Marley Makes 3: 24.05.09 Douglas Museum in Jerome & The Arizona Copper Museum in Clarkdale

We decided to go to Jerome to see the Douglas Museum. We had been to Jerome in 2007 and stayed in the haunted Connor Motel corner room for a few nights on our way to the Grand Canyon. This museum was the one thing we didn't do during that visit.

Jerome History

Jerome’s modern history began in 1876 when three prospectors staked claims on rich copper deposits. They sold out to a group that formed the United Verde Copper Company in 1883. The resulting mining camp made of board and canvas shacks was named in honor of Eugene Jerome, the venture’s principal backer and investor. Hopes for the enterprise was high but the operating costs, especially for transportation were more than profits and the company folded in less than 2 years.

William Clark came along and brought narrow gauge railroad to reduce freight costs. By the early 1900s the United Verde was the largest producing copper mine in the Arizona Territory. Jerome was becoming a frame and bricks town, had two churches, an opera house, a school and several civic buildings.

In 1912, James Douglas purchased and began development of the Little Daisy Mine. By 1916, Jerome had two highly producing mines. Copper production peaked in 1929, but the Depression and low-grade ore deposits reversed the fortunes of the town. The Little Daisy Mine shut down in 1938. Phelps Dodge took over the United Verde in 1935, but loss of profits brought the operation and Jerome’s mining days to an end in 1953.

We watched a 28-minute video in the park theater on the history of Jerome. It was quite enjoyable and presented by a ghost in the video! Exhibits include a 3-D model of the Jerome Mines; there were about 100 miles of mining tunnels beneath the city. There are mineral exhibits and panoramic photographs from the early 1900s. Outside there is a collection of 1900s ore cars, Dr. Douglas’s buggy inside the carriage house, and much more.

The Library

Redwood Pipe-- This pipe was used to transport mill waste from the Clarkdale smelter to a tailings pond. The yellow-orange tailings can still be seen near present day Tuzigoot National Monument.

Blasting supplies for the mine. There was one exhibit that showed parts of a mining machine that had went through the roof a building in town because the charge was so heavy it blew the top of the hill off!

Survey equipment used to align the tunnel shafts. There was one instance where they were digging a tunnel from opposite directions and hit the spot where they met within in 6 inches of dead center!

The bathroom with the marble shower. This room is huge for a bathroom!

Scale for weighing the ore before it went into a crusher so they could load it at optimum weight for the machine's efficiency.

MODELS

The model above, built in 1937, is everything below ground in Jerome. All the red parts below ground represent mined out areas. The yellow colored wires in the underground model represents 88 miles of shafts and tunnels. They served as passageways so men and machines could get from one part of the mine to the other. The Blue wires indicate faults or breaks in the earth's surface. The model shows the mine going down to a depth of 2250 feet but production continued after this model was built and it eventually reached 4500 feet deep.

The model below is above ground Jerome. Because the model was built in 1937, some of the buildings are gone and new ones built. The Douglas Mansion that we were in is shown in yellow. The model was originally constructed to help settle a lawsuit. IN 1925 a large blast of dynamite started a minor shifting of topsoil in the middle of town and the slippage was causing damage. The town eventually settled out of court for $53,500.

Old ore cars used in the mines. There was a poop car to carriage out human waste too!

You can see the Audrey Headframe in the background, more about that later!

This car hauled the men down into the mine. I'm not sure how they even fit in there! Ick! Can you imagine the smell?

The Audrey Headframe

At the Headframe park visitors can stand on glass above a 1,900 foot shaft. The shaft is 650 taller than the highest point of the Empire State Building! Carlsbad Cavern is only 750 feet deep. It is the largest wooden headframe still standing in Arizona. The three shafts are concrete lined for fire prevention. There are side tunnels at 100 foot intervals that connect to other shafts.

Looking through the grate down into the shaft.

The floor of this shaft was thick glass that you could stand on and look down.

The worker shuttle that could transport a person down the shaft.

THE CLARKDALE COPPER MUSEUM

In 1928 two men robbed the bank in Clarkdale. This bank was used to handle the miner's payroll and the bank was cased for the day the payroll arrived and the robber's took off with $50,000. Unfortunately for the robbers they didn't get to far as the driver was shot almost immediately and the other robber tried to run and was stopped by citizens of the community.