Jerome, the wickedest town

The copper under Jerome formed about 1.75 billion years ago, along a ring fault in the caldera of an undersea volcano.

Everything else about the town follows from that. Two ore bodies formed down there, and tectonic movement, plate collisions, uplift, deposition and erosion eventually exposed the tip of one and pushed the other close to the surface, both of them right here on Cleopatra Hill above the Verde Valley. William A. Clark developed the larger one in the late 19th century as the United Verde Mine, pulling out copper, gold, silver and more. James Douglas Jr. worked the other as the United Verde Extension. Between them these were among the richest copper deposits ever found.

The town on top held more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. It made national news in 1917 when labour unrest involving the Industrial Workers of the World ended with about 60 IWW members expelled at gunpoint, loaded into a cattle car and shipped west.

Production boomed through the First World War, fell after it, rose again, and fell during and after the Depression. The ore ran out and the mines closed for good in 1953, leaving fewer than 100 people. What saved Jerome was the decision to turn to tourism and retail rather than let it empty. It worked. Jerome became a National Historic Landmark in 1967, and the 2020 census counted 464 residents living among art galleries, coffeehouses and restaurants.

It sits about 100 miles north of Phoenix on State Route 89A, between Sedona and Prescott, which is a large part of why people find it at all.

The Douglas Mansion anchors the visit. James S. Douglas built it in 1916 on the hill just above his Little Daisy Mine, and it is now Jerome State Historic Park: a museum of the area and the Douglas family holding photographs, artefacts and minerals, a video presentation, and a 3-D model of the town showing the mines running underneath it. More displays sit outside, next to a picnic area with a panoramic view down the Verde Valley.