Our site at Dead Horse
Occasionally you visit places so often that the idea that they can surprise you seems like a silly notion. It’s even worse when it’s a place you wish would surprise you, but that you don’t go looking outside of the same places you always go. This happened to us. Jerome, AZ is such a great place to visit and wander around. It also happens to be a favorite of one of our good friends Miss Theresa. Hopefully she’ll be swinging through real soon as she recovers from her fire.
Our faces through a kaleidoscope
We did our first day in Jerome as we normally would. A quick walk up and down the streets hopping in to stores with artsy stuff, and decided to say what the hell and went into the walking tour of the Jerome Museum. Pretty glad we did. I learned that Jerome has had a pretty interesting(to say the least) history. It burned down three times in rapid succession, and at one point the Madame who didn’t want to rebuild yet again offered the firemen girls for free if they saved the brothel. Oddly the brothel stood… Can’t imagine why. There were other interesting stories, that showed how tough the people of Jerome were, but I’ll leave that to those who will take the tour. It’s $4 so I don’t think it’s too terrible of a burden.
Bookshelf in the ceiling
We stopped in to the Puscifer store… because thanks to Miss Theresa, we actually became fans. We picked up a few things in there for ourselves, and they gave us a handy little bag which will probably be our new “going to the shower house” bag. They were celebrating a year in that location. Right on. Because we got to Jerome kind of late, things were closing down already. After a bit of walking around and shopping, we stopped in to eat at the Haunted Hamburger. I enjoyed my burger, noticed a few ghostly things, but honestly it’s just a dang good burger joint… that happens to enjoy the “ghost” aspect of the ghost town.
We also had the misfortune of not being able to find any parking when we arrived. Which meant we had to park near the old mining camp… This turned out to be a positive thing though. My sweetheart said, “Lets go check out the old mining camp.” It was already past the closing time, but hey, it’s down a road… We can check out the boring old mining camp… Or so I though… As we drove in it was just an impressive sight. It’s a mess of old engines, and vehicles. Some collectible, some just … cool. But we could only see it from the outside. And I was a bit saddened.
Well dang it. That wouldn’t do. So we decided we’d come back the next day to see more of it. And to be honest, I was glad I did. There’s just so much to see, it’s like an automotive graveyard, and Frankenstein Laboratory at the same time. I’m not kidding about that. The place had trucks wasting away, but then there were creations being born from that rusting mess. There were old engines that still fired up and ran. There’s a saw mill that still cuts lumber. I really lose myself talking about it, because frankly, there’s so much to see and explore, even the pictures don’t capture the excitement of seeing an antique Packard inline 6 fired up by a hand crank. Or seeing Don Robertson’s 1930’s era indy car recreation come to life with it’s Studebaker inline 8 and wagon wheels.
Don Robertson even fired up his old Model T tractor that used the kit from Montgomery Wards to change a normal Ford Model T into a tractor
Here’s a nice view of his race car… which he still races… against modern open wheel Sprint cars… and wins…
There really was just so much to see, there’s no way I could put it in a single blog post. I’d suggest that if you are into old cars and the really odd, just go see it.
Seriously, there’s bound to be something weird and odd that you’ll like about it.
1902 Studebaker electric car
Even an electric car for the green crowd.
And for the dog lovers
And so we finished our trip through Jerome with a new favorite spot. I can’t believe that I had been there so many times, and never stopped in to see this thing. It’s just impressive. And I still didn’t show half of it. There’s just too much to put in a post.
We headed back to the RV and simply couldn’t believe our fortune. We added our Puscifer sticker to the RV, and started packing up to head home. We took another walk around the park, and while Deadhorse isn’t the best park, it is one of the better located parks. Right in the town of Cottonwood, near Clarkdale and Jerome.
On our way home we watched a nice light show courtesy of Mother nature. But didn’t really get hit with too much rain.
Since I couldn’t possibly fit all the cool pictures in the blog, here’s more
Tommycat's RV Adventures 
I’m not sure what it is, but Jerome does have and interesting draw. We’ll need to visit it next month when they decorate for Halloween. Last year (or maybe the year before) we stayed at the Fairgrounds (in Cottonwood, near Dead Horse Ranch SP) and were the only ones there. It was great.
There’s a couple campgrounds on the other side of Jerome as well, but I hear that Don Robertson will even let you stay at his place if you ask.