About Jerome

The mining camp named Jerome was established on the side of Cleopatra Hill above a vast deposit of copper in 1883. It was named for Eugene Murray Jerome, a New York investor who owned the mineral rights and financed mining there. Eugene Jerome never visited his namesake town. Jerome was incorporated as a town on 8 March 1889. The town housed the workers in the nearby United Verde Mine, which was to produce over 1 billion dollars in copper, gold and silver over the next 70 years.

The early settlers of Jerome were a brave and raucous mix. Miners, gamblers, freighters, smelter workers, bootleggers, saloon keepers, store keepers, prostitutes and preachers, wives and children all made Jerome what it was.

Jerome became a notorious "wild west" town, a hotbed of prostitution, gambling, and vice. On 5 February 1903, the New York Sun proclaimed Jerome to be "the wickedest town in the West".

In 1915 the population of Jerome was estimated at 2,500. Americans, Mexicans, Croatians, Irish, Spaniards, Italians, Chinese, and other nationalities made the mining camp a cosmopolitan mix that added to its rich booming life. It has been said Prehistoric Native Americans were the first miners. Soon the Spanish followed, seeking gold but mostly found copper.

Jerome's modern history began in 1876 when three anglo prospectors staked the first claims on rich copper deposits in the area. They sold out to a group which formed the United Verde Copper Company in 1883. The resultant mining camp of board and canvas shacks was named in honor of Eugene Jerome. Hopes for the enterprise ran high, but the costs of operating the mine soon outstripped profits, and the company folded in less than two years due to freighting costs.

It soon became the vision and vast financial resources of a new owner, William A. Clark, to bring in a narrow gauge railroad and reduce freighting costs.

By the early 20th century, the United Verde was the largest producing copper mine in the Arizona Territory. Jerome grew rapidly from tent city to prosperous company town with frame and brick buildings, and could boast of two churches, an opera house, a school, and several civic buildings. The town followed the swing of the mines fortunes. In 1912, James S. Douglas purchased and began development of the Little Daisy Mine. By 1916, Jerome had two bonanza mines.

In 1918, underground mining phased out after uncontrollable fires erupted in the 88 miles of tunnels under the town. Open pit mining brought dynamiting which began to rattle the Jerome hills. Buildings cracked and the surface began to shift. Sections of the business district slid downward. The Jerome jail slid 225 ft. and rests across the road from its original site. By 1932 the price of copper had sunk to 5 cents per pound, and the United Verde closed until 1935, when Phelps Dodge bought the mine for $21 million. The Little Daisy shut down in 1938. Phelps-Dodge took over the United Verde in 1935, but loss of profits dependent on the ups and downs of copper prices, labor unrest, depressions and war brought the operation and Jerome mining days to an end in 1953. In 1967 Jerome was designated a Historic District, and a National Historic Landmark in 1976.

Today Jerome is a tourist destination, with many abandoned and refurbished buildings from its boom town days. Jerome has a large mining museum, presenting the town history, labor-management disputes, geological structure models, mineral samples, and equipment used in both underground and open-pit mining. The National Historic Landmark designation has assured architectural preservation in this town, a mile high on the side of Mingus Mountain.

Jerome continues to be very much alive with writers, artists, artisans, musicians, historians, and families. Jerome is known as an art destination, with more than 30 galleries and working studios. The Old Jerome High School is home to many artists and their open studios. Artists and craftspeople display their work in an open-air art park in nice weather. They form a peaceful, colorful, thriving community built on a rich foundation of history and lore. The population today is about 400.