Various news agencies have recently reported the closing of the historic St. James Hotel in Cimarron, a property in northeastern New Mexico known for housing many famous Western characters during its heyday.
The hotel, as several other older New Mexico hotels have claimed, is also suspected to be haunted.
Take, for example, the Lodge in Cloudcroft, where the ghost of Rebecca reportedly wanders through the halls at night. Rebecca, whose name is currently used for the hotel’s restaurant, was a chambermaid working at the hotel when she was caught by her lumberjack lover in the arms of another man. Rebecca, who was described as having “shocking” red hair and brilliant blue eyes, disappeared after her tryst was exposed, never to be seen again. The hotel says her ghostly actions include unexplained opening and closing of doors, moving of furniture and objects on tables and lights that go off and on without explanation.
Another interesting hotel in New Mexico is the Hotel Parq Central in downtown Albuquerque, originally a hospital for railroad employees and later an institution for the mentally ill. People have said they occasionally see a woman looking out a window on the top floor of the facility and guests complain that their sheets have been ripped off their bed during the night without any explanation.
The St. James in Cimarron has hosted such guests at Buffalo Bill Cody, Wyatt Earp, outlaws Jesse James and Black Jack Ketchum, famous western author Zane Grey and artist Frederick Remington. About 20 bullet holes in the ceiling of the hotel’s main dining room are attributed to various gunfights staged there over the years.
Reports say at least two of the hotel’s bedrooms are haunted. One was open to guests, but one article said the other was permanently closed because it was occupied by a ghost “so malevolent that occupation was considered hazardous.”
I’m sure the closing of the hotel will come as a great disappointment to paranormal sleuths. But although I never visited the hotel, its closing also is a great disappointment to me and others who relish unique things in our New Mexico history.
The hotel owners say the facility was closed yesterday, Sept. 16, apparently because of problems in finding enough staff to keep it open.
For information on other hotels in New Mexico that are reportedly haunted, you can go to this website:
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/stays/new-mexico/haunted-hotels-nm
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