GREAT WEEKENDS

great weekends Jerome's Shops and Sights Extract a Second Heyday From the Old Mining Boomtown

To know Jerome like an insider, you need to be able to answer this question: What does this mountain jewel and former billion-dollar mining town have in common with Winston Churchill? The answer is the kind of thing you'll learn at the Douglas Mansion on Jerome Street, now Jerome State Historic Park, a must-stop on a weekend visit to a 125-year-old town with a colorful past. Winston Churchill, unfortunately, never had the opportunity to visit, but his American mother was a first cousin to Eugene Jerome, the moneyman from the East who backed much of the mining and for whom this charming piece of Arizona was named. The mansion, built in 1916 by James “Rawhide” Douglas, who owned the local Little Daisy Mine, remains a showand-tell on enormity, from the gigantic living room with its eight sets of French doors to the exhibits that tell the breathtaking story of Jerome's first heyday. United Verde Copper Mine, developed and owned for many years by Senator William Clark of Montana, pulled a staggering $1 million profit a month out of these hills during those days. The company built 88 miles of tunnels under Jerome, taking out so much copper the United Verde ranked as the richest individually owned mine in the world. While most of America remembers 1929 for the stock market crash, Jerome recalls it as the boom year it became Arizona's third-largest city, with a population of 15,000. However “King Copper” wouldn't reign forever, and eventually the ore played out. At 5:30 P.M. on May 13, 1953, the United Verde died. Its closure by its owner, Phelps Dodge, looked like the end for Jerome, and soon just 50 people remained on Cleopatra Hill. The rest of Arizona saw it as nothing but a ghost town. During the 1960s and '70s, however, artists, writers, musicians and free-thinkers proved them wrong by making this a place of their own. Today the nearly 500 people who reside in Jerome believe they're living in a new heyday, as the town now boasts quaint and fun shops, a few restaurants, a bar obviously meant for real drinkers, a dozen bed and breakfasts and a flood of history-seeking tourists.

"Our theme is cultural tourism," explains Christine Barag of the chamber of commerce, who is a third-generation Jeromite. "The best part of Jerome is its history," she says.

Be sure to visit the Jerome Historical Society Mine Museum on Main Street for a cook's tour of the mining world and a chat. "I'm working in the same place that my grandmother worked in 1936 when this building was a dime store," Barag says with pride. "My great-grandpa and my grandpa both worked in the mines." Her calling card is, appropriately, printed on coppercolored paper.

The town's pride shines each May, when the Jerome Chamber of Commerce puts on a tour of private homes and historic buildings perched on curving streets. Although the routes have changed over the 35 years of the tour, the former J.C. Penney building, nicknamed "Spook Hall," remains the final stop of the day.

This year's tour is set for May 20 and 21. More than 70 volunteers help with the weekend, which attracts as many as 1,900 people, making it the largest event in a town that now mines tourism.

"People are looking to go to places where they can take home information and knowledge, not just a trinket," Barag says of the tour's appeal.

After soaking up the knowledge, I went to look for trinkets, and Jerome doesn't disappoint in this area, either. Fine handcrafted things - photography, paintings, jewelry, glasswork and clothing-form the foundation of this town's offerings. And, of course, you'll find copper pieces, priced from cheap to expensive. I fell in love with a copper fountain and kaleidoscope sculpture, but its price tag in the thousands made me a fickle suitor. I did find a great caftan on sale and an elegant beaded jacket at Designs on You, which carries clothes you don't see everywhere else, including larger sizes.

Shopkeepers are friendly and helpful - so helpful that at Stained Arts Etc., where they also sell moisturizing products, the owner insisted I try the citrus mint foot cream on the spot. My tired feet felt so good, I bought a jar.

We stopped to whet our whiskers at the Spirit Room, a saloon that never changes. Its authentic old tin ceiling and wooden bar aren't fancy, but this bar's been "lived in," and loved, for a long time. I like that in a bar.

We stopped for lunch at The Jerome Grille on Main Street, located in a building that has been in continuous operation since 1899. It was constructed as "an ornament to the city" after a devastating fire swept Jerome in the 1890s. Today the 19th-century Territorial-style hardware store known as the Clinkscale Building houses a place where the French fries are worth breaking a diet over, the turkey breast sandwich uses real turkey meat, and the specialty is an excellent black bean soup. The prices remind us of Jerome's bygone days. In true Jerome style, the halfdozen places to eat, including The Jerome Grille, English Kitchen, House of Joy, Jerome Brewery and the Palace-Haunted Hamburger, go from the down-home to the persnickety. At that top end is the famous House of Joy, on Hull Avenue, which so enamored one food critic that he refused to name the restaurant as he gave it a rave review. He hoped that by keeping it a secret, it wouldn't get spoiled and wouldn't get crowded, but, alas, I think he failed. This former house of ill repute, which bills itself as "one of Arizona's finest," is so popular that reservations for its few tables must be made weeks in advance. Choices in lodging include small, charming bed and breakfast places and, in the town's former hospital building, the 22-room Jerome Grand Hotel. Proprietors tout the views from "Arizona's mile-high historic landmark."

I was charmed by the Ghost City Inn, which fed my love for antiques. If you want a private bath, ask for the "Cleopatra Hill Room" on the first floor. Otherwise, stay upstairs in the "Satin and Spurs Room," with a four-poster so high you need steps to get into it; the "Sunflowers Room," with its antique brass bed; the "Hearts and Flowers Honeymoon Room"; or the "Verde View Room," with hot-air balloon memorabilia.Rates include breakfast such as spinach quiche with yogurt, breakfast breads, orange juice, assorted cereals, fresh fruit and gourmet coffee served in the antiques-filled drawing room with lace curtains and etched globe lamps, or on the back patio next to a rock waterfall.

At weekend's close, consider heading west out of town to Prescott via State Route 89A, which winds through Prescott National Forest. On this twolane road out of Jerome, you will glide down the mountain, viewing giant ponderosa pines from the top down. Their woodsy smell enchants, and if the golden century plants are in bloom, you'll know your trip was honored.While slowly creeping up and over the steep mountain, already thinking about coming back, you should listen very carefully.

Maybe in your imagination you'll hear the bells that used to signal men in the mines one bell to "stop immediately," seven bells for "danger." And then you might smile that today, when Jerome rings a bell, it means, "I'm still here and I'm alive!"

WHEN YOU GO

Location: 136 miles north of Phoenix.

Getting There: Take Interstate 17 to Exit 287, or from Prescott (97 miles north of Phoenix off 1-17) reach Jerome via State Route 89 A, a 35-mile trip.

Weather: May average temperatures: high, 75; low, 53".

Telephone Numbers: All are area code 520; 800 series numbers are toll-free.

Lodging: Ghost City Inn, (888) 63GHOST; Jerome Grand Hotel, (888) 817-6788 or 634-8200.

Restaurants: The Jerome Grille, 634-5094; House of Joy (reservations well in advance are required), 634-5339; English Kitchen, 634-2132; Jerome Brewery, 639-8477; The Palace-Haunted Hamburger, 634-0554.

Attractions: The Douglas Mansion at Jerome State Historic Park, 634-5381; Jerome Historical Society Mine Museum, 200 Main St., 634-5477; Stained Arts, Etc., 4 Connor Hotel Building, 634-8696; Designs on You, 233 Main St., 634-7879.

Events: 35th Annual Jerome Home Tour, May 20 and 21 (always the 3rd weekend of May); shuttles run continuously from below Town Hall, 9 A.M. to 3 P.M. both days; $8 adults, 634-2900.

Additional Information: Jerome Chamber of Commerce, 634-2900.