Jeffery W. McKelroy

by Jeffery W. McKelroy

Billed as the “Largest Ghost Town in America”, Jerome is just a short five-hour drive north and west from Bisbee and through Phoenix. If you don’t mind adding an hour to the trip you can take a detour through the scenic Tonto National Forrest.

The town of Jerome is located at the top of Cleopatra Hill between Prescott and Flagstaff at an elevation of 5,200 feet. The road that leads to the historic copper mining town is steep and winding. It is difficult to imagine how an early prospector could make his way to the top without modern automobiles and paved roads let alone build a small city there. Jerome grew from a small mining camp to what was known as the “Wickedest Town In the West”. On four separate occasions disastrous fires roared through the early wooden structures that made up the town. This led to the building of more permanent structures, around the late 1880’s, made of brick and adobe that could better protect against such tragedies.

Founded in 1876, Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. By the 1920’s the population had peaked at 15,000. When the Great Depression of the 1930’s hit the United States, the mining operations came to a grinding halt and the claim was sold to the Phelps Dodge company which had originally been an import-export company that eventually saw it’s fortune in mining. The company became infamous for its heavy-handed tactics in suppressing striking miners and was involved in several violent clashes with union miners. The company was eventually sold in 2007 and became part of Freeport-McMoRan who still holds the claim today. World War II brought increased demand for copper, and for a time it seemed like the old town was about to see a rebirth of sorts but after the war, demand slowed once again, and the mine was also beginning to play out. By 1953 there was no longer enough of a demand for copper to make mining operations profitable and the Phelps Dodge Mine closed. After the closing of the mine all but around 100 of the residents left to find work elsewhere. Those that remained promoted the town as a historic ghost town and in 1967 Jerome was designated a National Historic District by the federal government. Today Jerome is a thriving tourist town and artist community with a population of about 450. Although many old hippies have made this their home the town retains its old west charm with only the occasional tie dye shop or organic, vegan pizzeria.

Jerome sits above what was the largest copper mine in Arizona and produced an astonishing 3 million pounds of copper per month during the boom years. Men and women from all over the world made their way to Arizona to find work and maybe a new way of life. Today the mines are silent, and Jerome has become the largest ghost town in America.

Jerome’s personality has changed dramatically over the years. For a time in the late 1800’s this lawless desert town was a wild and dangerous place to be. Death was always lurking, either in the mine or in the dark alleyways. Gambling halls, saloons and brothels offered many a weary miner a chance to blow off steam and divest himself of his hard won dividends. There was no shortage of nefarious characters waiting to fleece the working men of the mines. Of course, with so much vice within such close reach there tended to be frequent violent exchanges amongst the residents. Gun fights, murders and freak accidents resulted in the untimely end of many a pit worker. It was truly a lawless place. By the 1950’s things had quieted down in the old town, and it would be hard for one to imagine the debauchery of days gone by. In the 1970’s the tourists started to arrive, nostalgic for the lore of the old west and so did the artists and eventually the hippies having grown up and grown tired of the Haight, Ashbury scene. Today the town’s 450 residents make a living selling arts and crafts running bed and breakfasts, and gift shops. There are also a fair number of musicians, writers and hermits that call this place on the mountain home. Jerome is an enchanting town, and the beautiful setting is perfect for photographers and painters. From its external appearances it has not changed much in nearly 100 years. Many of the buildings have been continuously used by business people and were built after the fires of 1894 and1899. Several of the buildings have been restored and more are planned for restoration. Due to the 30-degree incline of the mountainside, gravity has pulled some of the old buildings down the slope. To the delight of some, one of those buildings was the town’s jail. Those buildings still standing make for interesting visiting and with a little research you can find their historical significance. One notable section is the “Cribs District.” You will find this area across the street from the English Kitchen, in a back alley where all the buildings were part of Jerome’s ill-famed “prostitution row.” The “cribs” were nothing more than small rooms built in rows that contained only a bed and a wash basin. Their sole purpose was to provide a place for the working ladies to sell their wares.

Though the beauty and peacefulness that the town offers today is inviting there is also a side to Jerome that is invisible to most but often reveals itself at the most unexpected moments. Not all of the town’s unruly former residents seem ready to depart this world. Even in death they seem to linger. The tales of long dead miners, shop keepers and prostitutes whose ethereal forms still wonder the halls of the old buildings and the nighttime streets of the town are easy to come by.  Most of the current residents believe they have had some sort of otherworldly experience in Jerome, and most are eager to talk about it.

Undoubtedly one of the most well-known haunted locations in Jerome is the Jerome Grand Hotel. The building is one of the highest public structures in the Verde Valley. As the last major building constructed in Jerome, the building was not only meant to boost the pride of the town but was built to be fireproof and able to withstand the vibrations of blasts of up to 260,000 pounds of dynamite set off by the mine that was sometimes felt as far away as Camp Verde, over 20 miles away. How this 30,000 sq. ft., five-level building of poured in place, reinforced concrete, was constructed on a 50-degree slope is an engineering marvel even by today’s standards. The immense Spanish mission style building was constructed in 1926 as the United Verde Hospital. It opened its doors in 1927 as the most modern and well-equipped hospital in all of the western United States. Its primary focus was the treatment and care of patients suffering from tuberculosis. So, it goes without saying that many of the patients simply came here to die. From the time of its opening until its closure in 1950 thousands of deaths were recorded, so many in fact that the hospital was equipped with its own crematorium. After it closed the building fell into disrepair for the next 44 years until renovations began in 1994. During those 44 years it was not uncommon for the curious adventurer to sneak into the building to explore. It appears most of those who dared trespass came away with a story to tell of unexplained figures in the darkness, disembodied voices and strange knocking sounds coming from empty rooms. There are also several stories of people being touched or pushed.

Purchased by the Altherr Family in 1994, from the Phelps Dodge Mining Corp, the building was a virtual time capsule. Having been closed for 44 years, there had been no changes to the original building except for the enclosure of the roof top deck in 1929. It is said that the old hospital is one of the best-preserved buildings in Arizona.

It was not long after the new owners took possession and began renovations that people began to talk of the eerie atmosphere in the old building. Once the renovations and construction to convert the hospital rooms to hotel rooms began, there were reports coming from the construction workers hired to do the work. Many times, contractors would walk off the job after hearing the sounds of labored breathing or coughing seemingly coming from nowhere. Some noticed that the temperature in the room they were working in had dropped and the overall mood became heavy and dark. Hotel guests still report these occurrences in their rooms, and some have been too frightened to stay the entire night. More than one guest has opted to sleep in the lobby rather than return to their room.

Aside from the strange noises that can be heard at night it seems that at any time during the day or night doors will open on their own and objects will be moved. It is so common for filing cabinet drawers in the office to be opened by an unseen hand that the employees barely notice anymore. The same can be said of the phone calls that come into the lobby from empty rooms with only heavy breathing to be heard on the other end. It is believed that the ghosts of the former patients are not the only ones who tend to haunt the old building. The apparition of a nurse started to appear shortly after the hotel first opened. She has been seen walking the halls apparently checking on the various rooms as though she is making her rounds. She has also been seen standing outside on a balcony by several guests or simply walking the grounds at night. No one is sure who she is, but some say that it may be the spirit of a nurse who died on the property in the 1940’s. One staff member that I spoke with said that over the years guests have seen a toddler running down the hall on the 3^rd floor, but he just vanishes at the end of the hallway. The most unsettling stories are those from guests who have woken up in the middle of the night to see the ghostly child standing at the foot of their bed staring at them. As they sit up to get a closer look the child fades away.

 In 1935 the hotel maintenance man was found dead, pinned beneath the elevator. At the time there was speculation that it was a murder, but it was never proven. Today most of the staff are convinced that his spirit still roams the halls of the old building and that it may be his phantom that is responsible for lights flickering and televisions coming on or turning off by themselves.

Another ghost that has been reported primarily by the staff is that of a caretaker who committed suicide in the caretakers shop just a short distance from the main building. He was found hanging from a steam pipe. Employees recount that he can be heard working in the building late at night and that occasionally during the day, as other staff members are working in the shop the door to the back room, where he slept, will suddenly slam closed or fly open. Some of the hotel’s handymen have said that they are too uncomfortable to enter the building at night as it always feels as though they are being watched. They describe a dark weighty feeling that will suddenly come on in the workshop without warning.

            Below is the personal account from a guest at the hotel:

             “I booked this room because we heard that a lot of activity had been reported in it. We had two experiences. I have had my camera for 3 years and consistently change the battery when on a trip. I have never had to reset the camera until the visit to Room 32. For the first time, all the camera settings were wiped out, and I had to reset them all, once away from The Grand Hotel. More intriguing, my companion and I got into the queen-sized bed and were reading a bit before turning off the lights. I was on the side of the bed closest to the hall door. I became aware of a gentle sensation of movement in the mattress. It was faint, so I wasn’t sure. Then it became stronger, still gentler than the “magic fingers” massage some hotels used to feature, but definitely an undulating feeling which spread from my toes along the whole length of my body. My companion did not feel it on his side of the bed, but suddenly, he began to shake throughout his whole body as if he was very cold and trembling from it. Only he was not cold at all. He moved onto my side of the bed. The shaking stopped, but he was now able to feel the movement in the mattress. None of this scared us at all but it was very strange. When my companion moved back to his side of the bed, the movement on my side became more prominent, moving up and down the length of my body again. I began to feel a pulsing sensation under my chest. I can only describe it as like a beating heart. It was like the spirit was lying just under me and moving about trying to get comfortable in his or her bed with 2 interlopers in it! It was all very strange but un-troubling, and both of us fell asleep, or should I say, the three of us?”

Not all the ghostly occurrences in Jerome happen at the Grand Hotel. In fact, most of the hotels in town claim to have at least one supernatural being in residence. The Ghost City Inn for instance claims to be the home of several wayward spirits. Even the streets of Jerome seem to be haunted. Some of them reside at the town’s Community Center. It is said that many of the local citizens calle the place “Spook Hall” because of the odd happenings that take place here. Locals have become so accustomed to their resident phantoms that a newsletter called the “Jerome Ghost Post” was published for quite some time. The ghost of the Community Hall is said to be that of a young woman who has been seen at the front of the building, walking toward a hotel that was once the site of the prostitution “cribs”. One of these “ladies of the evening” is also reputed to haunt the Inn at Jerome, located on Main Street. During the copper camp’s heyday, it was home to more than 120 prostitutes who plied their trade in town. Jennie Bauters, the Madam, was the richest women in northern Arizona at the time. In 1905 Jennie was murdered in the street of another town by her lover who was drunk and angry that she would not give him any money. She was buried in the Pioneer Cemetery in Kingman Arizona. In 1917 Kingman purchased a new cemetery and began moving bodies from the old graveyard to the new one at the expense of the surviving family members. Bodies that were not claimed were left in the ground where they lay. In 1944 the city dug up the remaining bodies and placed them in a mass unmarked grave. The football field of the new high school was then built on top of it. It was built over the final resting place of Jennie Bauters. The Inn at Jerome is Jennie’s former home and while it is no longer a brothel, the spirit of Jennie has remained. Possibly because without a proper grave she cannot rest. One of the eight rooms here is called the “Spooks, Ghosts and Goblins” room. Jennie and her phantom cat have frequently been reported in the house. The cat often vanishes before guests can pick her up and staff report that it loves to brush against people in the kitchen. Jennie often moves things about in the kitchen as well and keeps the maid busy by rearranging furniture, moving objects, and rotating the ceiling fan.

Even the abandoned shafts of the old Phelps Dodge Mine are rumored to be haunted. The stories say that the ghost of a miner, dubbed “Headless Charlie”, who was decapitated underground in a mining accident, still lingers here. Unexplained footsteps and the apparition of the miner have been seen here over the years. Not long after Charlie lost his head in the grisly accident workers in the mine started finding large footprints in the mine. Some believe that he still walks around in the dark somehow unable to leave the mine shafts. Other more whimsical stories suggest that because his head was actually found but not his body that the spirit of his body is trapped, unable to escape the mine without his head to find the way out.

For such a small town to have so many ghost stories there must be something to it. With the hard dangerous work going on underground and the raucous, often violent night life of the town above and the towering hospital of sadness and gloom high on the hill overlooking it all it is no difficult task to believe that this place must truly be haunted. Spend some time here and decide for yourself. I did and I think I might just be convinced.