How this quirky Arizona town went from the wickedest in the West to tourist spot in 125 years
Download mp3 (8.77 MB)And now we travel north, to one of Arizona’s quirkiest towns — Jerome.
Today, Jerome is known for gift shops, wine tasting and cooler summer climates. But did you know it was once called the wickedest town in America?
Longtime Valley journalist Peter Corbett wrote about Jerome’s 125th anniversary for True West magazine, and joined The Show to talk more about it.
Full interview
LAUREN GILGER: We all know about Jerome as maybe a ghost town, this town on the hill, right? But you're looking into its history here and it's really fascinating. Like you paint it as a place that was really seen as like sinful. Tell us more about this title, the wickedest town in America.
PETER CORBETT: Yes. Around the turn of the 19th century, there was three fires in two years, and this do-gooder came to town from Salvation Army and said that there was going to be more fires until they cleaned up their wicked ways in, in Jerome. And there was opium dens and brothels and a lot of saloons, many saloons.
GILGER: Many saloons, some still there.
CORBETT: That's right, some very good ones.
GILGER: It started as a mining camp though, like when did it become an actual town with an actual kind of town government?
CORBETT: That happened in, because those fires, they incorporated around 1899. And once they did that, they set up a building code that they said you had to build with a brick or masonry. And because those early towns were just all lumber and burned down. Once the fire got started, it was it was over, you know, it burned down several times. So that helped establish the infrastructure that you see in Jerome now, between around the 1900s to the mid-'20s, most of those buildings date back that long. So that gives you such really cool early 20th century streetscapes.
GILGER: Yeah, it really looks that way and feels that way when you walk around there. What did they mine when they, when it was a mining camp back in the day?
CORBETT: Well, primarily copper, it's the biggest copper camp, a billion dollar copper camp they call it. And of course they have silver and gold out of there as well. And it started, that started around the 1870s. They started to, started the heavy duty mining and they were limited because they didn't have any smelters very close by. So early on, they start building AAA narrow gauge railway to connect to the main line, to get the, the copper out and, that, you know, led to the development of Clarkdale down the hill. They built a smelter down there. And, that's also a very quaint little town.
GILGER: That's where Clarkdale came from, I had no idea. Mining stopped there a long time ago though, right. I mean, how has the town sort of shaped itself since then? It's, it's, it attracts a ton of tourists, right?
CORBETT: Exactly. Around a million, I think they claim up there per year. But, the, the mining actually stopped around 1953 and the town just dried, almost dried up and died. They moved, they moved hill, some of the old houses down the hill, you know, and, and there was just really cheap real estate. You could buy it up for very cheap. And so it was so desolate up there. They used to have a car race up and down the hill there through the town, which you can imagine if you've driven that road between Jerome and Prescott. It's very scary. I just can't imagine those cars screeching around the corners in Jerome.
GILGER: So, tell us a little bit about what it's like today and about, you know, 125 years. What are they doing?
CORBETT: Yeah, it's really turned itself around with arts and the, and the history of the town and they can embrace that as a kind of an economic driver for, for Jerome. Lots of great music there in the Spirit Room and other venues ... the Hotel Jerome has a cooperative artist galleries and so many of the 30 or so artists in town show their work. They have annual, they have a first Saturday wine and art walk. And and then this, this summer they have the, they're going to celebrate with the 125th anniversary with a music and art festival on June 8-9. So that should be a really fun event.
GILGER: Yeah. And when you walk around the town, you can really feel a lot of that history. You can still see some of those old out bird, burned out buildings, right?
CORBETT: They kept those, that's right, there. I think that's what's really makes it interesting, especially for, for photographers, just these facades that are still standing. And some of the buildings have kind of slid down the hill, like the jail, for example. But also the Bartlett Hotel, they, it's, that's where you see, they have an outhouse and a, and a potty in there and you can throw coins towards the outhouse and, and they raise a decent, a lot of money with that.
And it's really cool. During the 125th anniversary parade they had in, in early March, they had a beautiful memorial set up in the Bartlett Hotel for some of the long time residents of Jerome who've been there since the '60s and '70s. So it was really special.
GILGER: Some people have been there a long time. What about its reputation as a ghost town? And, and what can you still experience of that today?
CORBETT: Well, they have, they have a kind of a ghost walk or something around, around Halloween and they also have the Ghost Hall ... annual Halloween party and band that funds the Jerome Volunteer Fire Department. So that's a really good time to go to Jerome. And you know, the ghosts, they have ghosts in the Grand Hotel and various places if you believe in that kind of thing.
GILGER: Tell me lastly, before we let you go about the kind of its position in this wine region that's created in the Verde Valley there and nearby. Like there's a lot of wine tasting, tasting rooms, things like that, that's become a part of the economy there.
CORBETT: Absolutely. And that's probably one of the biggest changes over the last 10 to 20 years that all the tasting rooms there. And Maynard James Keenan with his winery there and also in Cottonwood. So, with those that art and wine walk, that's a big deal on Saturdays. And you know, that's, that's quite different and you know, you think of a Western town is like, wine tasting, isn't that kind of foo-foo. But it's, it's, it's really a fun aspect that has been added to the town.
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