Jerome, Arizona (A Ghost Town)

We heard there was a ghost town near here so we decided to check it out.  Ed and I are both thinking that it is  an old deserted type of western town.  I think we have seen too many movies. lol  It was nothing like  what we were expecting. 

Jerome is built on the side of Cleopatra Hill which had rich ore deposits. First it was just individual claims and then it was bought by a mining company.  By 1920 the population was almost 15,000 people.  After the mines shut down in the 1950's, the population went down to 100.  This was when it became known as a ghost town.  Today the population is almost 500 and has become a thriving tourist town.  It sort of reminded us of downtown Shipshewana only more interesting because of where it is built. 

This overlooked the valley and this is a piece of the mining equipment.

The first thing we saw was this police car and the residential part of the town.




How would you like to walk up and down this every day



of course Ed wanted you to see this car

The town had art galleries, restaurants, gem shops, just a little bit of everything.  There were quite a few tourist there, not quite sure they were buying anything.








a lot of shops

  

These were made from tree roots



I had taken some other pictures in the art gallery and then found out you are not suppose to take pictures and had to delete them

an old washing machine just sitting by a building



An old movie camera

Ed took a picture of this sign

 Some of the buildings didn't have much left of them.

This was what was left of the jail

Than of course they  have some neat old buildings

looked like this might have been a hotel

The town is located on 89A and is known for it's curves so we decided to check it out.  It's not a place for an RV but on our way up the road we came across a fifth wheel pulled off the road.  They were over heating.  I told him the rv magazine told rv's to stay off this road.  He said he hadn't read that magazine.  We went further up the road.  The twists and turns were amazing as was the scenery.  We turned around and went back and Ed stopped and told the owner of the fifth wheel he might want to turn around.  Getting turned around and going back through town wasn't easy but going forward wasn't going to be easy either and maybe impossible since he was already overheating.

This was where we had been

Ed saw this sign along side the road with this sticker on it

. 

There is an actual ghost town part farther out of town but it was getting ready to close so we didn't get to go through it.  The woman in the store told us to come back so we went back after Thanksgiving.  She didn't bother to tell us they were closing down until the day after Christmas.

We went up there and there was all kinds of old equipment, old trucks just everywhere.   There were a couple of converted buses.

   

an early motor home

There was stuff everywhere



looks like someone was living here



You went through this building and behind it was the ghost town.  You had to pay $5 to go through it.  We got there about 20 minutes before closing so didn't go through it.

After we left the ghost town we saw a gravel road and decided to check it out.  We realized we were going up the mountain.  We followed it for about 5 miles and wasn't sure where it was going but decided we would turn around and go back.  But this was the view going up the mountain.

We had a really good day, but when the sun goes down it really gets cold.  But we have really been enjoying the scenery.  We have been doing some gold digging and that is going to be our next blog.

Bye for now.    Ed and Lyn