Went on a ghost hunt with my boyfriend in Jerome this weekend. Jerome is an old mining town in Arizona just outside of Sedona, but this town has prospered despite all the tragedy it has had to bear over the years.
Founded in 1876, and went on to become the most prosperous copper mine in the world, Jerome produced over $500 billion worth of cropper over their mining reign along with millions in gold and silver. Despite all of its success, this town which is located at an elevation of over 5000 feet is unfortunately right on top of a major fault line. With all the mining added on top of that, the hillside is unstable and has caused a lot of homes to slide off or sink into holes made by mining underneath. Additionally, Jerome is an extreme fire hazard because of the heat, the mining, the wooden structures, and the dry trees and grass. The whole town has been dusted to the grown with flames a total of 4 times. This town has seen riots, uprisings, revolutions and more.
Today Jerome is a quaint little town and considered the most haunted town in the United States. On my ghost hunt we used ghost detecting radio-like boxes that read the electromagnetic frequency so that spirits could communicate with us, and we were given a ghost meter that detected energy as well as radiation. Putting the meter over my phone I received yellow lights letting me know how much cancer my phone held, but there was no doubt a spirit or highly strange energy in front of me when my meter flashed red. Weirdly enough whenever my meter started flashing yellow or orange, I would casually say "hello, how are you doing." and 4/10 I received a response from the radio box saying "Hello" or "Heyoo". I only heard a total of 3 different hellos during the 2 hour ghost hunt. Out of those 3, only 1 gave me a follow response to any of my questions. This one was from an abandoned high school in Jerome, many of the young boys at this high school died in the mines because the working age back then for the town was 12, though at one point it was 8. In the hallway from the stadium room to the boys locker room, something said "Hello" to my boyfriend and then my meter turned red. I then responded with "Hello" and "How old are you?" the spirit responded "12". Other people who were part of the ghost hunting tour saw our high activity and came to our hot spot right after the "12" response, and my meter went back to green, meaning no energy, and we stopped receiving response to our questions.
One person that was on the tour with us, also his first ghost hunting experience, kept hearing humming and music nearly throughout the whole 2 hour trip. He was having a long back-forth conversation with a spirit named Bruno at the cemetery and heard a girl crying from the girl's locker room. His daughter heard a woman say "help me" at the cemetery and she was officially done with her ghost hunting adventure after that, she was so spooked. Just a reminder that all conversation were through the radio box, but it wasn't required for us to speak at the radio box because the spirits were all around us, however, sometimes when one group would as questions in one area, another group would receive the response from their radio box several feet away. It was a strange and thrilling experience and honestly felt way too genuine for me to no longer be a believer in some form of after-life which put me at ease more than anything.
Yes, despite the goosebumps it gives me even as I write about this spooky experience, it made me feel hopeful that there is something after this life. That there isn't just nothingness. I'm not an all-mighty, there is only one great creator that made it all believer, but I do consider myself a spiritual person. Perhaps even a bit of zen, however, I highly recommend all believers and nonbelievers to visit this little town and experience the ghost-hunt yourself. If you are not brave enough to go during the night they have hunting adventures during the day as well. Yet I will warn you as our tour guide warned us, out of respect of the dead always say thank you and good-bye after leaving the area, but DO NOT TELL a SPIRIT that THEY ARE DEAD, because they might not have known and if you tell them, then that spirit might hold your responsible for their soul and cling on to you. I know, freaky right?
If you do not feel like mingling with the ghosts then there are several other things to experience in Jerome, such as the mining sites and museums. There is no way to actually get inside the mines because they are several miles deep, but they do have a glass floor over the shaft so that one can see what seems like an infinite square hole beneath you. It is a tourist town so there are several gift shops as well, and the Little Daisy Hotel which is the gorgeous large building behind me in the photo below is now a private residence that one can't get near, but can still enjoy the site of. The food is yummy great too!
@missy @rambo
