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The St. James Hotel is a historic site in Cimarron, New Mexico. This hotel, restaurant, and bar is located in the Old Town district.
History
The story of the hotel starts with Henri Lambert (1838-1913). Lambert was originally from France and served as the personal chef of Abraham Lincoln. He moved west to Elizabethtown in 1864 with the hopes of striking it rich by finding gold. When he found very little gold, he opened up a restaurant and bar in Elizabethtown.
Lambert moved to Cimarron in 1872, and on the advice of President Ulysses S. Grant, built the Lambert Hotel at a cost of US$17,000. Later renamed as the St. James Hotel, it attracted several high-profile guests in its heyday. Some of the most famous names to pass through the hotel were lawman Wyatt Earp (1848-1929), showman Buffalo Bill Cody (1846-1917), and sharpshooter Annie Oakley (1860-1926).
The St. James Hotel was the scene of many murders. It’s believed that the 43 rooms witnessed at least 26 murders. Outlaws who stayed at the hotel included Jesse James (1847-1882), who always stayed in Room #14; Tom “Black Jack” Ketchum (1863-1901); and Davy Crockett (1853-1876), a descendant of the famous American frontiersman Davy Crockett (1786-1836). Crockett killed three Buffalo Soldiers in the hotel bar in 1876. Bullet holes are still visible in the bar’s tin ceiling today.
The hotel passed through the hands of many owners from 1926 to 1985, when it was restored to its former glory. It was restored again in 2009 after it was purchased by Express UU Bar Ranch.
Rooms
In addition to the bar and lobby, we were able to walk through the ground floor corridor where some of the rooms are located. The rooms on the upper floor are accessible to guests only. These include Room #18, which is kept locked at all times and supposedly holds the ghost of Thomas James Wright. He was shot after winning a poker game, crawled back to his room, and died.
Each room has a number and is named after a famous guest. A sign outside Room #6 indicates two men died there. Frank Shook was shot three times in the belly by Prairie Dog Payne. Cowboy Henry Love died of blood poisoning after being shot in the leg chasing after Black Jack Ketchum in Turkey Canyon.
In addition to photos and information about famous guests, some of the interesting items hanging on the walls of the corridor include a copy of an original register showing R. H. Howard, aka Jesse James, as a paid guest on Monday, August 29, 1881.
There are also original room tags from the hotel’s early years with the name of the famous guest who stayed in the room. Names include Jesse James; Davy Crockett; rancher and gunfighter Clay Allison (1841-1887); lawman Mace Bowman (1847-1883); lawman Elfego Baca (1865-1945); trader Tom Boggs (1824-1894); Robert Ford (1862-1892), the outlaw who killed Jesse James; outlaw Dick Liddil (1852-1901); Senator Stephen Dorsey (1842-1916); Buffalo Bill Cody; Governor Lew Wallace (1827-1905); author Zane Grey (1872-1939); lawman Bat Masterson (1853-1921); and gunfighter Pancho Griego (d. 1875).
Lambert’s Restaurant
Lambert’s Restaurant, which is open from Thursday to Monday, serves American and New Mexican cuisine. It features an outdoor patio that was added during the 2009 renovation. The patio was once an outdoor deck and lawn, but is now in an enclosed courtyard.
Since we had already eaten lunch, we stopped in for dessert before hitting the road to our next stop. Each of us had a delicious bread pudding.
