*** Welcome to piglix ***

United Verde Extension

Jerome, Arizona
Town
A large three-story building with many windows and an orange tile roof is perched on a hillside overlooking a wide valley far below.
Civic Building in 2013
Location of Jerome in Yavapai County, Arizona.
Location of Jerome in Yavapai County, Arizona.
Jerome, Arizona is located in Arizona
Jerome, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona is located in the US
Jerome, Arizona
Jerome, Arizona
Location in Arizona
Coordinates: 34°44′56″N 112°06′50″W / 34.74889°N 112.11389°W / 34.74889; -112.11389Coordinates: 34°44′56″N 112°06′50″W / 34.74889°N 112.11389°W / 34.74889; -112.11389
Country United States
State Arizona
County Yavapai
Incorporated 1899
Government
 • Mayor Frank Vander Horst
Area
 • Total 0.86 sq mi (2.24 km2)
 • Land 0.86 sq mi (2.24 km2)
 • Water 0.00 sq mi (0.00 km2)
Elevation 5,066 ft (1,544 m)
Population (2010)
 • Total 444
 • Estimate (2016) 455
 • Density 526.62/sq mi (203.36/km2)
Time zone MST (UTC-7)
ZIP code 86331
Area code(s) 928
FIPS code 04-36290
GNIS feature ID 30522
Website Town of Jerome
Population density has been calculated by dividing population by land area and rounding to the nearest hundred per square mile.

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 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 2010 census, its population was 444.

The town owes its existence mainly to two ore bodies that formed about 1.75 billion years ago along a ring fault in the caldera of an undersea volcano. Tectonic plate movements, plate collisions, uplift, deposition, erosion, and other geologic processes eventually exposed the tip of one of the ore bodies and pushed the other close to the surface, both near Jerome. 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. The United Verde Extension (UVX) Mine, owned by James Douglas, Jr., depended on the other huge deposit. In total, the copper deposits discovered in the vicinity of Jerome were among the richest ever found.

Jerome made news in 1917, when strikes involving the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) led to the expulsion at gunpoint of about 60 IWW members, who were loaded on a cattle car and shipped west. Production at the mines, always subject to fluctuations, boomed during World War I, fell thereafter, rose again, then fell again during and after the Great Depression. As the ore deposits ran out, the mines closed, and the population dwindled to fewer than 100 by the mid-1950s. Efforts to save the town from oblivion succeeded when residents turned to tourism and retail sales. Jerome became a National Historic Landmark in 1967. By the early 21st century, Jerome had art galleries, coffee houses, restaurants, a state park, and a local museum devoted to mining history.


...
Wikipedia

...