i went to jerome recently with a handful of friends.

three of us drove up a few hours early, and we spent some time at the jerome state historic park.

the museum focuses on the history of mining in the town of jerome, and the building is inside the old mansion of james s. douglas.

there are a lot of rock exhibits.

for example, below is a breakfast display made up of rocks.

below is a photo of a model of the town of jerome.

the really interesting part is the lower half of the model which reveals the deposits which were mined.

arizona used to issue license plates made of pure copper.

they still have much of the old equipment around the property, including mining carts.

the highlight of the museum though is the mine shaft covered with glass. you can stand on it.

it goes down into the earth farther than the empire state building is tall. you can’t even see to the bottom.

you can see the hotel in which we stayed at the top of the hill.