Mining Mementos at Jerome Museums
Jerome’s mining days may be over, but they are not forgotten. The mile-high city has two museums devoted to celebrating its early mining history: Jerome’s Mine Museum on Main Street and the Douglas Mansion, high up on Cleopatra Hill. Admission to both museums is nominal, and there is a gift store at each location. Jerome’s Mine Museum, which was refurbished in 2007, is on the site of the once elegant Fashion Saloon.
After prohibition, the building became, first, a drugstore and later a dry goods store and a five-and-dime. In 1953 Jerome’s Historical Society turned it into a museum, which has been showcasing Jerome’s history ever since.
The compact museum with its beautiful hammered tin ceiling covers a lot of ground—from gambling and the red light district to education, mining, commerce, medicine, the arts—even El Barrio Chicano, the city’s Mexican town. Although its focus is on Jerome’s early history, it also encompasses more recent events.
Visitors will enjoy the period photographs, paintings and historic artifacts, including a turn-of-the-century towel warmer from Jerome’s Barber Shop, a wire-mesh medical stretcher, a high school scrapbook with solid copper covers, historic fire department uniforms and, of course, a simulated mine shaft, with carbide lamps, helmets, a bell-ringing system and glowing rocks.
Only minutes away from the Mine Museum is Jerome State Historic Park, which features the 8,000 square-foot adobe home that once belonged to James Douglas, the owner of the Little Daisy Mine.
When it was built in 1916, the Douglas Mansion had all the cutting-edge conveniences of its day, including steam heat, electricity, telephone service and a central vacuum system. Today the building, with its high ceilings and multiple fireplaces, is devoted to recounting the history of the Jerome area and the Douglas family, through photographs, artifacts and a 25-minute video. The library has been restored as a period room.
Among the mansion’s many artifacts, visitors will find antique mining equipment, a square grand piano, a 1915 Brunswick billiard table, a model railroad, a 1920s carbonator, a period glass collection, a model of the Clarkdale smelter, and a griffin from Great Britain’s House of Commons, which was presented to James Douglas’ son, Lewis Douglas, when he was ambassador to Great Britain in the 1940s.
One of the most fascinating exhibits is a three-dimensional model of Jerome from 1937, which shows its underground mines, including fault activity and dug-out areas.
The Douglas Mansion, donated to Arizona State Parks in 1962, also offers some of the most panoramic views of Jerome and the Verde Valley.
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