Monday, October 13, 2008

Ghost Stories From The St. James Hotel


My nephew,Weston, had the opportunity this past summer to go to Cimarron, New Mexico, and research ghost stories. The St. James Hotel there is one of the most haunted hotels in America. It is a beautiful hotel built on the Santa Fe Trail in 1880. The guest book there is a Who's Who of the Old West. Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, Doc Holiday, and many other legends stayed there. Everyone passed through Cimarron in those days.
My brothers have been staying at the St. James Hotel for years. They travel through there on their motorcycle trips to Red River, Taos, and Cimarron, NM. They have had several paranormal experiences there as have their friends and spouses that accompanied them. A few years ago, my brother Chip and his wife Ami got married there. Our families stayed there for the weekend. I don't know what the head count was, but I can say that we pretty much filled the hotel to capacity. Weston has asked us to send him any unusual experiences we had while staying there.

My Experiences:

I did experience a very strange dream while spending my first night in Wyatt Earp's Suite. I dreamt that I was sitting in the corner of the bedroom opposite the bed watching Jerry sleep, and couldn't understand why I was out of bed. I tried to get up to return to bed, but absolutely could not move. I then tried to speak in order to get Jerry's attention, but could not speak, I tried to scream, but could not scream! I abruptly woke up. It was 4am. I realized I was only dreaming and went back to sleep, or at least tried to.
I got out of bed just an hour and 1/2 later since I was awake anyway. I dressed and went downstairs. There wasn't any activity in the kitchen yet, so I went outside for a walk. I met a couple pretty much doing the same as I, and we struck up a conversation. They were from Texas, just passing through. They asked me if I had witnessed any ghosts. I told them no, but that I abruptly woke at 4am after experiencing this strange dream. The man said that he woke at exactly 4am as well. He too had experienced a strange dream! I'll have to say though his dream was humorous. He was in his suite's bath tub with a couple of saloon girls while his wife slept! We laughed and agreed that his dream probably had nothing to do with ghosts.
Throughout the weekend, I heard several people mention they were abruptly wakened at 4am. When I mentioned it to my brother, he said he thought that was when Joe had an experience and woke with a blood curdling scream. Joe is a very close friend of both my brothers, and has witnessed a scary haunting at the St. James Hotel on a pervious visit. I concluded Joe's scream may have been the disturbance that awakened the rest of us, but we didn't realize it at the time. I do not know what Joe experienced that night.
There was also the instance when I was taking family pictures on the stairway of the original wing when quite suddenly my camera absolutely would not focus on Chip standing at the top of the stairs. The camera was working perfectly before and after this shot. It hasn't happened again. I know this isn't proof of paranormal activity. I'm just saying it was odd and I couldn't explain why my camera acted in this manner.
If you have been to the St. James Hotel, and have any stories you would like to share, please do. I would love to hear them.
I do have a couple more stories I don't have a logical explanation for, but they were not at the St. James Hotel.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

This is awesome. . . I love these kind of first hand accounts : )

Connie said...

Wenda's family has travelled the world and she is the best storyteller I have ever known! Connie