Moon New Mexico by Steven Horak

Author:Steven Horak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Avalon Publishing
Published: 2020-07-15T00:00:00+00:00

Sights

S ST. JAMES HOTEL

The center of Cimarron’s social life, past and present, is the St. James Hotel (Hwy. 21/61 S. Collison Ave., 575/376-2664, www.exstjames.com), a beautifully maintained building that’s as packed with legends, lore, and (perhaps) ghosts as it is with beautiful antiques and stuffed buffalo heads. Opened first as a saloon by a French chef named Henri Lambert (former employer: Abraham Lincoln) in 1872, the St. James became a Wild West playground bar none, with just about every famed outlaw passing through its swinging doors. Buffalo Bill Cody met Annie Oakley in the saloon, Jesse James always requested the same room, and Billy the Kid, “Black Jack” Ketchum, and Wyatt Earp all signed the guest register. Cimarron was considered calm and quiet when three days passed without the sound of gunfire in the St. James; bullets are still embedded in walls and ceilings, particularly in the main dining room.

Specifically, one act of the Colfax County War played out here, when in 1875 the ranch hand and freelance gunman Clay Allison killed Francisco Griego in alleged self-defense as Griego was seeking vengeance for the murder of his nephew, the constable Cruz Vega, whom Allison had lynched, in retaliation for his alleged participation in the murder of Franklin Tolby, a young minister who supported the rights of the local settlers. Sound complicated? It was, and it only got more so, as some 200 people were killed trying to settle the debate over who got to live on the Maxwell Land Grant.

All that history still feels very present in the chandelier-lit hallways lined with peeling wallpaper. Visitors are welcome to poke around on the ground floor, where some of the guestroom doors are left open. You can also pick up a walking-tour guide to other, far less preserved monuments in the “old town” part of Cimarron.

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