Lopez tells tale adding Jerome’s culture, heritage

After spending the last four years restoring a historic 1914 United Verde Extension Mining Company miner’s home on Lower Hogback Road off State Route 89A, Thomas Lopez has turned his attention to Arizona’s state mammal. His new children’s book “Rusty the Ringtail,” comes out on Saturday, May 30.

The story follows a furry ringtail [Bassariscus astutus] who is the nightwatchman of the Little Daisy Mine, and his partner Jimmy the Ghost Burro.

“It started with Abe Stewart sending me a picture of the ringtail skeleton on his dashboard at the mine yard, and I could see the Audrey Headframe — that they all used to lower miners in and bring ore up — through his windshield,” Lopez said. “That was over two years ago, and that picture kind of resonated with the Audrey Headframe in the background. I started thinking, it would be cool if there was a story set in Jerome about a miners’ cat. I could actually see Rusty in my head with a little helmet and the red bandana.”

“It’s just like anything: You write a song, there’s a bridge, there’s a melody. Same kind of thing with this story,” he said. “It was in my head and it was driving me crazy.”

Lopez said he believes this is the first children’s book set in the once-notorious “Wickedest Town in the West,” which, until now, has left Jerome’s copper mining history largely untouched in the genre. That gap, Lopez said, was part of what drew him to the project in the first place — that, and a beer-drinking burro named Jimmy.

The property Lopez owns in Phoenix has its own piece of Arizona history attached to it. It once belonged to Charles H. Abels, who homesteaded 80 acres in the area in 1921 and owned the local water rights through the company Liquid Gold.

“Charles kept a pet burro named Jimmy at his fuel station across the street from his home on Cave Creek Road in the 1930s,” Lopez’s website reads. “Jimmy was famous for taking an open bottle of beer in his mouth, shaking his head up and down until he drained it, and braying for another.”

“I thought it’d be cool to bring him back as a mining burro, name him Jimmy, and have them go on adventures together throughout the Verde Valley,” Lopez said. “Then it started developing in my head to give it more of an educational journey throughout the Verde Valley.”

That educational thread runs throughout the book, touching on everything from the misnomer of calling the species ringtail cats because they are part of the raccoon family, to the ringtail’s evolutionary adaptations — like their larger eyes and ability to rotate their back feet 180 degrees to conquer steep slopes — and “Rawhide Jimmy” discovering a “bonanza” of copper in 1912.

“If you like Arizona history and want to know a little about the state mammal, and the fact that ringtails were miners’ cats kept as pets to control pests, this is a cool little story that embraces that piece of Arizona history and culture,” Lopez said. “The whole thing is really just about bringing something special, like everybody does when they come to Jerome as an artist — they bring their own take on whatever their medium is. My particular contribution at this moment just became Rusty.”

Lopez has already trademarked the series and is thinking about where the duo might adventure to in future installments beyond the 88 miles of old mining tunnels underneath Jerome.

“Rusty the Ringtail” has been entered in five competitions for the 2026 cycle, including the IPPY Awards, Moonbeam Children’s Book Awards, Next Generation Indie Book Awards, Readers’ Favorite International and the Purple Dragonfly Book Awards.

“Rusty the Ringtail” is available on Amazon.

“I’m looking forward to seeing how Jerome’s history resonates on that national stage,” Lopez said.