Jerome

This part of central Arizona is the traditional homeland of the Yavapai and Tonto Apache peoples, whose descendants belong to the Yavapai-Apache Nation of the Verde Valley today, and who lived across these mountains long before mining arrived. In the 1870s prospectors found rich copper ore in the hill, and the town of Jerome was born, growing quickly into one of the largest copper producers in the territory.

At its peak in the early twentieth century Jerome was a wild, crowded, roaring place, home to thousands of miners of many backgrounds and to the saloons, gambling halls, and brothels that served them. The mining operations, especially the huge United Verde and Little Daisy mines, made fortunes and gave the town its swagger and its notorious reputation. Fires, and the ground itself shifting from the blasting and tunneling below, repeatedly reshaped the town, and the famous sliding jail is said to have slid downhill from its original spot.

The copper could not last. As the ore played out and prices fell, the mines wound down and finally closed in the mid-twentieth century, and Jerome's population collapsed from thousands to a mere handful. The town teetered on the edge of becoming a true ghost town, its grand buildings emptying out and standing silent on the mountainside.

What saved it was an influx of artists, craftspeople, and others drawn by the cheap old buildings, the dramatic setting, and the town's ragged charm, who began settling in from the 1960s and 70s onward. They restored storefronts, opened galleries and studios, and slowly turned the near-ghost town into a living community again. Today Jerome makes its living largely from art and visitors, its steep streets lined with galleries, shops, wineries, and cafes, all set among the bones of its mining past.

Jerome leans into its reputation as a haunted place, and with a history of mining accidents, fires, and hard living, ghost stories cling to it as tightly as the buildings cling to the hill. The old Jerome Grand Hotel, once a hospital, and other historic buildings are the subject of countless tales, and ghost tours and haunted lore are part of the town's appeal, a playful embrace of a genuinely dramatic past.

Beyond the ghosts, the setting is unforgettable. From its perch on Cleopatra Hill, Jerome looks out over the whole Verde Valley, with the red rocks of Sedona glowing in the distance and the far mountains beyond. The town's tiered streets, hairpin turns, and buildings stacked up the slope give it a character found nowhere else in Arizona, a place where the view down your street might be the rooftops of the houses below.

Spring and fall are the finest times to visit, with mild days perfect for wandering the steep streets and galleries and clear air for the long valley views. The higher elevation keeps Jerome comfortable when the desert below is heating up.

Summer is warm but far milder than the low desert, and the town is lively with visitors, while the late-summer monsoon can bring dramatic storms rolling across the valley below. Winter is cool and quiet, sometimes with a dusting of snow on the old rooftops, a striking and atmospheric time to see this mountainside town at its most peaceful.

The closest Boutel™ stays, so you can turn this stop into an overnight. Each is an independently owned, editorially selected place to stay.