Select Page

Jerome Times

Jerome Times

Jerome, Arizona was called “the wickedest city in America” by the New York Sun. It was, in fact, one of the wildest of the Wild West boom towns. The “official” history of Jerome has been well documented in many other books. From its humble beginnings as a rough mining camp, to its explosion into a wild, twenty-four hour a day boom town, to its collapse into an almost deserted ghost town – all of this is well known. Its eventual rebirth into an artist colony and global tourist attraction is also common knowledge. However, there is a hidden, little spoken of history that is not a part of the “official” canon. “Jerome Times” offers that version – with a story for every decade of the town’s history.

In “Jerome Times” you will encounter the stories known only to the oldtimers, outlaws, and outcasts whose versions of things don’t fit into the “approved” timeline. In this book you will meet people as diverse as Wyatt Earp and Don Juan Matus, as different as the Shooter from the Grassy Knoll and Robert Oppenheimer, as groundbreaking as Zelda Fitzgerald and Elvis. These are stories that have been told and retold among locals throughout the town’s life. Some call them legends, some call them myths, some swear they are god’s honest truth.

All the stories are there, in full color, with historical photographs and music from the various decades.

  1. Introduction
  2. History
  3. Opening Night
  4. Meeting in Mescal 1
  5. Meeting in Mescal 2
  6. The President’s Friend
  7. Billy Daily
  8. Loaded Gun
  9. The Drift of Stars
  10. The Peoples’ File
  11. Jerome Historical Society
  12. April, 1957
  13. Operating Room
  14. The White Ship
  15. Meeting in Mescal 3
  16. The Missing Person
  17. I Sleep to Wake
  18. The Goodbye Party