Museums in Jerome

Everything in Jerome is about copper, and these three tell that story at three very different scales and prices.

Jerome State Historic Park is the Douglas Mansion, built in 1916 by James S. Douglas above his Little Daisy Mine and now a museum about the town and the family. Photographs, artifacts, minerals, a film and a three-dimensional model of the town with its mines underneath it, plus a picnic area with the whole valley laid out below. Open 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily. $10 for adults 14 and over, $5 for ages 7 to 13, free under 7.

Jerome Mine Museum, on Main Street, is run by the Jerome Historical Society. Open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., seven days, and admission is $2, with children under 12 free. It is one room and it is the best two dollars in the valley.

Gold King Mine & Ghost Town is up Perkinsville Road, out of town, and it is outdoors: machinery, vehicles, buildings and equipment rather than cases and labels. Wear shoes you do not mind ruining.

How to do all three

The state park and the ghost town are both a short drive from the middle of town, in different directions and both uphill. The Mine Museum is in the middle of Main Street, so it folds into a walk rather than needing its own trip.

Parking is the constraint, not time. Jerome charges $5 for the day in its paid lots from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., paid by card at a kiosk, and the free option is the 300 Level lot on Perkinsville Road with a shuttle into town on Fridays, Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. Park once and walk, because the streets are steep, narrow and not built for hunting a space twice.

The whole town is a National Historic Landmark, so the walking between these three is part of the visit rather than an interval in it.