Ghostly surprise in the Jerome AZ Cemetery

November 9, 3:36 PMArizona Haunted Sites ExaminerDebe Branning

Previous Next

2 comments Print Email RSS Subscribe

Subscribe

Get alerts when there is a new article from the Arizona Haunted Sites Examiner. Read Examiner.com's terms of use.

Email Address   Include other special offers from Examiner.com Terms of Use

Once known as the “Wickedest town in the West”, Jerome was a copper mining camp, evolving from a few tents and shacks to a roaring mining community of mansions and quaint Victorian homes. Jerome was once the fourth largest city in the Arizona Territory. The population peaked at 15,000 during the 1920’s. The mines later closed in 1953. Today the town is the residence to about 450 souls who promote the hillside community as a historic ghost town. 

Men and women from all over the world flocked to Arizona to find work, wealth and a successful life in the West. They brought their families and did whatever it took to feed and clothe them. Some of these pioneers met with tragedies as disease, murder, suicide, and mining accidents. A cemetery established on a near by hill that overlooked the town of Jerome, and had spectacular views of the Verde Valley.

Some of these pioneers died too soon, and some Jerome residents say ghosts wander about the cemetery seeking redemption, while others are doomed to be lost in a world they could not tame. Visitors to the old cemetery have seen shadowy dark figures moving between the tombstones dated form 1897 to 1942. Sometimes footsteps are heard as if someone is following close behind you. Paranormal investigators doing EVP work have heard and recorded voices on the north end of the graveyard.     

The MVD Ghostchasers paranormal team and guests have explored this turn of the century burial ground on several occasions. Just driving to the cemetery gate can be spellbinding in itself. As you exit Jerome on Highway 89, you must make a sharp left turn on a tiny road called North Street that immediately drops downward at a slanted angle. The dirt road ends at the cemetery gate. You must exit your vehicle to walk the worn paths among the old crosses and tombstones.