Jerome's Famous Sliding Jail

Jerome was built over ground it had hollowed out, and the earth answered by moving. The town's concrete jail, set in the yard between Main Street and Hull Avenue, tore loose from its footings during the ground slides of the 1930s, worsened by decades of dynamiting in the mines below. It crept downhill until it settled in the middle of Hull Avenue, and the road was simply rerouted around it. Local legend says it slid on its own to the spot it rests today; in truth it was later pushed the final distance to where visitors find it.

What the plaque says

What is believed to be Jerome's third jail was located in the town yard between Main Street and Hull Avenue. It pulled apart from the wood structure to which it was attached, and in the mid 1930s during the slides, it slowly crept 225 feet from its original location to settle in the middle of Hull Avenue. The road was altered to go around it. Legend has it that the jail continued to move on its own to its final resting place here; in reality, it was eventually pushed from Hull Avenue to its present location.

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Jerome — steps away
  The billion-dollar copper camp clinging to Cleopatra Hill — now the largest ghost town in America
• Tuzigoot — 5.1 mi
  A hilltop Sinagua pueblo over the Verde, dug out of the ground in the Depression
• Montezuma Castle — 18 mi
  A five-story Sinagua cliff dwelling, misnamed for an emperor who was never here
• Sedona — 22 mi
  Red-rock skyline, Little Hollywood, and the town Sedona Schnebly gave her name to

More markers nearby

• Bartlett Hotel — steps away
• Jerome Blast Furnace — steps away
• Husbands' Alley — steps away
• The Audrey Shaft and UVX Operations — 0.2 mi