Event of the Month

Jerome is an odd little town about 100 miles north of Phoenix. As you drive toward it, on U.S. Route 89A from Cottonwood, you see its buildings draped along the steep slope of Cleopatra Hill. Some are shacks; not a few have dissolved into piles of splinters and stuc-co. And others have been spiffed up. It's quite a sight. Jerome was a rich copper camp, enjoying its heyday in the 1920s with a peak population of 15,000. Its saloons galore and cribs even more galore earned it the sobriquet, in a New York newspaper, of the "wickedest town in America."

THE ONETIME WICKEDEST TOWN IN AMERICA OPENS ITS HOMES

In the 1950s, the last mine closed, and by the '60s there were only a hundred or so people in Jerome. (See Arizona Highways, July, '83) Today the population is right at 500. Folks have discovered that it is a great place to live. Nice climate. A lot of peace. Stunning views of the Verde Valley below, the red rocks of Oak Creek Canyon beyond, and, in the distance, the often snow-crowned San Francisco Peaks near Flagstaff.

WHEN YOU GO

The Jerome Home Tour will take place May 15-16, 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. To get there from Phoenix, take Interstate 17 north to State Route 260 just beyond the Camp Verde exit. State 260 merges with State Route 89A, which then climbs into Jerome. (Or you can take State 89A from Prescott into Jerome.) Park your vehicle and take the shuttle to the downtown ticket counter. Courtesy cars will take you on the tour. Admission: $6, adults; $3, children.

A nearby sight included in the tour is the Jerome State Historic Park, the 1916 James Douglas mansion (he was owner of the Little Daisy Mine), featuring antique mining equipment and much more. The park is open 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. daily. The first floor of the mansion is handicapped-accessible as are rest rooms and telephones as well as picnic tables and parking, located east of the mansion. For additional information, write or call Jerome State Park, Box D, Jerome, AZ 86331; telephone (602) 634-5381.

To inquire about the home tour, call the Jerome Chamber of Commerce (you may get an answering machine), (602) 634-2900.

Many of those folks acquired old buildings in need of repair and fixed them up for what just may be some of the best getting-away-from-itall living in the Southwest.

And every year, come the third weekend in May, the town puts on what it calls the Jerome Home Tour to show off its restored buildings and its general all-around quaintness. Average attendance is close to 2,000, and people come from as far away as California.

Last year the tour included the Ruth Kruse home and the Dorothy and Melvin Smith home on Holley Avenue, a hundred feet or so above downtown.

Both had been miner's cabins, bought cheap and beautifully rehabilitated and added onto. Both, when acquired, were found to have whiskey stills in the basement.

Making bootleg whiskey was a profitable sideline for the miners during Prohibition. "A lot of people had stills then," explained Shirley Whiteley, who served as a tour hostess at the Kruse home.

vent of the Month

"Lady here in the neighborhood got her children through school by selling from her still."

The home tour isn't restricted to homes. The century-old Holy Family Catholic Church was on last year's tour, too. Father John Atucha, a Basque from Spain, served as resident priest for 60 years until his death in 1979. He didn't believe in banks, and all the money dropped into the collection plate was hidden away in corners and crevices of the church.

Local legend has it that, after Atucha's demise, some $50,000 was recovered and used to finance a marvelous restoration that even put fingers back on the plaster saints.

Tours have included and will include again:

Somebody who helped organize one of the tours a few years ago put it nicely: "It's a time when we open our hearts and our homes to other people so they can see the Jerome we love."