Editing Jerome, Arizona (section)

===19th century===
The area became part of [[Mexico]] when Mexico gained its independence from Spain in 1821,<ref>{{cite news|title=Diez y Seis Salutes Mexican Heritage|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/13270699/?terms=mexico%2Bindependence|newspaper=The Seguin Gazette-Enterprise|date=September 8, 1994|via=Newspapers.com|url-access=subscription|access-date=May 15, 2018}}</ref> and part of the United States by terms of the [[1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo]], which concluded the [[Mexican–American War]]. The war's major consequence was the [[Mexican Cession]] of the northern territories of [[Alta California]] and [[Santa Fe de Nuevo México]] to the United States.<ref>{{cite web|title=Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo; February 2, 1848|url=http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/guadhida.asp|work=The Avalon Project|publisher=Lillian Goldman Law Library, Yale University|date=2008|access-date=May 15, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171120101721/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/19th_century/guadhida.asp|archive-date=November 20, 2017|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Waclark.jpg|thumb|upright 0.75|William A. Clark, {{Circa|1899}}. In 1888, he bought the United Verde properties, which remained with the Clark family until 1935.|alt=Left-looking half-length portrait of a bearded man of about 60]]
Angus McKinnon and Morris A. Ruffner filed the first copper mining claims at this location in 1876.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=10}} In 1880, [[Frederick Augustus Tritle|Frederick A. Tritle]], the governor of the [[Arizona Territory]], and Frederick F. Thomas, a mining engineer from [[San Francisco]], bought these claims from the original owners. In 1883, with the aid of eastern financiers including James A. MacDonald and Eugene Jerome of [[New York City]], they created the [[United Verde mine|United Verde Copper Company]]. The small adjacent mining camp on Cleopatra Hill was named ''Jerome'' in honor of Eugene Jerome, who became the company secretary.{{efn|Jerome was a cousin of [[Winston Churchill]]'s mother, [[Jennie Jerome]].{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=10}}}} United Verde built a small [[smelter]] at Jerome and constructed wagon roads from it to Prescott, the Verde Valley, and the [[Atlantic and Pacific Railroad]] depot at [[Ash Fork, Arizona|Ash Fork]]. However, transport by wagon was expensive, and in late 1884 after the price of copper had fallen by 50{{spaces}}percent, the company ceased all operations at the site.{{sfn|Clements|2003|pp=45–47}}

Four years later, [[William A. Clark]], who had made a fortune in mining and commercial ventures in [[Montana]], bought the United Verde properties and, among other improvements, enlarged the smelter.{{sfn|Clements|2003|pp=45–47}} He ordered construction of a [[narrow-gauge railway]], the [[United Verde & Pacific Railway|United Verde & Pacific]], to [[Jerome Junction, Arizona|Jerome Junction]], a railway transfer point {{convert|27|mi|km}} to the west.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=48}} As mining of the ore expanded, Jerome's population grew from 250 in 1890 to more than 2,500 by 1900. By then the United Verde Mine had become the leading copper producer in the Arizona Territory, employing about 800 men,{{sfn|Clements|2003|pp=45–47}} and was one of the largest mines in the world.<ref>{{cite web|last=Alenius |first=E.M.J. |title=A Brief History of the United Verde Open Pit: Bulletin 178 |publisher=The Arizona Bureau of Mines |url=http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid1194/bull_178_united_verde_open_pit_ocr.pdf |year=1968 |page=iii |access-date=April 21, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170209181625/http://repository.azgs.az.gov/sites/default/files/dlio/files/nid1194/bull_178_united_verde_open_pit_ocr.pdf |archive-date=February 9, 2017 |url-status=live }}</ref> Over its 77-year life (1876 to 1953), this mine produced nearly 33{{spaces}}million tons of copper, gold, silver, lead and zinc ore.{{sfn|Abbott|Cook|2007|pp=233–247}} The metals produced by United Verde and UVX, the other big mine in Jerome, were said to be worth more than $1{{spaces}}billion.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=7}}{{efn|Historian Eric Clements suggests that the billion-dollar claim stemmed partly from [[boosterism]] and that "actual production never justified such a boast."{{sfn|Clements|2003|p=2}} Geologists Lon Abbott and Terri Cook reckon the value of the metals from United Verde and UVX would have risen to $4{{spaces}}billion in "today's market" (2007), $3{{spaces}}billion from copper alone and $1{{spaces}}billion total from the other four metals.{{sfn|Abbott|Cook|2007|p=235}}}} According to geologists Lon Abbott and Terri Cook, the combined copper deposits of Jerome were among the richest ever found.{{sfn|Abbott|Cook|2007|p=235}}

Jerome had a post office by 1883. It added a schoolhouse in 1884 and a public library in 1889. After four major fires between 1894 and 1898 destroyed much of the business district and half of the community's homes, Jerome was [[Municipal corporation|incorporated]] as a town in 1899.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=82}} Incorporation made it possible to collect taxes to build a formal fire-fighting system and to establish building codes that prohibited tents and other fire hazards within the town limits.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=101}} Local merchant and rancher William Munds was the first mayor.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=17}}

By 1900, Jerome had churches, fraternal organizations, and a downtown with brick buildings, telephone service, and electric lights.{{sfn|Clements|2003|pp=45–47}} Among the thriving businesses were those associated with alcohol, gambling, and [[prostitution]] serving a population that was 78{{spaces}}percent male.{{sfn|Steuber|2008|p=63}} In 1903, New York's ''[[The Sun (New York City)|The Sun]]'' proclaimed Jerome "the wickedest town in the West".<ref>{{cite web|last=Price|first=Michael|title=Jerome: A Ghost Town That Never Gave Up the Ghost|url=http://www.geotimes.org/jan07/Travels0107.html|work=Geotimes|publisher=American Geological Institute|date=January 17, 2007|access-date=October 8, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412144103/http://www.geotimes.org/jan07/Travels0107.html|archive-date=April 12, 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>