Jerome, Arizona

Jerome, Arizona.
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, it is about 100 miles (160 km) north of Phoenix along State Route 89A between Sedona and Prescott. Supported in its heyday by mines, it was home to more than 10,000 people in the 1920s. The town owes its existence mainly to two ore bodies that formed about 1.75 billion years ago. In the late 19th century, the United Verde Mine, developed by William A. Clark, extracted ore bearing copper, gold, silver, and other metals from the larger of the two deposits. The United Verde Extension UVX Mine, owned by James Douglas Jr., worked the smaller one. The copper deposits discovered in the vicinity of Jerome were among the richest ever found. As the ore deposits ran out, the mines closed, and the population had dwindled to fewer than 100 by the mid-1950s. Jerome became a National Historic Landmark in 1967.