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Published: March 25th 2023
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First thing it’s traditional coffee and doughnuts in the camp pavilion. Every Saturday morning the camp provides coffee and doughnuts for all the campers. It’s an opportunity for people to talk to others and find out where everyone comes from. I sat with a couple from Calgary who travel south regularly. It’s not really that far from Alberta to hop over the border and in a short time be in warmer weather - except for this year when it is much colder than normal.
Then it’s off to Jerome. Jerome is at an altitude of over 5,000 feet and the road leading there is steep, narrow with switchbacks and hairpin turns. It gets a little frightening near the top because there’s only a small guardrail to keep you from making a quick trip to the bottom.
Jerome was founded in 1876 and was once the 4th largest city in Arizona with 15,000 people. There were rich copper deposits located there and it was once known as the wickedest town in the west. When the demand for copper declined severely, the town faded and was once promoted as a ghost town with a population of 100 people. It has since
become a popular tourist destination and there are now 400 people living there. There are numerous shops in the historic business area selling beautiful items produced by local artists. The gift shops were not your typical made in China stuff. But it is still known as a ghost town with places like the Ghost City Inn and a number of ‘haunted“ places like haunted hamburgers. Not sure how hamburgers could be haunted but what do I know.
I went first to the Douglas mansion built in 1916 The Douglas family owned the Little Daisy mine and he also built the Little Daisy Hotel to house his workers. It’s built entirely of adobe bricks. These days the mansion is part of the Arizona State Parks system and serves as a museum with the history of copper mining and plenty of mining equipment scattered around the grounds.
The little town of Jerome was built precariously on the side of the mountain. Frankly I don’t know how they keep the road from falling down the mountain. Decades back when there was active mining and blasting going on, parts of the town were sliding down the mountain. At one time, the J.C.
Penny store slide so far that they put up a plank to get from the walkway into the store and eventually the store fell down. Now it is monitored to make sure everything is stable and not sliding. Because it’s small with very narrow streets there is little parking but again, lucky me, someone was pulling out just as I was looking desperately for a spot. YES! The streets are one way in and one way out, no room for cars passing within the business area.
Getting from where I parked to where there were some stores was a strain on my leg muscles. Everything is either steep uphill or steep downhill. This is not a place I would want to live full time. I think the people here have one long leg and one short leg from walking on the hills. I was appropriately tempted by all the excellent quality of goods available for sale but also appropriately resistant. It was a hard job, believe me.
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