Day 45, Exploring Jerome

Drove down to Verde Valley (Cottonwood) to check out a storage facility/ campground which is about 50 miles south of Flagstaff. It is a 300-acre oasis in the high desert where the climate is moderate year-round. After touring the property, we decided to move there Friday morning, pack up, winterize, park the rigs in the storage area, then start eastward Saturday morning.

Following that decision, we drove to Jerome, Arizona's largest ghost town. It was an interesting drive up the mountain with switchbacks & steep climbs, finally reaching the town at 5,280ft. 

The town was built on Cleopatra Hill above a vast deposit of copper. Mining operations started in 1883 and the tent city grew rapidly to a prosperous mining town. Dependent on the ups & downs of copper prices, labour unrest,depressions and wars, Jerome's mines finally closed in 1953. It went from a boom town of 15,000 to a ghost town.

It has been revitalized as an art colony, and became a National Historic Landmark in 1967.