For those of you who don’t know me or how aren’t familiar with my work I have two passions; travel and photography. I have the best job in the world. It allows me to explore both of those things. In this blog I want to share with you a few of my favorite places that I have traveled to recently and maybe you just might want to check them out for yourself.
Sitting along a mountain side, America’s most vertical city is a ghost town reclaimed by the living. Jerome, Arizona is a town that embraces its dark history with an even darker sense of humor. Filled with winding roads, old concrete steps, and a little bit of street art Jerome is a little town with a lot to offer. When driving along Arizona State Highway 89A town’s only identifier is the large white J on the side of a mountain. Jerome is the literal definition of a small town, it sits within one square mile. Once known as the wickedest town in the west Jerome lives up to the name. The town has burned down four times claiming the lives of many. It it also sits upon a copper mine that at one time produced around three million pounds of copper a month. Many tourists and residents alike believe that the copper, a known conductor of energy, is the reason for its more ghostly inhabitants.
Jerome is as known as America’s largest ghost town and it most definitely lives up to its name. The living residents have embraced their ghostly neighbors. An example of this is the main restaurant in town, The Haunted Hamburger. All of the dishes served in the restaurant have names that go along with the theme and ghost stories are often told around the table. After eating a delicious meal paired with one of their spiked milkshakes, visitors can make their way through the town to visit many the small shops that line the street. Many of these stores have histories of their own. One of the eclectic boutiques has a basement that visitors are urged to go to and take a look at. Once they climb down the stairs the visitors are transported in time. The walls are brick with tunnels leading out of the basement and up to the main square. There are old glass bottles stored in random holes and fireplaces throughout the basement. The storekeeper then explains that the basement was one of the town’s speakeasies, during the prohibition era. Once the visitors to the small town have shopped until the sun goes down most of them go on one of the town’s ghost tours, where they are equipped with EMF readers. The tour takes about four hours on foot and there are many ghost stories to tell. Half way through the tour visitors find themselves in the Jerome Town Square. As the tour guide tells them about the Connor Hotel, and an unfortunate event that led to its hauntings, on the other of the side of a street is an amphitheater of sorts where some of the towns residents like to sit and watch the tourists, sometimes heckling them during a tour. Visitors climb their way up one of the many steep roads of Jerome to the Holy Family Catholic Church. This is the spot that many of the ghost tours end at. The church is said to be haunted, but get this, the ghost plays the old pipe organ. The tour goers listen in on the EMF readers to see if they can pick up on the ghosty music. Once everyone has had their fill of frights for the night many of them take the about half mile walk to their cars rather quickly, looking behind them every few paces.
Thank you for spending your time to read this blog! Please come back next week as we explore another amazing location!