Jerome, Arizona -- The Wickedest Town in America

by Midge Steuber. In its wild west heyday in the early 1900s, the tiny mile high town of Jerome was known as the wickedest town in Arizona.  Nestled at a 30 degree angle on Cleopatra Hill in the Mingus Mountains, its copper rich slopes were a Mecca for gamblers, prostitutes, businessmen, and those seeking work and alcohol.

Over the years, the United Verde mining companies extracted over $1 billion of ore from the northeast side of the Mingus and Woodchute Mountains.  At one time, Jerome boasted more than 15,000 inhabitants and was Arizona's fifth largest city.

In the 1950's, after many fires that almost burned the town to the ground and after all the copper had been extracted, the mines were shut down and the town received a new name: "Ghost Town."  In the 1960's and 70's a counter-culture of hippies, craftsmen, artists, and musicians rediscovered Jerome as an inexpensive place to live.

Jerome.  In one passage, Ms. Steuber writes that Jerome had its own thriving "tenderloin district."  Jennie Bauter was Jerome's most notorious madam, operating a large "crib" house situated on Main Street that was hard to ignore.  There is a story told that when Jerome was burning, Jennie offered free passes for life to the firemen to protect her building - the building survived and still stands on Main Street today.

An extensive historic timeline is included in Jerome along with a supportive narrative. The timeline allows the reader a perspective to experience the rapid growth of Jerome as well as understand the time period surrounding her Ghost Days.

Jerome also features a copy of the original 1926 Jerome Mine District map. This map gives the reader a strong visual of the impact the Jerome mining boom had on local development.

Local author and historian Midge Steuber has been enchanted with Jerome’s colorful history from the moment she first visited the mountain community. For this volume, Steuber spent countless hours immersed in the vast archives of the Jerome Historical Society, assisted by the boundless knowledge of Jerome archivist Ronne Roope.

A portion of the profit from the sales of this book will be donated to the Town of Jerome.