Jerome is a town in the Black Hills of Yavapai County in the U.S. state of Arizona. Founded in the late 19th century on Cleopatra Hill overlooking the Verde Valley, Jerome is more than 5,000 feet (1,500 m) above sea level. It is about 100 miles (160 km) north of Phoenix along State Route 89A between Sedona and Prescott. Supported in its heyday by rich copper mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. As of the 2020 census, its population was 464.
Civic Building in 2013
Azurite, a copper-bearing mineral, from the United Verde Mine
Old horizontal mine shaft
William A. Clark, c. 1899. In 1888, he bought the United Verde properties, which remained with the Clark family until 1935.
Black Hills (Yavapai County)
The Black Hills of Yavapai County are a large mountain range of central Arizona in southeast Yavapai County. It is bordered by the Verde Valley to the east. The northwest section of the range is bisected from the southeast section by Interstate 17, which is the main route connecting Phoenix to Sedona, Oak Creek Canyon, and Flagstaff. This bisection point is the approximate center of the mostly northwest by southeast trending range. The northwest section contains a steep escarpment on the northeast with the Verde Valley, the escarpment being the location of the fault-block that created the historic mining district at Jerome. The United Verde Mine was one of the largest copper mines in the United States, producing large quantities of copper, gold, silver and zinc.
View looking up the escarpment, (from western Verde Valley)