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“The Spirits of Arizona live on Cleopatra Hill” Liner notes from "Spirits of Jerome - Ghost City Hauntings" Copyright 2005, George C. Hall Perched like a raven more than a mile high, the white “J” on Cleopatra Hill overlooks the Verde Valley. The “Laughing Mountain” known as Cleopatra Hill looks down on the town of Jerome and its inhabitants, and must sometimes wonder why it was named a hill rather than a mountain, and why all this fuss over a bunch of rocks in its bosom. “Ghost City” is a moniker used to refer to all the human energy that has been spent on the side of a mountain for more than a century. No matter what the role in life was, from building God-loving churches to entertaining miners in brothels, once released from the human body, all that spiritual energy had to go somewhere, and much of it remains in Jerome evermore. Edgar Allan Poe would have had a field day with the tortured souls - wrongful deaths, from suicides to mining accidents to murders in the street, yet the ghostly spirits in Jerome include the kindest and most caring as well, just as they were in real life but now in a different form. Ghosts pretty much have saved Jerome from oblivion. Had it not been for the efforts of the Jerome Historical Society in the 1950’s to preserve their town by promoting it as the “World’s Largest Ghost Town”, there would have been many homeless Ghosts and not many buildings left twenty years later. That was when another generation moved in and changed the direction from a tired mining town to that of an artist community. Love ‘em, hate ‘em, don’t believe in ‘em - it doesn’t matter. Jerome is a story of Arizona, and Ghosts are an integral part. As an Arizona native born in Tucson in 1950, the author has paid considerable attention to historical facts as well as to how Arizona has promoted itself to the rest of the world. Were it not for 30 seconds of violence at the OK Corral plus a clever slogan “The Town Too Tough to Die”, Tombstone might well have been forgotten. So, what can one do for the Ghosts who saved Jerome? I say make a DVD video, not as a Hollywood sensationalist project, but one that simply tells the true stories of genuine Jerome residents who live and breathe Ghost stories every day. It is not just a matter of telling the tourists what they want to hear. There is some real substance here based on historical fact and the repeated experiences of sceptical, well-grounded observers. So, do you believe in Ghosts? Probably. Do you want to see one? Probably not. Jerome nowadays is much more than the product of a sordid past. The million dollar view, the food, the lodging, and the inspired artwork, make it a most special place - a truly unique representation of the remarkable State of Arizona. This DVD video project came about because the participants love Jerome. We all gave our time and stories because we believe our Ghosts want their stories told. This is the true story of the Spirits of Jerome and how we deal with them as everyday occurances in the Ghost City. This is a uniquely Arizona story, locally produced, dealing with a delicate subject in a respectful manner. |