the St. James Hotel in Cimarron, New Mexico

History:

Built in 1872 by Frenchmen Henry Lambert, known as a cook for General Grant. Grant was so impressed with Lambert's cuisine that he recommended the chef to President Lincoln. For the next three years, Henry Lambert was Lincoln's personal chef at the White house. Upon Lincoln's death in 1865, Lambert moved west to Elizabethtown, New Mexico.

 In 1871, Lambert moved to Cimarron, New Mexico, and started building Lambert's hotel & saloon. By December, 1881, at a cost of $17,000.00, the saloon developed into the St. James Hotel, one of the finest hotels in the New Mexico territory.

  Along with the luxurious surroundings and private rooms, the hotel also offered fine cuisine, gambling rooms, and "ladies of the night" for entertainment. A place where a fortune can be won in one night, but the winner may not live till morning to enjoy it. The hotel hosted famous guests such as Wyatt Earp, John "Doc" Holiday, Jesse James, Bat Materson, Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill Cody, to name but a few. Within the hotel's two-foot adobe walls, confrontations erupted, some resulting in death. 26 fatalities are documented at the St. James Hotel. It's said that the spirit's of those killed haunt the hotel top to bottom. As far as haunted reputations go, the St. James ranks #6 in America, according to findings by The Travel Channel's "Ghostly Getaways". Even the television show, "Unsolved Mysteries" came to the hotel to attempt to unearth the mysteries and rumors surrounding the building and it's grounds. With the notoriety and intrigue that the hotel and it's stories had shown me, I decided to take the V.S.I, (Van Alst Spirit Investigations) team to investigate.

Investigation Results:

  V.S.I. conducted over a dozen investigations at the St. James Hotel, as well as the town of Cimarron, and the town's cemetery. Unsurprisingly, our investigations led us to the conclusion that the tales of the hauntings were astonishingly accurate. Cold spots, strange smells, lights turn on and off by themselves, items move on their own and strange phone calls in the middle of the night.

Footsteps heard in vacant halls, sounding distinctly like boots with their spurs clanging, unexplained voices singing and conversing within empty rooms and virtually every other form of ghost phenomena known to mankind taking place here at some time or other. It seems that ghost activity is so common here that it is taken as a daily occurrence.

  Over 3,000 pictures were taken, countless hours of video surveillance were filmed and spirit communication was conducted with some amazing results.

 Click here for the photographs taken.

 Several ghosts were identified, with many photo's showing ghostly phenomena. Room 18, the alleged room of the ghost of Thomas J. Wright, was off limits, refusing to let V.S.I. enter to investigate.

  I was so impressed with the haunted activity in Cimarron that the site inspired me to write my book, "Ghosts in Reality: the Unexplained Truth about hauntings in our World today", which is due out hopefully in late 2003. Also, another project,"The St. James Hotel: Historically Haunted", is yet to be completed.