Ghost Cities · Arizona
We run walking tours in Arizona, and we research haunted history everywhere. This is our honest local guide to Jerome: the tours worth booking and the stories behind them.
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Our top picks in Jerome
A guided ghost hunt with EMF readers and spirit boxes provided, built on stories pulled straight from the Jerome Historical Society archives. It includes access to Haskin's House, the stop with the longest record of reported activity in town.
An on-foot ghost adventure aimed at raising your odds of an encounter: the Haskins House, the old Jerome High School auditorium, and the Jerome Cemetery, with ghost-hunting gear in hand. Groups cap at 12 and several start times run each night.
Part walk, part shuttle, so you cover Jerome's steep haunted hillside without the full climb. Your guide works through the copper camp's darker chapters and hands you an EMF machine to test the stories yourself. Multiple departure times.
More worth a look
A small-group guided walk through the remnants of the mining town once called the Wickedest Town in the West, with narrated history throughout and optional E.V.P. ghost-sensing equipment for anyone who wants readings of their own.
A shuttle tour through the abandoned mines and weathered neighborhoods in a climate-controlled van capped at eight passengers, tracing how Arizona's fourth-largest city of the 1920s emptied out. Departures run through the day.
A one-hour historical walking tour of the old mining town covering miners, gamblers, and cowboys, plus the town's first radio station and a few hidden passageways. Groups cap at 12, minimum age 10, with departures from 10am to 8pm.
A team scavenger hunt through the historic Black Hills mining community: your guide feeds the clues, you work the streets and meet the locals. Suits all ages, with an optional add-on hunt at the Jerome State Museum for a small entry fee.
A full day out of Scottsdale: the rise and fall of the copper town, time to browse Jerome's shops and eateries, then wine and brewery tastings in Cottonwood, including a stop tied to Tool frontman Maynard Keenan's vineyard.
Jerome earned the nickname "the Wickedest Town in the West" honestly. In the 1920s this copper camp perched on a steep Verde Valley hillside was Arizona's fourth-largest city, roughly 15,000 people deep in miners, gamblers, and bootleggers. Today about 100 residents remain, which is why it gets called one of the largest ghost towns in America, and why the ghost-tour scene here is the strongest in the state. We run our own walking tours elsewhere in Arizona, so take this as our honest read on Jerome: the tours worth booking and the stories behind them. For the full ranking, see our guide to the best ghost tours in Jerome.
Three locations come up on nearly every route. Haskin's House is the big one: the Jerome Historical Society's archives back the stories told there, and one tour holds access to the building itself, where spirits are said to be frequent visitors. The old Jerome High School auditorium is the site guides save for after dark, when attempts to make contact are part of the stop. And the Jerome Cemetery holds the tales of murder, lust, and revenge that explain how a boomtown got its nickname. What happened in each? That is the guide's job to tell you on the hillside, not ours to flatten into a paragraph.
Jerome's streets are steep, so pick your format first. If you want a hands-on hunt, the Jerome Ghost Walk and Pandora's Box both put EMF readers and spirit boxes in your hands at the town's most reported sites. If you would rather ride, the Haunted History Shuttle mixes walking with a shuttle, and the Arizona Ghost Adventure covers the abandoned mines and neighborhoods from a climate-controlled van capped at eight. History-first visitors can take the one-hour walking tour of the old mining town, and families do well with the scavenger hunt, which works for all ages. Round out the stop with our guides to haunted Jerome, things to do in Jerome, and where to stay in Jerome.
Booking notes: most Jerome tours run small, with caps between 8 and 12, and they sell out on weekends. Several offer multiple departure times from mid-morning to 8pm, so an evening slot is usually there if you plan a day ahead. The one-hour historical walk has a minimum age of 10.
One honest note while you compare options: we do not run these tours ourselves. Our own guides lead walking tours in Flagstaff, Tucson, and Prescott, so if your Arizona trip passes through any of those towns, come walk with us. Our own Flagstaff walks hold a 4.9 TripAdvisor rating across 320+ reviews as of July 2026, and our guide to the best ghost tours in Arizona ranks every walk in the state, the towns we operate in and the towns we do not.
The town's two famous stays carry the heaviest files. The Jerome Grand Hotel occupies the former United Verde Hospital, opened high on the hill in 1927, and its reports, from gurney sounds in empty halls to the story of Claude Harvey, a maintenance man found dead beneath the hotel elevator in 1935, have made it a destination in its own right; it has taken overnight guests since 1996. Down the hill, the Connor Hotel dates to 1898, rebuilt after the fires that kept early Jerome burning, and fields steady reports of its own. Both fill fast on weekends, and our where to stay in Jerome guide covers the rest of the options.
Close to it. A city that once held roughly 15,000 people is down to about 100 residents, with abandoned mines and weathered buildings still standing on the hillside. Locals call it a near ghost town, and the label fits better here than almost anywhere else you can still order lunch.
Haskin's House is the most cited, with stories sourced from the Jerome Historical Society archives and one tour holding access to the building. The old Jerome High School auditorium and the Jerome Cemetery round out the usual top three.
The Jerome Ghost Walk and Pandora's Box are the two built around equipment: EMF readers, spirit boxes, and stops chosen for their track records. Both run in small groups, so book ahead.
The Creative Soul Scavenger Hunt is the all-ages pick, an interactive clue hunt through the historic mining community. The one-hour historical walking tour also works for kids 10 and up who can handle the hills.
The One State Where We Hold the Lantern
Everywhere else, we write the guide. In Flagstaff, Tucson and Prescott we lead the tour, nightly, in person, with five generations of Arizona roots behind every story.