The Artists Who Moved Into the Ghost Town

The revival of Jerome did not come from government programs or corporate investment. It came from people who needed cheap rent and did not mind living in a building that might slide downhill.

A small number of artists had been drifting to Jerome since the mines closed, but the real wave came later. Starting in the late nineteen sixties, counterculture migrants began arriving in significant numbers, drawn by a combination of spectacular scenery, almost free housing in crumbling mining-era structures, and the general allure of an unconventional place. By the early nineteen seventies the influx had become a genuine movement.

Jerome's deteriorating Victorian mansions, which had housed mine managers and executives in the copper era, were now being divided into studios and living spaces by potters, painters, glassblowers, and sculptors. The rents were nearly nothing. The views were extraordinary. The combination proved irresistible to a generation of artists looking for somewhere to work that was not a city.

The transition was not without friction. Long-time residents who had weathered the ghost-town years did not always welcome the newcomers. But the economic logic was hard to argue with. The artists attracted tourists. The tourists supported galleries, restaurants, and hotels. By the nineteen nineties, Jerome was a busy tourist destination.

Today the town is home to working artists and many galleries. Jerome rebuilt itself on art and tourism the same way it originally built itself on copper: by extracting value from what was right beneath its feet.