Cimarron, NM

Bullet Holes in the St. James Hotel

Pancho Griego wandered into the St. James Hotel on Nov. 1, 1875, bent on avenging the hanging of a friend. Instead, he met his own demise from two bullets fired by gunslinger Clay Allison.

Gunfights, lawlessness, revenge, and land wars were common in the Wild West days of Cimarron, N.M., where close to a dozen bullet holes can still be seen in the metal ceiling of the St. James Hotel saloon.

This town of 901 residents retains the charm and flavor of its Wild West days—from the bullet holes to wagon ruts from the old Santa Fe Trail outside town.

“Today, I can look down Main Street and so little has changed that I can place myself from a photo taken 100 years ago,” says Gene Lamm, Cimarron resident and historical society member.

The word cimarron is Spanish for “wild, runaway, untamed,” a name that fit the town on the wilder side of the Santa Fe Trail.

These days, Cimarron’s economy is based largely on tourism, artistry, ranching and the nearby Philmont Scout Ranch.

Visitors—especially those fortunate enough to stay at the St. James—feel as if they’ve stepped back in time.

“We wandered the lobby and room. Seeing the layout, stories of its past, and the names of former guests made me feel like I had stepped back in time. When I opened my door in the morning, I half expected a hero or a bad guy to pop out of the room next door,’’ says Daymon Maddox of Phoenix, Ariz.

The hotel lobby and several of the 43 rooms retain much of the original décor and furnishings, and many rooms are named for those who stayed there—such as sharpshooter Annie Oakley.

All told, the hotel was witness to at least 26 murders—most deemed “self-defense—during Cimarron’s wilder days. And the hotel was sort of a novelty back then.

“When Henri Lambert built the hotel in 1872, he put corner sinks with hot and cold running water in many of the guest rooms. That was almost unheard of at the time,” says Ed Sitzberger, former owner of the St. James and president of the Cimarron Historical Society.

Like many others, Lambert drifted west in hopes of finding gold. When he didn’t strike it rich, he turned to running a hotel and saloon in nearby Elizabethtown, eventually settling in Cimarron.

Old Town Cimarron offers a walking tour developed by the historical society that spotlights homes, graves, a livery stable, and stage office.

Just the foundation remains at the old jail, built about the same time as the St. James. Sitzberger recounts a story of a jailbreak in the early 1900s when a gang successfully dynamited a 20-foot-wide hole in the back wall to free a prisoner.

The 1861 Aztec Grist Mill provided corn and wheat flour to local residents and soldiers, and later dispensed rations to Utes and Jicarillas on nearby reservations. Today, the Old Mill museum exhibits include a fascinating and graphic display of the 1901 hanging of outlaw Black Jack Ketchum.

Rayado, a small trading village a few miles south was the first New Mexico home to Lucien B. Maxwell, owner of one of the largest and most hotly contested Mexican land grants in the Southwest.

Philmont Scout Ranch owns the settlement now. Each summer, scouts present a living museum depicting the trading post as it was in the days of the Santa Fe Trail.

“The old and the new are tied together in Cimarron,” Lamm says. “Most residents like it that way, and visitors enjoy the fact that we haven’t changed all that much.”

Teresa Norris is a freelance writer living in Ute Park, N.M.

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