Last updated on .
The Wild West town of Cimarron can be a fun and interesting destination for anyone traveling through northeastern New Mexico. It has plenty of opportunities for outdoor adventure along with a touch of history.
Introduction to Cimarron
Cimarron was officially founded in 1859 and named for the Spanish word describing a wild mustang. It was built on land owned by Lucien B. Maxwell (1818-1875), a fur trapper who later came to own more than 1,700,000 acres around the town.
Cimarron was a stage stop on the Sante Fe Trail and replaced Elizabethtown as the seat of Colfax County in 1872. The county seat moved to Springer in 1882. Since then, the town has thrived first on production of railroad ties and later on tourism.
Today, visitors can enjoy an interesting walking tour of the historic Old Town district as well as the Philmont Scout Ranch a few miles south.
Town Square
A good place to start exploring is the town square in the center of modern Cimarron. The square contains a small visitor center as well as a monument to Lucien B. Maxwell.
There are a few historic buildings lining the park, including the Brooks Mercantile Building. It was built in 1909.
St. James Hotel
The St. James Hotel is an important historic site in Cimarron and one of the best places to visit. It’s a true remnant of the Wild West.
The story of the hotel starts with Henri Lambert (1838-1913). He was originally from France and served as the personal chef of Abraham Lincoln. Lambert 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 arrived in 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 at the St. James Hotel
In addition to the bar and lobby, you can 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.
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).
Lucien B. Maxwell House
Across the street from the St. James Hotel once sat the Lucien B. Maxwell House. It was completed in 1858 and was built by John “Uncle Jack” Holland. The eastern half of the house burned down in 1888 and the rest of it burned down in 1924. The current house on the site was built in the 1950s.
Beaubien-Maxwell Family Graves
Nearby are the graves of Charles “Carlos” Beaubien (1800-1864) and his wife, Maria Pabla Lobato (1811-1864). Beaubien was a French Canadian who moved to Taos in 1823 to open a dry goods and fur trapping supply store. He became a Mexican citizen in 1827 and in 1840 acquired the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant (also known as the Maxwell Land Grant) with his business partner, Guadalupe Miranda (1810-1890). The grant consisted of over 1,700,000 acres of land in northeastern New Mexico and he entrusted his son-in-laws, Lucien Maxwell and Jesus Abreu (1823-1900), to help him develop the land.
Buried alongside the two is their granddaughter, Verenisa Maxwell (1860-1864). She was the daughter of Lucien Maxwell and Beaubien’s eldest daughter, Luz (1829-1900). Lucien and Luz married in 1844.
Dold Brothers’ Warehouse
The graves sit near the Dold Brothers’ Warehouse, which was built by M. R. Whiteman in 1848 as a freighting depot. It was later used by the Dold brothers as a warehouse. In 1861, it became a trading station and Indian agency as well as a commissary for Lucien Maxwell.
Henry Miller Porter and Asa Middaugh turned the building into a general store in 1873, and in 1875 it became the office of Dr. R. H. Longwill. It’s now a private residence.
Plaza and Well
Just to the south is the plaza and well. The well was dug in 1871 and the gazebo is a 1962 reconstruction of the original. The plaza was used by travelers on the Santa Fe Trail as a campground. It lost importance in 1880 with the arrival of the railroad.
National Hotel
South of the plaza and well was the National Hotel. It was originally built with adobe in 1858 and used as a residence. The home was remodeled in 1871 for Henry Tinson of London, England, who was the secretary-treasurer of the Maxwell Land Grant & Railway Co. John McCullough later turned the home into the National Hotel. It now serves as a private residence.
Carey Building
Across the street was the Carey Building. It was built in the 1870s as a hardware store and livery stable, and later as an office for the Cimarron News and Press. The building has been a private residence since the 1920s.
Barlow, Sanderson & Company Stage Office
A block south of the St. James Hotel was the Barlow, Sanderson & Company Stage Office, which was built in 1863. In 1870, it began to handle mail on the Independence, Missouri, to Santa Fe, New Mexico, route, which was inaugurated in July 1850. Barlow, Sanderson & Company obtained the route in 1866 and managed it until it closed in 1880. The building later served as a Wells Fargo office and was converted into a mercantile store in the early 20th century.
Schwenk’s Hall
Across the street was Schwenk’s Hall, which was originally built as a brewery in 1854. Henry Schwenk purchased it in 1875 and turned it into a gambling hall and saloon. Next door was Canyon Lunch, which was managed by Fred Lambert, the town marshal and son of St. James Hotel owner Henry Lambert. The buildings were later used as a community meeting place, mercantile store, gas station, garage, and tourist center. When we visited, they housed an antique store.
Colfax County Courthouse
To the west of Schwenk’s Hall was the Colfax County Courthouse. It was built in 1872 when Cimarron became the seat of Colfax County. Later, it was used as a drafting office, school, and private residence. It’s now a Masonic lodge.
Old Aztec Mill Museum
The Old Aztec Mill Museum, housed in the Aztec Grist Mill, is a few steps away. It describes itself as the most unusual museum in the state.
The Aztec Grist Mill was built between 1860 and 1864 by Lucien B. Maxwell at a cost of US$48,000. It provided corn and wheat flour for the Maxwell Ranch, local Utes and Jicarilla Apaches, town residents, and travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. The mill was capable of producing 44 barrels of flour daily.
The Old Aztec Mill Museum is typically open daily except Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day. Admission is free but donations are appreciated (as of August 2024). The museum is staffed by volunteers, so it may be closed on some days due to volunteer unavailability.
Second Floor of the Old Aztec Mill Museum
We started our visit to the Old Aztec Mill Museum on the second floor, where there’s a mishmash of historic items and memorabilia.
A few of the items that caught my eye were a two-headed calf found on the WS Ranch in 1937; a poker table from the old Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico; a Thanksgiving Day Festival program from November 28, 1901, in Cimarron; and a chuckwagon full of historic food product packages and utensils.
Third Floor of the Old Aztec Mill Museum
On the third floor were more antiques and a few Native American artifacts. They included several pieces of office equipment such as typewriters, adding machines, and telephones.
One of the more important items on display was the saddle of Kit Carson (1809-1868). It was donated by Fred Federici Jr. of Woodbridge, Virginia.
Another interesting item was the wedding dress worn by Virginia Maxwell (1850-1915) for her wedding to Captain Alexander Keyes (1846-1909) on March 30, 1870, on the third floor of the Aztec Grist Mill. Virginia was the eldest daughter of Lucien Maxwell. Knowing her father would never allow her to marry a military officer, she and Keyes hid in the mill and waited for a preacher to come from Taos to marry them in secret. The dress was donated by Mrs. Dale Siebert, of Pittsford, New York, the great-granddaughter of Virginia Maxwell.
Ground Floor of the Old Aztec Mill Museum
On the ground floor is where some of the largest items in the museum are on display. They include the doors dating back to 1864 from the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Cimarron; a coach driven from St. Paul, Minnesota, to Raton, New Mexico; the mirror from the St. James Hotel; a barber’s chair; and various farming and mechanical equipment. On the wall heading downstairs were a bunch of rusty old New Mexico license plates.
Also on the ground floor was the waterwheel of the mill. It was placed indoors allowing the mill to operate year-round.
Immaculate Conception Catholic Church
On the west end of town is the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church. It was built in 1864 by Lucien and Luz Maxwell in memory of their deceased children, Julian and Verenisa. The church was dedicated by the first Archbishop of Santa Fe, Jean-Baptiste Lamy (1814-1888). It was enlarged in 1909 and restored in 2004.
Old Jail
Finally, on the south side of town is the Old Jail. It was built in 1872 and was once surrounded by a wall 10 feet high and four feet thick. Dynamite used during a jailbreak in the early 1900s caused a huge hole in that wall.
The southeast corner of the jail, which was in use until the early 1960s, may have held the sheriff’s office. The building was renovated in 1998.
Philmont Scout Ranch
The Philmont Scout Ranch is the largest scout ranch in the world. It’s located a few miles south of Cimarron and is owned by Boy Scouts of America.
The Philmont Scout Ranch was built on land once owned by American oil magnate Waite Phillips (1883-1964). He donated almost 36,000 acres to Boy Scouts of America in 1938, and by 1941, he donated more land for a total of over 127,000 acres. It now covers over 140,000 acres. The original name of the camp was Philturn Rockymountain Scoutcamp. Check the official website for more info.
National Scouting Museum
Visitors to the Philmont Scout Ranch can enjoy the National Scouting Museum. It’s open daily from June through mid-August and closed Sundays the rest of the year. Admission is free (as of August 2025). When we drove by in October 2015, there was no museum at the ranch.
The National Scouting Museum was originally founded in 1959 in North Brunswick, New Jersey, as the Johnston Memorial Museum. That museum closed in 1979 when Boy Scouts of America moved its headquarters to Texas.
The museum reopened in 1986 on the campus of Murray State University in Kentucky, but attendance was underwhelming. In October 2002, it moved to Irving, Texas, and stayed open until September 4, 2017. The museum reopened at its current home at the Philmont Scout Ranch on September 15, 2018.
Seton Memorial Library
Also on the property is the Seton Memorial Library. It contains the personal library, personal art, and natural history collection of Ernest Thompson Seton (1860-1946), the founder of Boy Scouts of America. Admission is free (as of August 2025) and the library keeps the same schedule as the National Scouting Museum.
Villa Philmonte
Villa Philmonte was the summer home of Waite Phillips. It was built in 1926 in a Mediterranean style and was included in his donation in 1941. The villa is lavishly decorated with many original furnishings. It’s open for tours offered by the ranch. They run daily from June through October and by appointment the rest of the year. Admission is free but donations are accepted (as of August 2025). Reservations are required and tours must be scheduled at least 24 hours in advance.
Kit Carson Museum
The ranch also runs the Kit Carson Museum seven miles south of the ranch in Rayado.
Santa Fe Trail Swales
Just south of the ranch is a pullout where you can stop and see swales from travelers on the Santa Fe Trail. To be honest, I couldn’t make them out but I did enjoy the views.
Where to Eat in Cimarron
We stopped into one place during our visit to town.
Lambert’s Restaurant
Lambert’s Restaurant, which is open from Thursday to Monday, is located at the St. James Hotel. It serves American and New Mexican cuisine and features an outdoor patio that was added during the hotel’s 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.
