JEROME, Arizona
America’s largest ghost town and most vertical city.
In the 1920’s Jerome, Arizona had a population was once around 15,000 people. The town is located at 5200 feet on top of Cleopatra Hill. Cleopatra was the name of the copper mine that brought so many people to this area. Phelps Dodge now owns the claim of this once prosperous copper mine. There was a time when the mine produced over 3 million pounds of copper per month.
In 2010 the population was 444. Today it is mostly made up of Artists, small business owners and restaurant employees. This is a very eclectic mix of shops and galleries. Not to be missed if you are visiting Sedona or Prescott. It was a 40 minute drive on Highway 89a from Prescott today, very picturesque scenery and several miles tight turns. Don’t do this one in an RV and don’t sit in the back seat of the car if you are prone to car sickness!
This is the second time Mark and I have eaten at the Mile High Grill and each time it was very good food and service.
We spent the day here with our friends, Duane, Betty, Bill and Gisela. We always have such a fun time together. Here they are hamming it up on Main Street in Jerome.
If you go to Jerome, don’t miss seeing the Mine museum, allow at least an hour and a half to visit. A half a day would be better.
Below is an audio recording by singer songwriter, Kate Wolf. She wrote and performed this tune live at KPHA radio in Berkeley, California. It’s called Old Jerome, capturing the essence of this historic town with her lyrics about the Cleopatra Mine and roughcut stone streets. Her many other songs are beautiful too, a mixture of folk, pop, and deep country. She was born in San Francisco in 1942 and was at the prime of her career in the late 70’s and mid 80’s throughout the bay area. Sadly she lost her life to leukemia in 1986.
