Jerome is having a birthday party – and you are all invited! The celebration will be this Saturday, March 9 and it promises to be a lot of fun. We will kick it all off with a major-league parade, Jerome-style, at 11 a.m. Come early and pick a good spot. After all, it’s Jerome, so it won’t take too long. But it sure promises to be something special. After all, we are drinking a toast to celebrate our 125th anniversary of incorporation in 1899. We have a lot of history to celebrate and a wide array of participants helping to bring it to life. Come early and visit the Jerome State Historic Park (The Douglas Mansion) and the Jerome Historical Society Mine Museum to learn about or refresh your knowledge of this community where the whole town is a National Historic Landmark, the first town so designated in the country.

We will feature multiple fire trucks from different eras of the Jerome Volunteer Fire Department, from antiques to nice new big shiny red trucks. Look for classic vehicles including those from the Gold King Mine and the Jerome Grand Hotel. The Jerome Historical Society and the Jerome Chamber of Commerce will be participating. As will The Jerome State Historic Park and Freeport McMoRan Copper and Gold. Look for the Jerome Ukelele Orchestra and artists from the Jerome Artist Cooperative along with many individuals helping to bring Jerome’s history to life. This promises to be a fun way to start the party.

Don’t miss the Jerome Historical Society’s amazing photo display in the front windows of Spook Hall. They offer a detailed look at the fire that finally forced Jerome to incorporate in 1899 and develop the building codes that stopped the fires and helped to preserve the historic community we enjoy today.

People have been coming here for a long time. Native Americans were mining azurite, malachite, and turquoise (all oars of copper) for centuries, which brought the first Spanish explorers here in 1583 and led to the first mining claims and the birth of the town in 1876, making Jerome an official ‘Centennial City.’ The spectacular success of the mining activity made this a true “boom town” and led to a series of fires that brought about the incorporation, at which time Jerome officially became the fourth largest town in Arizona. Join us Saturday as we celebrate that anniversary. Photos from all eras will be projected on a large screen outdoors on Main Street near the old Bartlett Hotel beginning at sundown. We will be celebrating the anniversary all year, but this promises to be a great way to start.

Thanks are due to many people who worked to make this happen, but special thanks are due to Scott Kolu and Windy Jones for their efforts to start the ball rolling and to the Jerome Historical Society and the Jerome Chamber of Commerce for helping to bring it to life.