This would be Jerome, Arizona. Once a thriving mining town, then in effect a ghost town, now a bustling tourist destination.
Why do I think it's a potential sinkhole? The town is built over several faults, including the major Verde fault. But if that's not enough, they drilled deep mining shafts under the town and removed huge pockets of ore.
This model in the Douglas Mansion, now a State Park museum shows the amount of material removed under the town in a scale model. The faults and shafts are also delineated with wire.
Approaching Jerome from Mingus Mountain.
You can see the town with the Verde Valley below.
Understatement. Believe me, you do not want to drive your RV through Jerome (though we saw a few who did).
Coming into Jerome from the Cottonwood/Clarkdale side.
From below at the Douglas Mansion. You can see the open pit mine on the right side of the picture.
This is the side of the town we could see high over Dead Horse Ranch.
Clarkdale as seen from the mansion.
The San Francisco Peaks "peek" over the cliffs on the far side of the Verde Valley.
This 2700 lb malachite and azurite boulder is outside of the museum.
I got a kick out of this buggy exhibited at the museum.
Who knew that Oklahoma was filmed in Elgin Arizona, where we were recently wine-tasting.
Jerome. Visit it while it's still there.
