Exploring the most populated ghost town in Arizona: Jerome!
Before we arrived into Phoenix for our friends Drea & LJ’s wedding we had a couple day stay near Sedona. One day we headed out to explore the populated ghost town of Jerome, and what a neat place it was!
Now I know what you’re thinking, how can a ghost town be populated? Jerome used to be a pretty big town, it had a population of around 15,000 at its peak during the mining boom but when the mines dried up it dwindled to almost zero. Now around 500 people live there, most of them artists. There is a big tourist trade again as people come to explore the “wicked” past of Jerome.
Why was Jerome called “the most wicked town in America” at one point? Well, it was primarily a mining town in its heyday and miners were typically single men, and the two things they liked down most were drinking and……fornicating. So there was plenty of saloons and brothels to fulfill both of those needs.
We started the day at Miner’s Cafe having some breakfast before heading out to walk around. There isn’t a whole lot to do in Jerome, there’s only really three streets so there’s not much to explore but there are a lot of local shops to walk in and out of. One of the coolest is a shop that sells kaleidoscopes, definitely stop in if you see it!
The Grand Hotel at the top of the town gives a great view over the valley but also has a neat lobby to walk in and look at. Since we had just eaten we didn’t go into the Asylum Restaurant but it sounded like they had good food. Before heading out of town we stopped to grab a coffee from Desert Grave Espresso which took a while because they hand pull each espresso shot! It was very tasty though so worth the wait.
On the other side of the valley you can visit Jerome State Historic Park which has a lot of the history about the town including a 10 minute video of a ghost exploring the town that was very informative!
If you’re in the area Jerome is definitely worth a couple hours of time to explore, check out our video of our time there below!