The town that literally slid downhill and came back as an art colony

Jerome’s still clinging to the hill

Jerome sits on the side of Cleopatra Hill in Yavapai County, more than 5,000 feet up and about 100 miles north of Phoenix along State Route 89A.

Below you, the Verde Valley spreads out toward Sedona’s red rock country.

About 450 people live here now, but thousands show up every year to walk the galleries, poke through museums, and explore what’s left of a copper mining town that once earned the title “Wickedest Town in the West” from the San Francisco Examiner back in 1899.

The whole place earned National Historic Landmark status in 1967, and the reason it’s still standing at all is a story that starts with copper and ends with art.

A billion dollars in copper came out of this hill

Mining claims went up on Cleopatra Hill in 1876, and the town took its name from Eugene Jerome, a financier behind the United Verde Copper Company.

Workers from more than 30 countries poured in during the boom years.

Across roughly 70 years, the mines pulled out over $1 billion in copper, gold, silver, zinc and lead. By the 1920s, nearly 15,000 people called Jerome home, making it one of Arizona’s largest cities.

When the mines shut down for good in 1953, fewer than 100 people stayed. Folks started calling it “America’s Largest Ghost Town.”

Then, in the 1960s, artists moved into the abandoned buildings, turned old bordellos into galleries and gave the town a second life.

The mansion a doubted mine built

James S. “Rawhide Jimmy” Douglas built his mansion in 1916 on the hill above his Little Daisy Mine, two years after his crew hit an extraordinarily rich copper deposit that experts swore would never pay off.

The mansion became a state park in 1965 and now holds a museum packed with photographs, artifacts, minerals and a 3-D model of the town and its underground tunnels.

Inside, the restored Douglas Library sits preserved as a period room.

Step out onto the grounds, and the Verde Valley stretches in front of you all the way to the red rock cliffs of the Mogollon Rim.

The jail that slid 225 feet downhill on its own

Jerome’s town jail went up in 1905 between Main Street and Hull Avenue. By the mid-1930s, decades of underground blasting had loosened the ground beneath it.

The concrete structure broke free from the wooden building it was attached to and slid 225 feet downhill, landing in the middle of Hull Avenue. It never moved again.

You can walk right up to it today and see three sides of the thing still sitting where it stopped. The jail is one of the clearest reminders that Jerome’s hillside has a mind of its own.

Arizona’s tallest wooden headframe drops 1,900 feet underground

The Audrey Shaft Headframe went up in 1918, built by the United Verde Extension Company.

It’s the largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona, and the shaft beneath it drops 1,900 feet into the earth, 650 feet deeper than the top of the Empire State Building.

Between 1919 and 1938, it lifted more than 3.6 million tons of ore and produced about 320,000 tons of copper along with silver and gold.

As of 2026, the Audrey Headframe Park is temporarily closed for restoration, so check the Arizona State Parks site before you plan a visit.

Pan for gold at an old mining camp outside town

About a mile north of Jerome, in the old camp of Haynes, Gold King Mine lets you walk the grounds of a real former mine.

Old mining equipment, vintage vehicles, antique machinery and reconstructed mining-era buildings fill the site. Families can try gold panning, step inside a walk-in mine and meet animals at a small petting zoo.

The terrain runs hilly and uneven, so wear sturdy shoes. Admission costs $10 for adults, and children 5 and under get in free.

Two dollars gets you inside the Mine Museum

The Jerome Historical Society opened the Mine Museum on Main Street back in the 1950s to hold onto the town’s mining past.

Inside, you’ll find mining equipment, old photographs, saloon relics and everyday artifacts from camp life.

The displays put you at ground level with the miners, shop owners and families who lived here when copper ran the economy.

Admission is $2, and the museum gives you a feel for what daily life looked like when Jerome was still digging.

Over 20 galleries fill buildings from the early 1900s

Jerome packs more than 20 art galleries and studios into old buildings that date back over a century.

The Jerome Artists Cooperative Gallery sits at 502 Main Street inside the historic Hotel Jerome, built in 1917, and shows handmade work from about 30 local member-artists.

You’ll find painting, ceramics, glass, jewelry, wood, blacksmithing and photography under one roof.

Walk farther along Main Street and other galleries line the road with plein air landscapes, handcrafted silver jewelry set with Arizona turquoise and fire agate.

First Saturday art walks run from 5 to 8 p.m.

On the first Saturday of every month, Jerome’s galleries and studios stay open late for the Art Walk.

A free shuttle runs between the Old Jerome High School and the galleries at the top of town, so you don’t have to tackle the steep streets twice.

You can meet the artists, watch live demonstrations and browse special exhibitions set up just for the evening. Street musicians and live performances fill the gaps between stops.

It’s one of the best ways to feel the creative pulse that keeps Jerome going.

The world’s largest kaleidoscope shop sits on Main Street

Nellie Bly Kaleidoscopes has held its spot on Main Street since 1988 and carries handmade kaleidoscopes from more than 90 artists around the world, making it the largest dealer of its kind anywhere. You’re encouraged to pick them up and look through them.

Right next door, the connected sister store, Around the World With Nellie Bly, sells steampunk-themed art and gifts. Head to the back porch when you’re done browsing, and the Verde Valley opens up below you.

Five levels of town connected by steep streets and stairs

Jerome’s hillside position puts the Verde Valley, Sedona’s red rocks and the San Francisco Peaks, 50 miles to the north, in your line of sight from nearly every street.

The town stacks across five distinct levels connected by steep roads and staircases. Main Street loops through the center, passing galleries, shops and historic buildings all within walking distance.

Crumbling mining-era ruins stand right next to colorful restored storefronts, and the mix gives Jerome a look you won’t find anywhere else in Arizona.

They bought 90 parcels for ten dollars to save Main Street

Jerome has come through fires, landslides, two world wars, economic crashes and near-total abandonment.

In 1953, the Jerome Historical Society formed and talked Phelps Dodge out of tearing down buildings in the main part of town.

Then the society bought 90 parcels of land from Verde Exploration for a total of ten dollars, saving much of Main Street from the wrecking ball.

Today, artists, musicians, writers and small business owners fill one of the best-preserved mining towns in the American West.

Drive up to Jerome, Arizona

You can reach Jerome from Phoenix in about two hours by taking I-17 north to State Route 260, then Highway 89A through Cottonwood and up the hill.

Sedona sits about 30 miles to the east, and Prescott is roughly 35 miles to the west, both connected by the scenic 89A. The town sits above 5,000 feet, so temperatures run cooler than the valley floor.

Parking gets tight on weekends, so a weekday visit works best. Wear shoes with good grip, because the streets are steep and uneven.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

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