Thursday, June 3, 2021
Jerome, Tuzigoot and Montezuma Castle National Monuments, Roosevelt Lake
We said goodbye to Steve this morning and went on our way. There's a lot more of Arizona we want to see!
From Prescott, we took winding, scenic Arizona 89A to the historic copper mining town of Jerome. Jerome is another once-booming Wild West town, later nearly abandoned, and now promoting itself to tourists as a ghost town. With 450 residents, “ghost town” seems inaccurate, although the town does also claim to be haunted...
Looking toward Jerome from 89A
Our first stop in Jerome was the Gold King Mine and Ghost Town. In 1890, miners dug a 1,270-foot shaft on this spot searching for copper and unexpectedly struck gold! The site became a thriving mining camp that lasted for about 30 years. Once the gold ran out, the area was abandoned until purchased by the current owners in 1981. Today the property is filled with several acres of interesting old rusty things.
Gold King Mine and Ghost Town
You've been warned
Last remaining home in the mining camp
Multiple acres of photogenic rust
Ye olde filling station
One-room schoolhouse
Jerome - “America's Most Vertical City” - is built on a 30-degree incline on the side of mile-high Cleopatra Hill. One attraction downtown is Jerome's Sliding Jail, so-called because in the '30s, explosions from the nearby copper mines caused the jail to slide off its foundation and wind up in the middle of the street.
Jerome, Arizona
Sliding Jail
Downhill from downtown is Audrey Shaft Headframe Park. Completed in 1918 and operated until 1938, the headframe lifted more than 3.6 million tons of ore, yielding 320,000 tons of copper, 190 tons of silver, and 5.3 tons of gold. There's a piece of glass covering the old 1,900-foot shaft, and you can walk right over it and gaze into the abyss.
Audrey Shaft Headframe
Claustrophobic elevator
1,900-foot shaft to the center of the earth
On our way out of Jerome, we stopped at Copper Mountain Antiques, home to all things copper, from cookware to jewelry to World War I shells to pure polished nuggets. I liked the splash art, created by splashing 2,000-degree molten copper onto a steel slab and then reheating the copper to bring out the brilliant colors.
Copper Mountain Antiques
Copper splash art
Outside the Arizona Copper Art Museum in Clarkdale sits a monument to Arizona's nickname “The Copper State” - a map of the state of made entirely of pennies.
Copper State Monument
Tuzigoot National Monument consists of the remnants of a 1,000-year-old Sinagua village on a dry hilltop above a green river valley. We walked to the top of the ruins and enjoyed the view as we wilted in the 100-degree heat. This was the hottest spot on our trip. We gratefully refilled our water bottles at the visitor enter after our short hike.
Tuzigoot National Monument
Pueblo ruins
Verde Valley from Tuzigoot
Leaving Tuzigoot, we pulled into the Verde River Greenway State Natural Area for a picnic. We ate in the car with the a/c blasting before walking over to the river. It was much cooler next to the water than it had been on Tuzigoot's dry hilltop.
Verde River Greenway State Natural Area
Verde River
Next we came to Montezuma Castle National Monument, a five-story Sinagua dwelling built into the side of a cliff and occupied in the same time period as Tuzigoot. Due to its inaccessibility, the Castle is one of the best-preserved sites from the period. Early settlers assumed the structure was Aztec and named it Montezuma Castle after the Aztec ruler.
Montezuma Castle
Since it was on our way, we were compelled to stop at the World's Largest Kokopelli. Kokopelli is a deity associated with fertility, music, and joy revered by Anasazi, Hopi, and other Indians in the Southwest. Now appropriated by pop culture, there are Kokopelli representations all over Arizona. This 32-foot-tall version resides outside a Starbucks in Camp Verde.
Big flute player
From Camp Verde, we drove south through the desert past fields of saguaro cactus and by the unbelievably blue Theodore Roosevelt Lake, the oldest reservoir in Arizona, dammed in 1911. We drove along its scenic shore for almost 20 miles.
Theodore Roosevelt Lake
Saguaro cacti at Roosevelt Lake
Simply stunning
Roosevelt Lake Bridge over the Salt River
After a very full day, we finally arrived in Globe, where we'd planned to spend the night, but the hotel search didn't pan out, so we headed for the nearby town of Superior. The 18-mile drive on US 60 between Globe and Superior was fantastic, so we were pleased with the change of plans. No pics because there were no turnouts, but it was very cool!
Lodging: Copper Mountain Motel in Superior, Arizona, an older motel but clean and comfortable. We arrived just after sunset.
Superior is a small town, so we raced to dinner before the last of the sidewalks got rolled up, arriving at Porter's Saloon and Grill at 8:30. Porter's was out of porter, so we ordered a couple of Kilt Lifter Scottish-style amber ales to go with our club sandwiches. The bartender announced last call around 9:15. Sidewalk-rolling time!
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