HEIGHTS AND HAUNTINGS. Our recent Arizona tour was more than red rocks and blue skies. We also visited the town of Jerome in the Black Hills of Yavapai County. A former mining community founded in the late 1800s, it had 10,000 residents by 1917, but dwindled to 100 when the biggest employer – the United Verde Copper Mine – shut down its operations in the early 1950s. (There are now about 450 permanent residents, thanks to tourism and a local arts and crafts industry). Jerome overlooks the Verde Valley from high on the steep slopes of Cleopatra Hill, atop which sits the community’s most stately building – the Jerome Grande Hotel (second photo). It was opened in 1927 as the United Verde Hospital, shut down in 1950, abandoned for decades, then restored and reopened as a hotel in 1976. It’s called the most haunted building in Arizona, home to such frequently seen apparitions as a murder victim, a lady in white and a small boy running through the bar. Guests and staff also report hearing anguished cries and conversations in empty rooms, and even being pushed and bumped in the hallways by unseen forces. The hotel’s restaurant is called the Asylum (third photo), where Vicki and I had an excellent lunch.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 03:16:01 +0000
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