Jerome Arizona and Tuzigoot

Today (2/6/20) we  visited Jerome Arizona, a famous copper mining town in the 1800s. If you Google it you will find it is referenced as a ghost town, but that is anything but true.

The town seems to be a thriving tourist attraction with lots of shops, restaurants and pubs. There are a number of old abandoned and decaying buildings, but most of the town is operational.

The town is situated on the side of a mountain with a 30 degree incline at about 5500 feet. History says some of the mine shafts under the town once colapsed and allowed the jail to slide 255', ending up in the middle of a street. That must have been fun for anyone along for the ride 😁. There are still over 800 miles of tunnels under the town. 

Because of the large amounts of money generated from copper and gold, corruption overtook the town. In the early 1900s it was labeled the "Wickedest town in the west". Dramatic fluctuations in copper prices and the great depression, the Jerome mines finally closed in 1953. Within 5 years after the mine closed, Jerome became the biggest ghost town in America.

During the 60s and 70s the town attracted artists who renovated homes and reopened shops forming the basis for the town as it is today.

One of the neat attractions is the Little Daisy Mine.

This site holds the remnants of an actual mine and the head frame that was used to pull ore from the mine and lower workers in. 

In the picture below Cindy is standing in the lift that was used to lower workers as much as 1900 feet into the mine. To put that into perspective, the Empire State Building is 1250 feet tall. Yikes!

After Jerome we visited Tuzigoot, the site of ancient Indian ruins.

Tuzigoot was built by the Sinagua people between 1125 and 1400 AD. It included an estimated 110 rooms of which some were 2 story and many had only ladder access through the roof. 

It was incredible to see what had been uncoverered from thousands of years prior. And it was not just the structures. There was pottery, utensils, tools and weapons unearthed.

The picture above shows the town of Jerome looking across the valley from Tuzigoot.

Interestingly, to the far right in the picture is an operating gypsum mine. As we were standing there we heard a deep, loud rumble. Then we could see the dust rising. This is an open strip mine and they had just blown another layer open. Very cool!

Our route home took us through historic downtown Cottonwood. This is another urban renewal project that has brought an old town center back to life. It is now hopping with boutique restaurants and gift shops.

We made a stop in a real 70s head shop. It was exactly as we expected it to be, filled with pot paraphernalia, incense, hand made jewelery and hippy clothes. They even had a section of vinyl records for sale. A real flashback.

That's it for this one. Feel free to share it.

Thanks for reading!

Cindy and Terry

Wanna see a map of where we have been?

We are starting a YouTube channel. We haven't really posted anything of value yet, but we plan to post short snipits of things stills can't do justice. We'll link those on the blog text to enhance the experience.

Our YouTube channel is the same as this blog: The Next Hundred Miles