VANISHING ARIZONA TOWN MYSTERY

STILL UNSOLVED NINETY YEARS AFTER

MASSIVE MINE COLLAPSE, AUTHORITIES

REPORT

Phoenix l An unforeseen historical mine collapse in the Mogollon Mountains had effected one of the first known Arizona Territory cities to be founded called Jorum, which the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office reports has questioned local beliefs about the strange, reclusive townspeople and their mysterious disappearance. One summer night on August 14, 1931, an unexplained mystery occurred in the central Arizona County of Yavapai when a sudden collapse of the massive, complex tunnels of mines which honeycombed Gath Hill in Jorum caused the geological feature to crush inwards, engulfing the town of Jorum built around it and it's surrounding towns of Sutterdale and Perkinsville, located below the small mountain on the lower valley, to be engulfed in dust and debris. But while the event did not kill or injure the inhabitance of the lower towns, a large mystery remained regarding the residents of Jorum, which was undamaged in the collapse-the disappearance of some 240 persons who were never seen again. Yavapai Sheriff Thomas A Ferrin shown with Perkinsville Mayer Clive L. Brown near the County Courthouse in 1965, who continued the Jorum investigation of the townspeople's disappearance years after the initial authorities labeled the event unsolved. Both men passed on without uncovering the answer to their whereabouts. The catastrophic collapse, believed to be a mining induced seismicity or earthquake, occurred when the improper use or deployment of mining explosives over the work's course failed to maintain the integrity of the mining shafts. Mining regulations were not fully integrated in those early years, but as more engineering safety requirements were instituted by the federal government's mining authority, the Bureau of Mines, the high cost of reinforcing the older abandoned, 1880s shafts prevented the Grand Arizona Mining Company bosses from ordering the work. The weight of tons of successive upper rock layers, without forming support, collapsed Gath Hill into a virtual sinkhole. As a result, the small mountain was still there within the ruin, but it was no more. With the exception of the 240 some Jorum townspeople who vanished one night in Arizona. Eventually, search parties brought up from Phoenix to help search Gath Hill were unable to uncover survivors or even remains of any of the Jorum townspeople. The town itself, they were surprised to find, was mysteriously abandoned and lost in time-in the dilapidated homes, a phonograph, one searcher said was heard eerily playing a Glenn Miller band tune over and over, dinners were left the tables mid meal, the town hall, a rickety wood structure, the largest in town, had benches and belongings scattered on them, and the age of the belongings, furnishings and crude decor seemed from the 1880s. All in all the modest wood homes were strangely silent. Rescuers also noted the absence of animals. Their surprise was compounded by fact that not one Jorum person, dead or alive, was ever found. One of the unusual base reliefs found on a worship building in Jorum proper. It was believed the Jorumites were pagan worshippers who followed ancient gods in their rituals. The frame stone above, according to archaeologists, is of an extinct fossil worm of ancient origin, not commonly found in the North American fossil records. The townspeople themselves had even been more mysterious, according to the populace of the neighboring towns. Old census records from the National Archives of the period revealed no record of the small town, and Jorum never had a formal town hall. While mentioned in the census records of Perkinsville as a matter of comparison, deeper investigation revealed the town was unincorporated and appeared on no official maps. However, Jorum had been known even to the indigenous peoples of the area, albeit shunned, and was said to have been there even when the area was first settled by pioneers. Dale Foster, a cattle rancher from Perkinsville described the collapse that shook the buildings and the people in his community. “It sounded like the whole world was shaking,” he recalled. “I went out and saw this great shape over Gath Hill. I thought it was moving and then the mountain seemed to crush into itself among great clouds and rumbling.” Perkinsville, he said, was then covered in a tsunami of chocking dust before he was overwhelmed by the cloud. Another witness, Wanda Franco from Sutterdale remembers she saw, “bunches of the Jorum townsfolk with torches surrounding Gath Hill high in the distance until they were consumed by the clouds.” She swore she saw a monstrous shape alive in the event but when she looked again there was nothing but great dust clouds drifting down the hill towards them. Some officials were aware that the Jorum "folk"or "Jorumites" were very secretive and were rarely seen in either neighboring towns at anytime. They were entirely reclusive and shunned outsiders. There was gossip that Jorum was an organized cult, with religious beliefs corresponding with some ancient paganism that involved the worship of unknown gods. With the great shadows seen in the midst of Gath Hill before the collapse others wondered if some great creature had caused the release. Thought to be a hoax, this vintage photo is alleged to show one of the few outside Jorum citizens with inbred Jorumites from 1928. Rare occasions precluded photos being taken of the town. From the Winslow Collection by permission. After investigating the sinkhole, geologists warned that large amounts of gas were rising from the ruin. Large fissures under the mine workings several miles deep were seeping dangerous gases from deep underground. Closing the region around the sinkhole and imposing county control over the abandoned town, authorities closed the roads leading to Jorum ensuring no curious visitors would be allowed in. The lead ins from Perkinsville, at the bottom of the Gath Hill were gated and have been ever since September 20, 1931. Two other Arizona towns experiences a similar, but unreported disappearance in 1935 and 1937. Some 92 local townspeople in similar vanished of the face of the Earth, with authorities reporting the populace left the area after roads and railways passed up their routes, leaving them without a method to build their economies.

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VANISHING ARIZONA TOWN MYSTERY STILL

UNSOLVED NINETY YEARS AFTER MASSIVE

MINE COLLAPSE, AUTHORITIES REPORT

Phoenix l An unforeseen historical mine collapse in the

Mogollon Mountains had effected one of the first known

Arizona Territory cities to be founded called Jorum, which

the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office reports has questioned

local beliefs about the strange, reclusive townspeople and

their mysterious disappearance.

One summer night on August 14, 1931, an unexplained mystery occurred in the central Arizona County of Yavapai when a sudden collapse of the massive, complex tunnels of mines which honeycombed Gath Hill in Jorum caused the geological feature to crush inwards, engulfing the town of Jorum built around it and it's surrounding towns of Sutterdale and Perkinsville, located below the small mountain on the lower valley, to be engulfed in dust and debris. But while the event did not kill or injure the inhabitance of the lower towns, a large mystery remained regarding the residents of Jorum, which was undamaged in the collapse-the disappearance of some 240 persons who were never seen again. Yavapai Sheriff Thomas A Ferrin shown with Perkinsville Mayer Clive L. Brown near the County Courthouse in 1965, who continued the Jorum investigation of the townspeople's disappearance years after the initial authorities labeled the event unsolved. Both men passed on without uncovering the answer to their whereabouts. The catastrophic collapse, believed to be a mining induced seismicity or earthquake, occurred when the improper use or deployment of mining explosives over the work's course failed to maintain the integrity of the mining shafts. Mining regulations were not fully integrated in those early years, but as more engineering safety requirements were instituted by the federal government's mining authority, the Bureau of Mines, the high cost of reinforcing the older abandoned, 1880s shafts prevented the Grand Arizona Mining Company bosses from ordering the work. The weight of tons of successive upper rock layers, without forming support, collapsed Gath Hill into a virtual sinkhole. As a result, the small mountain was still there within the ruin, but it was no more. With the exception of the 240 some Jorum townspeople who vanished one night in Arizona. Eventually, search parties brought up from Phoenix to help search Gath Hill were unable to uncover survivors or even remains of any of the Jorum townspeople. The town itself, they were surprised to find, was mysteriously abandoned and lost in time-in the dilapidated homes, a phonograph, one searcher said was heard eerily playing a Glenn Miller band tune over and over, dinners were left the tables mid meal, the town hall, a rickety wood structure, the largest in town, had benches and belongings scattered on them, and the age of the belongings, furnishings and crude decor seemed from the 1880s. All in all the modest wood homes were strangely silent. Rescuers also noted the absence of animals. Their surprise was compounded by fact that not one Jorum person, dead or alive, was ever found. One of the unusual base reliefs found on a worship building in Jorum proper. It was believed the Jorumites were pagan worshippers who followed ancient gods in their rituals. The frame stone above, according to archaeologists, is of an extinct fossil worm of ancient origin, not commonly found in the North American fossil records. The townspeople themselves had even been more mysterious, according to the populace of the neighboring towns. Old census records from the National Archives of the period revealed no record of the small town, and Jorum never had a formal town hall. While mentioned in the census records of Perkinsville as a matter of comparison, deeper investigation revealed the town was unincorporated and appeared on no official maps. However, Jorum had been known even to the indigenous peoples of the area, albeit shunned, and was said to have been there even when the area was first settled by pioneers. Dale Foster, a cattle rancher from Perkinsville described the collapse that shook the buildings and the people in his community. “It sounded like the whole world was shaking,” he recalled. “I went out and saw this great shape over Gath Hill. I thought it was moving and then the mountain seemed to crush into itself among great clouds and rumbling.” Perkinsville, he said, was then covered in a tsunami of chocking dust before he was overwhelmed by the cloud. Another witness, Wanda Franco from Sutterdale remembers she saw, “bunches of the Jorum townsfolk with torches surrounding Gath Hill high in the distance until they were consumed by the clouds.” She swore she saw a monstrous shape alive in the event but when she looked again there was nothing but great dust clouds drifting down the hill towards them. Some officials were aware that the Jorum "folk"or "Jorumites" were very secretive and were rarely seen in either neighboring towns at anytime. They were entirely reclusive and shunned outsiders. There was gossip that Jorum was an organized cult, with religious beliefs corresponding with some ancient paganism that involved the worship of unknown gods. With the great shadows seen in the midst of Gath Hill before the collapse others wondered if some great creature had caused the release. Thought to be a hoax, this vintage photo is alleged to show one of the few outside Jorum citizens with inbred Jorumites from 1928. Rare occasions precluded photos being taken of the town. From the Winslow Collection by permission. After investigating the sinkhole, geologists warned that large amounts of gas were rising from the ruin. Large fissures under the mine workings several miles deep were seeping dangerous gases from deep underground. Closing the region around the sinkhole and imposing county control over the abandoned town, authorities closed the roads leading to Jorum ensuring no curious visitors would be allowed in. The lead ins from Perkinsville, at the bottom of the Gath Hill were gated and have been ever since September 20, 1931. Two other Arizona towns experiences a similar, but unreported disappearance in 1935 and 1937. Some 92 local townspeople in similar vanished of the face of the Earth, with authorities reporting the populace left the area after roads and railways passed up their routes, leaving them without a method to build their economies.

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VANISHING ARIZONA TOWN

MYSTERY STILL UNSOLVED

NINETY YEARS AFTER

MASSIVE MINE COLLAPSE,

AUTHORITIES REPORT

Phoenix l An unforeseen historical mine collapse in the Mogollon Mountains had effected one of the first known Arizona Territory cities to be founded called Jorum, which the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office reports has questioned local beliefs about the strange, reclusive townspeople and their mysterious disappearance. One summer night on August 14, 1931, an unexplained mystery occurred in the central Arizona County of Yavapai when a sudden collapse of the massive, complex tunnels of mines which honeycombed Gath Hill in Jorum caused the geological feature to crush inwards, engulfing the town of Jorum built around it and it's surrounding towns of Sutterdale and Perkinsville, located below the small mountain on the lower valley, to be engulfed in dust and debris. But while the event did not kill or injure the inhabitance of the lower towns, a large mystery remained regarding the residents of Jorum, which was undamaged in the collapse- the disappearance of some 240 persons who were never seen again. Yavapai Sheriff Thomas A Ferrin shown with Perkinsville Mayer Clive L. Brown near the County Courthouse in 1965, who continued the Jorum investigation of the townspeople's disappearance years after the initial authorities labeled the event unsolved. Both men passed on without uncovering the answer to their whereabouts. The catastrophic collapse, believed to be a mining induced seismicity or earthquake, occurred when the improper use or deployment of mining explosives over the work's course failed to maintain the integrity of the mining shafts. Mining regulations were not fully integrated in those early years, but as more engineering safety requirements were instituted by the federal government's mining authority, the Bureau of Mines, the high cost of reinforcing the older abandoned, 1880s shafts prevented the Grand Arizona Mining Company bosses from ordering the work. The weight of tons of successive upper rock layers, without forming support, collapsed Gath Hill into a virtual sinkhole. As a result, the small mountain was still there within the ruin, but it was no more. With the exception of the 240 some Jorum townspeople who vanished one night in Arizona. Eventually, search parties brought up from Phoenix to help search Gath Hill were unable to uncover survivors or even remains of any of the Jorum townspeople. The town itself, they were surprised to find, was mysteriously abandoned and lost in time-in the dilapidated homes, a phonograph, one searcher said was heard eerily playing a Glenn Miller band tune over and over, dinners were left the tables mid meal, the town hall, a rickety wood structure, the largest in town, had benches and belongings scattered on them, and the age of the belongings, furnishings and crude decor seemed from the 1880s. All in all the modest wood homes were strangely silent. Rescuers also noted the absence of animals. Their surprise was compounded by fact that not one Jorum person, dead or alive, was ever found. One of the unusual base reliefs found on a worship building in Jorum proper. It was believed the Jorumites were pagan worshippers who followed ancient gods in their rituals. The frame stone above, according to archaeologists, is of an extinct fossil worm of ancient origin, not commonly found in the North American fossil records. The townspeople themselves had even been more mysterious, according to the populace of the neighboring towns. Old census records from the National Archives of the period revealed no record of the small town, and Jorum never had a formal town hall. While mentioned in the census records of Perkinsville as a matter of comparison, deeper investigation revealed the town was unincorporated and appeared on no official maps. However, Jorum had been known even to the indigenous peoples of the area, albeit shunned, and was said to have been there even when the area was first settled by pioneers. Dale Foster, a cattle rancher from Perkinsville described the collapse that shook the buildings and the people in his community. “It sounded like the whole world was shaking,” he recalled. “I went out and saw this great shape over Gath Hill. I thought it was moving and then the mountain seemed to crush into itself among great clouds and rumbling.” Perkinsville, he said, was then covered in a tsunami of chocking dust before he was overwhelmed by the cloud. Another witness, Wanda Franco from Sutterdale remembers she saw, “bunches of the Jorum townsfolk with torches surrounding Gath Hill high in the distance until they were consumed by the clouds.” She swore she saw a monstrous shape alive in the event but when she looked again there was nothing but great dust clouds drifting down the hill towards them. Some officials were aware that the Jorum "folk"or "Jorumites" were very secretive and were rarely seen in either neighboring towns at anytime. They were entirely reclusive and shunned outsiders. There was gossip that Jorum was an organized cult, with religious beliefs corresponding with some ancient paganism that involved the worship of unknown gods. With the great shadows seen in the midst of Gath Hill before the collapse others wondered if some great creature had caused the release. Thought to be a hoax, this vintage photo is alleged to show one of the few outside Jorum citizens with inbred Jorumites from 1928. Rare occasions precluded photos being taken of the town. From the Winslow Collection by permission. After investigating the sinkhole, geologists warned that large amounts of gas were rising from the ruin. Large fissures under the mine workings several miles deep were seeping dangerous gases from deep underground. Closing the region around the sinkhole and imposing county control over the abandoned town, authorities closed the roads leading to Jorum ensuring no curious visitors would be allowed in. The lead ins from Perkinsville, at the bottom of the Gath Hill were gated and have been ever since September 20, 1931. Two other Arizona towns experiences a similar, but unreported disappearance in 1935 and 1937. Some 92 local townspeople in similar vanished of the face of the Earth, with authorities reporting the populace left the area after roads and railways passed up their routes, leaving them without a method to build their economies.