Jerome — Haunted Hillside

Jerome clings to Cleopatra Hill 5,000 feet above the Verde Valley — a copper mining boomtown of 15,000 that collapsed to 50 residents by the 1950s. The entire town is slowly sliding down the mountain: the old jail has moved 225 feet from its original location. The Jerome Grand Hotel and the Jerome State Historic Park are the primary activity centers, but the ghost of a miner in overalls walks the main street of downtown at dusk, tipping his hat to tourists before passing through the wall of the now-sealed mine entrance. Mine tours report the sound of drilling and blasting from sealed shafts.