Six New Mexico places with a haunted reputation and a public door

St. James Hotel, Cimarron

The St. James will leave Room 18 empty, and it will tell you the man in it was shot, and the two pages that tell the shooting do not agree on how he died.

The operator's page at M Vacation Properties says the hotel was first built in 1872 by Henry Lambert, "President Abraham Lincoln's personal chef," that it began as a saloon, and that the guests included Wyatt Earp, Jesse James, Buffalo Bill Cody, Clay Allison, Black Jack Ketchum, Billy the Kid, and Thomas James Wright. Then the hedge. "It is said that some of these spirits still haunt these halls today." The rooms, it says, are still named for people who stayed in the late 1800s. "Room 18 which is said to be haunted by T.J. Wright will remain intact and un-booked as if he were still rooming there today." Said to be. Un-booked. The death, on that same page, is one paragraph and a shrug. "Thomas James Wright last checked into the St James on April 5th, 1882. Story goes he got into a high stakes game with the owner Henri Lambert. He won not only all of Lambert's money, but some of his cattle and lastly his hotel. On his way back to his room in his new hotel, TJ was shot and killed." Story goes. The page does not name the shooter.

The Albuquerque Journal, in a story by Gregory Hasman published December 30, 2024, has the current operators on the record, and the death moves. Hasman wrote that the hotel had been closed since mid-September 2024, after Bob Funk retired, and that Chad Mantz and his daughter Alyse Mantz reopened it. People lined up on the morning of December 20. Alyse Mantz told him two rooms are rumored to have ghosts. Room 17 is Mary Lambert's, Henri Lambert's wife. "If she's happy to see you, you'll get a whiff of perfume," Mantz said. Room 18, Thomas Wright's room, is off limits. In the Journal's version, Henri Lambert lost the hotel to Wright in a poker game in the 1880s, and Wright was shot in the back walking down the hall. "He then crawled into his room and passed away," Mantz said. She said it is unknown who shot him. Reports of a haunting, she said, started in the 1980s: nausea, headaches, heart palpitations. Access has been forbidden for the last few decades. People leave drinks on a stool outside the door. The hotel page I opened says he was shot and killed on the way back to the room. It does not say he crawled. I am not going to pick a hallway.

The bullet count does not match either. Hasman's story tells the reader there are 26 bullet holes in the tin ceiling of the bar. The New Mexico Tourism haunted page says the dining room still has 22 bullets wedged in the ceiling, that the hotel "is said to be the location of more than 26 murders," and that the victims supposedly wander it. The operator pages I opened do not print a hole count or a murder count. That tourism page also says the St. James "is currently closed and looking for buyers." The Journal says it reopened on December 20, 2024. The operator pages, checked in October 2026, still post a restaurant clock and a saloon clock. Closed, on the tourism page, is that page's sentence. It is not what the front desk's own site is selling.

The television list is a mess in the same family of pages. M Vacation Properties dates "Haunted Collector" to June 16, 2011, "Ghost Prophecies" to November 28, 2010, and a film called "Peace River" to March 3, 2022. It also prints October 5, 2012, with no show title in the text I could read. The about page at exstjames.com prints March 3, 2026, October 5, 2025, June 16, 2026, and November 28, 2025, and it attaches "My Ghost Story," Episode 43, to October 5. I did not open the broadcasts. The two sites do not share a calendar.

Visit: 617 S. Collison Ave., Cimarron, NM 87714. The hotel spells it Collison. (575) 376-2664. The same pages print (888) 376-2664. Lambert's pickup and buyout line, on the restaurant hours page, is (575) 376-2349. mvacationproperties.com/st-james-hotel. Lunch and dinner, on the Lambert's page: Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday are not on that list. Saloon, on the same page: Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 11 a.m. to midnight. Tuesday and Wednesday are not on that list either. The menu page says breakfast is "currently closed" because of staffing, and the line under it says breakfast is served Thursday through Monday. Call if you need the eggs and not the argument.

The Lodge at Cloudcroft

The Lodge will still introduce you to Rebecca, and it has taken her name off the dining room.

The current homepage says that since 1899 the hotel has sat at 9,000 feet, that Judy Garland stayed there, and that Clark Gable lounged in the lobby. Those are the hotel's sentences. Then the ghost, in one clause. "Maybe it's our resident ghost, Rebecca, whose mischief is well known." Mischief. Well known. The page does not say who she was, how she died, or which hall she uses.

A PDF still hosted on thelodgeresort.com, "The Story of Rebecca," tells the legend the homepage skipped. It says a popular legend dates to the early 1900s, a chambermaid with striking blue eyes and shocking red hair who "disappeared from her quarters" after a lumberjack found her with someone else. "Although we might not have seen her, there are those who vow that Rebecca still wanders the halls." It says ashtrays have been seen sliding, doors opening, furniture moved, lights switching themselves, and fires starting in the fireplace. It says guests and employees "attribute" the incidents to her, and that "none of them are threatening or frightening, but more of the fun and playful nature." It asks you to look at her portrait in the lounge, and it says the restaurant was named in her honor. Vow, and attribute. The PDF gives the address as 601 Corona Place and prints (575) 682-2566 and (800) 395-6343.

The dining page on the current site has already buried the name. "Once known as Rebecca's, our story continues with a fresh vision." The room is 1899. Drew Gaines, in the Cloudcroft Reader on January 17, 2025, quoted the staff on the change. Executive chef Richard Lepree said, "We're not getting an exorcism or anything like that." Jonathan Mancillas, manager and director of events, estimated the restaurant had been Rebecca's for "forty or fifty years," and he said, "I think that Rebecca will definitely still be here. We'll still have some ghost tours here as well." Gaines wrote that the official name change was set for Valentine's Day 2025. The dining page I opened calls it 1899. It does not print a tour price, a tour hour, or a portrait. The New Mexico Tourism haunted page still says Rebecca was murdered by a jealous lumberjack, and it still points you at a restaurant named for her. Murdered is the tourism page's verb. Disappeared is the PDF's. The homepage uses neither.

Visit: 601 Corona Place, Cloudcroft, NM 88317, as the contact page prints it. (575) 682-2566. The toll-free number is on the PDF, not on the contact page I opened. 223collectionhotels.com/the-lodge. The dining page posts fine dining Wednesday through Saturday, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Under that, a line reads "Open Daily | 12:00 PM - 9:00 PM," and the next paragraph is the lounge, "Al Capone's historic bar." The daily line does not name a room. I am not going to assign it. Breakfast buffet, on the same page: Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. The homepage says the lounge burger is "now open 7 days a week" and does not print this clock. The Commons caption below says One Corona Place. The contact page says 601. Call if you need the 5 p.m. seating and not the argument about the noon line.

La Posada de Santa Fe

La Posada will sell you a bar in Julia Staab's house, a restaurant with her name, and a two-night package, and it will not, on the pages I opened, promise that she appears.

The Staab House page calls the bar a historic 19th-century mansion and a stop on the Santa Fe Margarita Trail. The specialty drink is the "Juliarita," "named after our ghost Julia Staab." Our ghost. The blog post "Julia Staab Ghost Package" gives the biography the bar page skips. Abraham Staab emigrated from Germany in 1854, married Julia Schuster in 1865, and the couple built a French Second Empire mansion and entertained the town. "Julia died at 52 in 1896, Abraham following her in 1913. But Julia has never truly left La Posada de Santa Fe: Her ghost has been periodically seen in the Staab House." Periodically seen is the hotel's claim. The post says that coverage includes Unsolved Mysteries. I did not open the episode. It says she is, "by all accounts, a benevolent one," and that she stays in the Staab House and does not appear in the casitas. The package is two nights, two welcome drinks at the Staab House bar, and a copy of American Ghost, by her great-great-granddaughter Hannah Nordhaus. The parenthetical is the honest line. "No guarantee that Julia will join you." The post says "this fall." It does not print a year, a price, or a last day.

The Julia restaurant page is less shy, and it does not match itself. It says that in 1882 the Staabs built the three-story brick mansion, and that the place was "so enticing that the ghost of Mrs. Staab is said to have taken up permanent residence." Said to. Permanent, on this page. Periodically, and only in the Staab House, on the blog. A heading says "Open Daily for Lunch, Dinner and Cocktails." A later sentence says "Open daily for breakfast, dinner and cocktails." The hours block prints breakfast, daily, 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., and dinner, daily, 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Lunch is in the heading and not in the clock.

The New Mexico Tourism haunted page adds rooms and a reason the hotel pages I opened do not. It says she has most often appeared at the top of the grand staircase, and also in the Nason Room. It says she was depressed after the loss of a child and other pregnancies, "rumored to have gone mad," and that she retreated to her bedroom until her death at 52. Rumored. The hotel blog prints the age and the year and does not print the child or the Nason Room. I am not going to supply a diagnosis the resort skipped.

Visit: 330 East Palace Avenue, Santa Fe, NM 87501. (505) 986-0000. laposadadesantafe.com/dining/the-staab-house. Staab House bar: Sunday through Thursday, 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday, 4 p.m. to midnight. Food until 9 p.m. Julia restaurant, on its own page: breakfast 7 a.m. to 11 a.m., dinner 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., both daily, with the lunch line left over in the heading. The bar is the door that does not ask for a room key. The package is a stay.

La Fonda on the Plaza

La Fonda will answer "is it haunted?" in the FAQ, and it will not, on the history page I opened, tell you who is supposed to be doing the haunting.

The FAQ question is one line. "La Fonda on the Plaza is one of the oldest hotels in the country. Read some of our ghost stories here or see for yourself in person!" The history page is the inn, not the dead. It says city records put the first inn on this ground when Spaniards founded the city in 1607, and it calls the corner "the oldest hotel corner in America." It says the building guests use now went up in 1922, with Mary Colter and John Gaw Meem in the design story, and that the railway leased it to Fred Harvey in 1925. It stayed a Harvey House until 1968. La Plazuela, it says, sits on the hotel's original 1920s outdoor patio. No gambler. No judge. No bride.

The names are on the New Mexico Tourism haunted page. It says that in 1857 a gambler was taken from the gambling hall and hanged in the backyard, that the patio was later enclosed and is now La Plazuela, and that "rumor has it" diners have seen the shadow of a man swinging. It says that ten years later John P. Slough, chief justice of the territorial supreme court, was shot in the lobby, and that guests "claim they have sighted the judge, in his long black coat." It says a young bride, murdered on her wedding night by a jealous ex-lover, "is also said to haunt the wedding suite." Rumor, claim, and said to. The same page says a cowboy might take the next stool at the bar. The history page's 1920s patio and the tourism page's 1857 yard are not the same sentence. I am not going to stitch them into one death. A Vogue list the hotel reposts at lafondasantafe.com did not return a story when I opened it. The tourism page is the one that actually names the three.

Visit: 100 E. San Francisco St., Santa Fe, NM 87501. (505) 982-5511. lafondasantafe.com. The FAQ says the front desk is always open, day or night, and that check-in is from 3 p.m. La Plazuela, on its page: breakfast 7 a.m. to 10:30 a.m. Lunch 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Dinner 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. every day. That page still prints parentheticals about a limited menu and a buffet-only breakfast dated March through June 2026. Those dates had passed when this was checked. The Lounge page headline says the lounge is temporarily closed and sends you to a pop-up lobby bar, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. The body under that headline still sells the lounge, live music, and "Locals' Night every Monday." The Bell Tower page says it is "open for the season," noon to sunset, weather permitting, and it does not name the months. The FAQ says guest-room work starts in October 2026, 30 rooms at a time, and that the lobby and bar renovation is already done. If you need the lounge and not the pop-up, ask at the desk the headline argues with.

Plaza Hotel, Las Vegas

The Plaza Hotel will sell you the grill and a guest room. The ghost, on the pages I opened, is a newspaper story, and the newspaper also prints the investigator who does not buy it.

The hotel homepage says the Plaza opened in 1882 as "The Belle of the Southwest," 70 guest rooms, 19 of them over the park. It names the Plaza Grill and Plaza Sip & Savor. It does not name Byron T. Mills, a cigar, or room 310. Lily Alexander, in the Santa Fe New Mexican on October 30, 2025, updated October 31, did. She wrote that the alleged presence of early proprietor Byron T. Mills, whose office is now room 310, is the thing that has not changed. Room 310 is rentable. Longtime front-desk employee Sean Williams told her the frequent reports are cigar smoke, old cologne, and an imprint on the bed, and that the guests who report them are almost always women traveling alone. Williams said he does not think Mills died in the hotel. He also said that in the basement, by an old coal tunnel, he heard a child's voice call "Grandma, grandma." Coworker Melissa Wells, who works the graveyard shift, told Alexander she runs through the basement and keeps her phone upstairs. Maintenance worker Cody Lucero described an orb in the kitchen and a figure in black opening a locked basement door. Those are the employees' accounts, as the paper reports them. They are not a finding that a man was in the room.

Cody Polston, in the same story, said he has done about 12 investigations there and questions whether a Mills presence is what is in the building, if anything is. He said Mills did not occupy room 310. He also told her the room was the site of a story he found compelling: a dresser pushed in front of the door while the room was empty. At the end of his investigations, Alexander wrote, he concluded the hotel was probably not haunted. Probably not, from the investigator the paper asked. The tourism page spells the proprietor "Byron T. Wells," says the restaurant and bar are named for him, and tells you to book room 310 because it was his office. Wells is not the name in the New Mexican. The hotel and grill pages I opened do not print either name. Alexander also wrote that the hotel had been on the market since April, after owner Allan Affeldt decided to sell. That was the paper's April, in a story dated October 30, 2025. I did not find, in the pages for this article, whether it sold.

Visit: 230 Plaza, Las Vegas, NM 87701. Hotel phone, (505) 425-3591. plazahotellvnm.com. The homepage says the Plaza Grill is open daily, 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., and then, "The Tavern sometime in September." No year. The grill's own site, plazagrillnm.com, says open daily 8 a.m. to 9 p.m., and its phone is (505) 434-7000. Same address. Two clocks, two numbers. The lobby is the door that does not need a key. Room 310 does.

KiMo Theatre, Albuquerque

The city will tell you to leave a gift at the KiMo, and it will not, on that page, tell you the boy's name. A 2008 investigation says the story that made the gift famous did not happen.

The page that does the telling is not the theater's current landing page. The landing page I opened, under cabq.gov/artsculture/kimo, sells shows and history and does not mention a ghost. A city URL that still resolves, under the older culturalservices path, is titled "KiMo's Ghost." It cites the Albuquerque Journal of August 3, 1951. "Thursday afternoon, Aug. 2, 1951, there was a water heater explosion in the lobby. At least seven people were injured, some very seriously. A young boy perished as a result of his injuries." I did not open that day's Journal. The city page does not print the name Bobby. It prints the practice. "Over the years the theatre staff have come to realize that if the performers in a show do not leave a gift of some sort that odd things will go wrong with the show, various April Fools/practical joke sorts of things. So we keep a place for them to leave gifts; toys, pictures, doughnuts, candy, etc. ... and their shows seem to go much smoother." Seem to. The gift is the city's procedure. It is not a lab result.

Benjamin Radford and Mike Smith, in the Weekly Alibi on October 23, 2008, named him. They wrote that Robert (Bobby) Darnall Jr., 6, was in the balcony for a short called This Is America: They Fly with the Fleet before the Abbott and Costello feature Comin' Round the Mountain, that a siren in the short scared him, and that the blast caught him in the lobby. They wrote that the Journal of August 2, 1951, said police found a faint pulse in the lobby and that he was dead on arrival at St. Joseph's Hospital, so he did not die in the theater. They counted eight people injured. The city page says at least seven, and a boy who perished of his injuries. I am not going to average those lines. The Alibi's real target is the origin story: a ruined Christmas Carol after a director threw out doughnuts left for Bobby, dated by other tellers to Christmas Day 1974. Radford and Smith wrote that the KiMo was showing a pornographic film that day, that the production people remember was in December 1986, and that actor Steve Schwartz and director Andrew Shea did not remember a disaster. "All the evidence points to one inescapable conclusion: The ruined play — the very genesis of the KiMo ghost story — simply did not occur; it is but folklore and fiction." That is their conclusion. The city page, still up when this was checked, still keeps the gift spot.

New Mexico Tourism tells the louder version. It says the explosion killed several people, including a six-year-old named Bobby, and that performers leave a gift, often doughnuts, so he does not ruin the show. Several killed is the tourism page's count. The city page and the Alibi each describe one death. The tourism page also says the office talked with general manager Larry Parker, "spoiler alert: He's not a believer," and the "learn more" link under that section points at the city ghost page. The page does not quote Parker past that spoiler.

Visit: The contact page says KiMo Theatre, 423 Central NW, Albuquerque, NM 87102. (505) 228-9857. cabq.gov/artsculture/kimo/contact-us. Box office: open two hours before ticketed events, and it stays open until 30 minutes after the event starts. There is no posted hour for walking in on a day with no show. A Commons file in the theater's category is titled as the building at 421 Central Northwest. The contact page says 423. I am not going to pick the number off a file title. Buy a ticket, or call. The ghost page will not sell you a weekday tour.

How to use this

Start with the door that matches the trip you are actually taking. Cimarron will pour you a drink Thursday through Monday, and on Friday and Saturday the saloon is posted to midnight. The operator says Room 18 stays empty for T.J. Wright, and it says he was shot on April 5, 1882, on the way back from a poker game. The Journal, in December 2024, quotes Alyse Mantz: shot in the back, crawled into the room, and a perfume in Room 17 if Mary Lambert is glad to see you. The tourism page still says the hotel is closed and looking for buyers, and it counts 22 bullets where the Journal counts 26. The two operator sites do not share a television calendar. Breakfast is posted as closed and as served. Cloudcroft will still call Rebecca the resident ghost, in one clause, and the dining room is now 1899. The PDF on the old domain says she disappeared. Tourism says she was murdered. A January 2025 Cloudcroft Reader story quotes the staff saying the tours remain, and the pages I opened do not print a tour clock. Fine dining is Wednesday through Saturday, 5 to 9. A daily noon-to-9 line is not labeled. The photo caption and the contact page do not share a street number. Santa Fe will sell you the Staab House bar from 4 p.m., with the Juliarita named for a ghost the blog says has been seen in that house and not in the casitas. The Julia restaurant page says permanent residence, says lunch, and then prints breakfast and dinner. The package has no price and no year. La Fonda's FAQ says the hotel is haunted and points at ghost stories. The history page tells 1607 and 1922 and does not tell the hanging. Tourism tells a gambler in 1857, Judge John P. Slough, and a bride, and it puts the hanging yard where the hotel puts a 1920s patio. The front desk is posted as always open. The lounge page says closed and then advertises Monday night. The Bell Tower says it is open for the season and does not name the season. Las Vegas, the New Mexico one, will sell you the grill. The New Mexican, on October 30, 2025, has the Mills stories from the staff, including cigar smoke and a child in the basement, and it has Cody Polston saying the hotel is probably not haunted and that Mills may not have had room 310. The hotel posts 7 a.m. The grill posts 8 a.m. and a different phone. Albuquerque will let you into the KiMo when there is a ticketed show. The city ghost page keeps a place for doughnuts and does not name the boy. The Weekly Alibi, in 2008, named Bobby Darnall and wrote that the ruined Christmas play did not happen. Tourism says several people died and that the general manager is not a believer.

If a guide adds a ghost this research did not find on the venue's site or in the news pieces cited below, enjoy it as a story and leave it there.

These six doors are not in one town. Compact binoculars and a New Mexico road atlas are the practical extras if you are driving between them.