I've always been interested in the History of the American West. I grew up watching John Wayne Westerns and playing cowboys and indians. Since I've moved to Arizona, I've had a keen interest in the History of the State. Why did the first settlers brave harsh conditions, bandits, and hostile Apaches ? It can be summed up in one simple phrase-"there's gold in them thar hills."
In the case of the City of Jerome, it's more like 'there's copper in those hills." From it's founding in the 1870s, to when the business went bust in the 1950s, Jerome extracted more copper from the ground than any other place on earth. The tour guides at Ghost Town Tours spent 2 hours shuttling us around town showing us the sights and giving the guests a very detailed history of this remarkable place.
We went to the mine sight, where you can see the 2000 foot shaft the miners would use every day to get into the mine. We went to the cemetery, and then saw the massive hole that is still being used today by mine companies. The boom ended in the 50s, but there are still small, secretive operations in the hills surrounding the the old town.
I highly recommend this tour for anybody who is interested in the history of the Old West. Plenty of people were walking around town, looking at the old buildings. But it's a much more satisfying experience if you get the history and know what you're looking at. One interesting historical fact from the tour- The main copper mine was the most profitable mine in history. In 1870s dollars, it cost $500,000 to build, and ended up extracting $150 million in profit. That's amazing.