The Legend of Sierra Azul

The Legend of Sierra Azul is the tale of a mountain with fabulously rich deposits of gold and silver. The story was first chronicled in 1661. Over time the location of the fictitious ‘Blue Mountain’ shifted from New Mexico to Baja California. But there is plenty of evidence to show the legend may have been a corrupted narrative of early Spanish expeditions to the Verde Valley, between 1583 and 1605. The accounts tell of the blue, mineralized deposit of copper that would one day make the community of Jerome one of Arizona’s wealthiest mining camps.