For our 2016 Halloween trip, we headed north from Phoenix to Jerome, Arizona. While now a quaint little town on a hill, Jerome has a sordid and haunted history that the locals embrace to this day. Named one of the top ten most haunted locations in the United States, Jerome is oozing with ghosts, legends and mystery.
Originally established as a mining town in the early twentieth century, Jerome overlooks the Verde Valley and sits 5,000 ft above sea level. It has been home to many strange accidents over the years. From mysterious suicides to the bodies of the dead being made into the slag that built portions of the town, there is a ghost story for everyone here.
So, naturally, there was no other choice for us when planning our Halloween trip this year. It had to be Jerome! We booked a room for ourselves and JT’s son Tre at the Jerome Grand Hotel. The Hotel used to be a hospital where it’s estimated that 1 person died per day while the hospital was operational (it was a mining town after all!), for a grand total of 9,000 deaths at this facility. Needless to say, we were pretty nervous to spend the night there!
The hotel was quiet that night, but the next day was far more eventful. We are big fans of the Travel Channel show Ghost Adventures, and we absolutely freaked out when we encountered Lonnie Anderson — a resident featured on the Jerome episode of the show — in the flesh. He gave us a guided tour of his (haunted) workshop, and the town of Jerome.
We wrapped up the day with a ghost hunting tour hosted by Ghost Town Tours. They told us a few ghost stories, gave us ghost-detecting equipment, and set us loose in the town.
More stories from our adventures in Jerome will be on the blog soon, but for now, enjoy this video of our ghostly experiences!