It is always fascinating to visit museums and historical sites that allow you to learn about the past and see how things worked during another time. The Jerome State Historic Park is a beautiful and educational location to visit when you are in Jerome, AZ or if you are in Clarksdale/Cottonwood and want to drive up the mountain to pay it a visit. It is located at 100 Douglas Road Jerome, AZ 86331 there are plenty of signs directing you to the museum and it is easy to spot. Admission is free for children under the age of six, $4 for ages 7-13 and $7 for ages 14+ so it is quite affordable. Their parking lot also offers some gorgeous views of Jerome itself and the surrounding towns located at lower levels.
My husband and I recently took the kids up north to spend some time at a state park in Cottonwood and we wanted to take the kids to see Jerome as well so we knew the museum had to be on our list of places to stop. It was actually our first stop of the day after the drive up there and I'd say we got there at a wonderful time as there weren't a lot of people there earlier in the morning on a Thursday.
The museum sits inside of the Douglas Mansion that was built in 1916 and was built to sit directly above the Little Daisy Mine, the home now serves as a museum featuring the history of Jerome, the mine and has some other facts about where to find specific minerals, etc. in Arizona. It is a self-guided museum so you are free to explore a large majority of the mansion on your own.
There are so many fascinating items to see, lots of facts to read, a movie to watch and even an interactive section or two. This post would drag on forever if I were to include every little thing we saw or learned while visiting the museum, so I will go over some of our favorite things and then you'll have to plan a visit to this great location to see everything else for yourself. The park rangers who were working were really friendly and nice, everything went smoothly and they also helped point us in the direction of the bathrooms which we needed after an almost two-hour drive. (The bathroom was super clean by the way.)
They had a few different rooms set up with various themes and even had a few rooms that were recreated to look how it originally would have during that time including period appropriate furniture and more. One of my favorites to see was the small study they had set up, it looked very cozy and I also loved the bathroom that was upstairs (display purposes only) because holy Moley that bathroom had a ton of cabinet space, I wish I had a larger bathroom. The post office was also pretty neat to see, and it made me want to dead home and play a little Red Dead Redemption 2.
One of the rooms we all had a great time in was the room where they had a bunch of different minerals, and rocks on display. Some of the pieces were quite large and extremely vibrant in color, I found several rocks I'd love to have small pieces of on display in my home. I also found a item I thought was hilarious because of its sign that read "Fossil?", who knows could be or it might not, we will never know. Lining the halls are photos of some of the original building in Jerome that are no longer standing, photos of the miners who lived and worked on/near the property, metal/wood signs that were in the mine and miners housing building, and more.
The mansion is filled with so many interesting old items, we enjoyed seeing how everything looked when it was first created such as the huge vacuum and soda maker that consume a large amount of space and are quite noisy. The soda machine actually has a button that you can hit to turn it on, it was fun to see. I also enjoyed seeing the old medical equipment, old wheelchairs look so spooky but also can look pretty elegant, the dentist chair on the other hand was a little scary, but then again, a lot of people still do not enjoy visiting the dentist.
One of the craziest things to me was seeing how much everything cost during that time and how much they were paid for a full day's worth of work down in the mine, many had pay checks less than $20 for a full week's worth of work.
You'll be able to explore the first floor, second floor, along with being able to walk over to the garage to see the old carriage and truck parked inside of it along with the items on display outside. After stop by the gift shop to squish a collectable penny as a memento and see what they have for sale. You can find all kinds of goodies in the shop and most are reasonably priced, we ended up buying a few things and got lucky with an extra discount for their holiday sale. We had a lovely time exploring the mansion and my children had a lot of fun seeing everything as well. If you are ever in the area, I suggest stopping in to see if for yourself.
I will post a few other neat photos not shown here over on my Instagram page if you want to take a look.
Disclaimer- The Arizona State Parks Department provided us with passage to the museum for free in exchange for a review . No product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others. My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.
