two hundred miles of tunnels being blasted into the mountainside, the whole town used to slip downhill at the rate of five inches per year, and the Sliding Jail on Hull Avenue came to rest 225ft from where it was built.
The old-style
Inn at Jerome
, 309 N Main St (tel 928/634-5094 or 1-800/634-5094,
; $50-75/$75-100), has five themed B&B
rooms
, with and without private bathrooms, as well as a
bar
, and operates a
cafA©
, the
Jerome Grille
. The
English Kitchen
(tel 928/634-2132) has been at 119 Jerome Ave since 1899. Under Chinese ownership, it was an opium den; later the Wobblies held their meetings downstairs. Now it's open for breakfast and lunch every day except Monday, and its terrace offers a commanding view of the valley. Many of the
shops
stock only souvenirs, but interesting crafts showrooms around town include the Knapp Gallery on Lower Main Street and, next door, Made in Jerome Pottery. Other useful information
for tourists (each section contains more specific sub-sections): |
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United States,
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