Photographing the Gold King Mine in Jerome, AZ

On our quest to photograph all things Americana, we are tracking down the ghost towns of Arizona. Some are actual ghost towns with few buildings and no inhabitants, some are small towns barely making it, and some are thriving tourist attractions. We had heard a lot about this mine, and were delighted with what we found. There is so much to experience and photograph. Here’s what you might see.

The Gold King Mine is just outside of Jerome, Arizona which is now quite a cute mountain town with plenty of restaurants, wine tasting rooms, and gift shops. If you don’t want to visit the mine, we still recommend a visit to Jerome.

We arrived on a very hot and sunny day. I wish we had some clouds and overcast sky as they have hundreds of old cars parked outside. They were a bit difficult to photograph in the harsh light, but we got a few. It’s still a working mine of sorts with a vast workshop, a huge drilling machine, and lots of equipment around the property. It also has numerous out buildings that are shuttered and/or staged for your enjoyment.

I would suggest a tripod for the interior photos as many of the buildings are quite dark inside. The outside shooting was pretty straight forward and hand holding was fine. We shot in color and infrared and decided what looked best while processing the images.