The Spirits of Jerome, Arizona

Posted: 06.11.2025 | Updated: 06.11.2025

You don’t become known as “The Wickedest Town in America” without having a history riddled with controversy, death, tragedy, and betrayal. Like a quartet of negativity, these elements course through Jerome’s veins as a darkness that pulls mischievous forces from beyond the confines of the mortal realm. 

Jerome, Arizona, was once a boomtown, thriving off lodes of copper and gold. As with much of the U.S., hopefuls relocated to the Arizona desert in search of life-changing riches. For many, misery was all that waited. 

Jerome’s development into a busy mining town brought gambling houses and debauchery, staples of many early 20th-century mining communities. Residuals of the town’s more chaotic and turbulent energies ripple throughout, leaving behind traces of nefarious characters and wandering souls.

Find out what horrors await in The Wickedest Town in America. Book your Phoenix Ghosts tour today and enjoy your guided excursion into the unknown.

Why is Jerome Haunted?

The pains of progress plagued Jerome as its landscape gave way to a thriving mining town. From houses of ill repute to a hospital that saw many lives lost due to local mining, Jerome has no shortage of causes for its spectral activity. 

Its claim to ghostly fame, though, is the Jerome Grand Hotel, arguably the most haunted hotel in Arizona. Mysterious deaths and echoes of the building’s days as a hospital pull at the very fabric that separates the realms of the living and the dead.

Quick Facts:

• Jerome has a population of less than 500 people
• The town is home to Arizona’s most haunted hotel
• Jerome’s nickname is “Ghost City” for its ghostly activity
• Though there were gold mines, copper drove Jerome’s growth

The Search for Gold Unveils Jerome’s Future

The lands that later rattled from mining equipment once existed in peace under the Hohokam people. They lived in isolation from the 8th century until other Indigenous tribes moved into the Verde Valley. 

It was with these later arrivals that the region’s ore deposits played a significant role in the developing cultures. Unlike 20th-century prospectors, though, natives used the ore as pigment for textiles and body paint.

From the 16th century, the Spanish expanded their influence throughout Arizona, eventually arriving in the Verde Valley. Though they sought veins rich with gold, their tools only chipped away at copper, a mineral deemed unworthy of the effort. 

For nearly two centuries, the copper mines remained undisturbed. When the final shots of the Mexican-American War rang out and the region was absorbed into the United States, the valley’s purpose came to light.

Striking Rich and the Plagues of Jerome

While prospectors moved west for gold, another mineral started to garner investor interest. In 1882, one of the area’s biggest copper mines was established, owned by the United Verde Copper Company, backed by financier Eugene Jerome. 

The mining camp adopted the investor’s name and went on to become a significant producer of copper. The more United produced, the more attention the small camp garnered.

By the 20th century, Jerome’s population blossomed to over 10,000 people, forcing rapid construction of a town big enough to accommodate the influx. All seemed to be going so well for Jerome, but the increased mining also proved to be a plague on the region.

The simple construction led to five fires that burned through the town. Blasts to reach deeper deposits caused slides that endangered the population, while fumes from nearby smelting devastated vegetation. A dark cloud was quickly forming over Jerome, and it persisted even after mining stalled significantly by 1953.

Boomtown Turned Artistic Ghost Town

With the primary industry having slowed to a crawl, Jerome’s population started to dwindle. By 1960, there were fewer than 100 people left. However, Jerome refused to get lost in the annals of Arizona history. 

Unlike other ghost towns, which eventually vanish off the map, this desert community found new life thanks in part to the Verde Valley Art Association. Finding its footing within the art community and using its history to draw in curious travelers, Jerome staved off complete abandonment. 

It’s not just the living that brings activity to the old copper town, though. Ingrained in Jerome’s history is the debauchery of any good Western town and memories that may never fade. At the core of the mysterious allure that drives many to visit Jerome is a stately structure perched ominously on the hill overlooking the community.

From Hospital to Haunted Hotel

Mining operations are notorious for accidents and death, making a hospital critical to support the day-to-day. Jerome went through three hospitals in its early years, each building succumbing to a different issue. While a budding population forced an expansion on one, another, completed in 1917, succumbed to continued blasting and fault shifts.

The final building, dubbed the United Verde Hospital, was completed in 1926 and was outfitted with what was considered advanced equipment for its time. An elevator, x-ray machines, patient call lights, and surgical facilities allowed staff to provide a high quality of care to Jerome’s population, earning it the title of “highest-rated hospital in Arizona.” United remained in operation for nearly 25 years, during which its wards saw their fair share of pain, suffering, and tragedy.

Though it remained vacant for years after its closing in the 1950s, save for the occasional vagrant and urban explorer, the building’s story had just begun. In 1994, 14 years after the property’s caretaker had hung himself in the former hospital’s engineer’s room, a vision for the future came to light. One Larry Altherr purchased the building with plans of turning it into a luxury hotel. What Altherr never could have guessed was that the purchase already came with guests.

The Ghosts of the Jerome Grand Haunted Hotel

With a sweeping view of the quaint town of Jerome, the Jerome Grand Hotel still proves to be a tourist hotspot. Its simple decor and furnishings offer a comfortable retreat tucked away in the Arizona desert. That is, so long as the resident haunts aren’t too intrusive.

Opened in 1996, the Jerome Grand Hotel has had spectral activity from its very first days. Even Altherr spoke of an uncomfortable aura within the building, as if something was displeased with his presence. That sensation may have subsided over the years, but its sources clearly remained.

The hotel’s website speaks of two psychics who have honed in on the hospital’s former head nurse. Despite having no affiliation and visiting at different times, they both claimed the nurse simply wanted desks returned to the former dispensary area, where the hotel’s restaurant and lounge now stood. Activity was noticeable in the restaurant, though not disruptive. Just enough to display annoyance over the displaced furniture.

Legend has it that when the restaurant was leased to a new tenant, they stumbled upon the desks and thought to use them for decor. Ever since, the head nurse has become one of the hotel’s quieter haunts.

Echoes of an Earlier Age

Having been a former hospital, the hotel is ripe with ghostly energy. Unexplainable noises, whispers in the night, and the soft cries of the sick and the dying have been a part of the building’s aura since its doors opened. Guests of the hotel have even spotted a young boy moving about the third floor. There’s also the burly, bearded man who has apparently been with the building since its days as a hospital. 

One of the hotel’s most famous haunts is that of Claude Harvey, the maintenance worker who met a grim end in 1935. How Harvey became trapped beneath the 1926 Otis elevator has never been uncovered. 

Perhaps it was no accident, and that’s why he’s become one of the most active spirits in the Jerome Grand. From strange noises from the elevator shaft to a full apparition in the boiler room, Harvey continues to seek peace and maybe even justice.

The Many Haunts of Ghost City

From the aptly named Spook Hall, formerly the Lawrence Memorial Hall, to the home of a former surgeon, Jerome is not short on haunted locations. The town is so riddled with phantoms, wraiths, specters, and poltergeists that it earned the title of “Ghost City.” The Ghost City Inn even pays tribute to Jerome’s nickname, though the property’s owners refuse to acknowledge whether the historic hotel is among the city’s haunted locations.

The Haunted Hamburger in Jerome, on the other hand, embraces its ghostly inhabitants. According to the eatery, the specters were likely tradesmen, as they seemed to have an affinity for hammers. 

One missing hammer could be attributed to forgetfulness, but as the occurrences compiled, it became evident that something was amiss. Owners Michelle and Eric Jurisin got their confirmation when the prior owner asked if they had encountered the hammer-loving ghost.

More Haunted Happenings

The Surgeon’s House Bed & Breakfast is another quirky hotspot of spectral activity. As the former home of the hospital’s surgeons, the house has seen its share of shifting energies. 

The stresses of working in a hospital mingled with the lingering pleasantries of a cozy family home have resulted in multiple spirits tied to the abode. A ghost couple has been spotted in the primary suite, while a dapper gent carrying a medicine bag has been spied throughout the property. 

Spirits are also anchored to Clinkscales, a bar, grill, and hotel right across from The Haunted Hamburger. A former bordello, Clinkscales has seen its share of unsavory characters. Unfortunately, Madam Jennie Banter met one too many. 

The bordello owner was brutally slain by a client and left to rot in the neighboring alley. She still oversees operations at the bordello and has been joined by several other spirits, including a grumpy old man whose origins remain a mystery.

Haunted Jerome

Looking for things to do in Jerome? For a small town with a relatively contained history, it boasts quite a collection of ethereal entities and ghost stories worth hearing. 

Trying to get to know them all and visit Jerome’s most haunted locations can be quite an undertaking. Book your Phoenix Ghosts tour today to hear all about the many specters of the Jerome Grand Hotel and the haunted history behind other local eateries and lodging.

Don’t forget to check out what spectral explorations await in Phoenix. Check out our blog to see what else awaits beyond the veil, and be sure to follow us on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram for more spooky stories about the Valley of the Sun.

Sources:

• https://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-jerome/
• https://jerome.az.gov/jerome-then-and-now
• https://jeromegrandhotel.net/hotel-history/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20240425161659/
• https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2010-apr-11-la-na-hometown-jerome11-2010apr11-story.html
• https://www.ghostcityinn.com/faqs.htm
• https://thehauntedhamburger.com/our-story/
• https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/haunted-hot-spots-largest-ghost-town-america-surgeons-sherri-granato/