The Saint James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico
Amy, OuijaBee has spent several nights at the St James Hotel in Cimarron, NM over the years. The St. James, built in 1872, was originally called Lambert’s Inn after the proprietor, Henry Lambert. It’s been reported that the saloon, restaurant, and 43 rooms have had 26 murders dating back to New Mexico’s wilder wild west days. That was a time when law and order were non-existent, an anarchist’s dream!
The Lambert Inn’s saloon was reputedly a place of wild shootouts and the St. James still has numerous bullet holes in the ceiling of the main dining room. When Henry Lambert’s sons, Fred and Gene, replaced the roof of the Lambert Inn in 1901, they found more than 400 bullet holes in the ceiling above the bar. Today, the ceiling of the dining room has 22 visible bullet holes. The room where the saloon was, now the main dining hall, is one of the many areas within the hotel that activity has been witnessed. But it is in the infamous poker room where Amy’s paranormal team caught an EVP. It is being posted at www.inthebasementatmidnight.
Travelers on the Santa Fe Trail had little options for respite so it was a wildly popular place to stop for refreshment. The saloon did so well that Henry added guest rooms in 1880, and the hotel was one of the most elegant hotels west of the Mississippi River. Many well-known people stayed at the hotel over the years: Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Jesse James’ nemesis and would be killer, Bob Ford.
Buffalo Bill Cody and Annie Oakley met here and soon after began their traveling famous Wild West Show. When Buffalo Bill and Annie Oakley left Cimarron to take their show on the road, they took an entire village of Native Americans from the Cimarron area with them.
Henry’s son Fred Lambert spent his entire adult life as a Cimarron Sheriff, a member of the tribal police and a territorial marshal. Other notables who have stayed at the historic inn include Bat Masterson, train robber Black Jack Tom Ketchum, General Sheridan, Doc Holliday, Billy the Kid, Clay Allison, Pat Garret, artist Fredrick Remington, Governor Lew Wallace, and writer Zane Grey. The Lambert Inn was later renamed the St. James and continues to cater to travelers today.
Through the years the hotel has been uninhabited and passed from owner to owner. In 1985 the St. James Hotel was restored and reopened for business as it is today. It is said to be the home to several ghosts. As Amy reported, Room 18 is kept locked because it houses the ghost of an ill-tempered Thomas James Wright (TJ), who was killed at his door just after winning the rights to the hotel in a poker game. Having been shot from behind, Wright continued on into the room and slowly bled to death. This is the ghost Amy’s husband Don took a photo of.
The room where Amy experienced loud banging on the walls because she opened a window, and subsequently had her hair moved by something unseen was Room 17, Mary’s room. This is the room where she asks to stay when they have an opening.