St. James (Don Diego) Hotel
The St. James Hotel was established by Henry Lambert, former chef to President Lincoln. It sits nestled at the base of a mountain in the town of Cimarron, just paces off the Santa Fe Trail in northeastern New Mexico. Originally established as a restaurant and saloon, the building was soon transformed into a rough-and-tumble establishment offering refuge to outlaws, American Indians, and Santa Fe Trail travelers. The hotel, restaurant, and saloon truly embodies the nature of the Old Wild West portrayed in cinema and pop culture: “[d]rinking, gambling and guns usually resulting in violence and death.”1
Map of the Santa Fe Trail
Why Cimarron, New Mexico?
Cimarron, New Mexico is a town rooted in the foothills southeast of the Sangre De Cristo Mountain Range. The town sits just northwest of fertile river valleys. The landscape surrounding the town offered almost perfect conditions to settle or to stop/make camp including ample water, timber from the mountains, and abundant game and fish.2 Cimarron, just southwest of the Raton Pass, made for a perfectly nestled sanctuary along the Santa Fe Trail.
Cimarron’s location became a major advantage due to its location along the “Cimarron Route” of the Santa Fe Trail. Although this particular route boasted greater dangers and less water than the Mountain Route (which surmounted Raton Pass), the Cimarron Route was used by a majority of trail travelers.3 Cimarron was a hardscrabble place in the late 1800s: law and order was virtually non-existent, and there was little effort to preserve the area’s history. There is little recollection of building dates, event happenings, or a detailed understanding of the inhabitants from the 19th century, but this does not mean we can not try to piece together an understanding of the St. James Hotel in Cimarron.
The Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant & Son-in-Law Lucien Maxwell
It is important to understand the settlement of the area and how the region’s powerful landowners used their influence. Guadalupe Miranda (secretary of the government) and Charles Beaubien (an affluent shopkeeper and trader) petitioned for what became the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant in 1841.45 The stated reaons were to use the land for homesteading, as well as to “afford protection from the Indians,” “employ a great number of idlers,” “relieve overcrowded conditions,” “ease problems caused by a scarcity of irrigation waters,” and “afford safe pasturage for livestock during times of war with the Navajos.”6. However, because of Mexican-American War and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, the land became part of the United States.5
The totality of this land soon fell into the hands of Lucien Bonaparte Maxwell, a hunter and trapper originating from Kaskaskia, Illinois. He first came to New Mexico as part of General Fremont’s western expeditions, and he soon became friends with Kit Carson.2 Maxwell travled to Taos in 1844, and he soon married Luz Beaubien, the daughter of Charles–one of the area’s wealthiest landowners. Because of the Mexican American War, and the subsequent Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, New Mexico became part of the United States in the mid-1840s. In 1857, Maxwell bought Miranda’s half of the Beaubien-Miranda Land Grant for $2745.00 and, upon Beaubien’s death in 1865, Maxwell bought the remaining land for $53,000.00, becoming one of the wealthiest landowners of his time.6
By this time, Maxwell had a large fortune to his name, owned ample land, and had begun a family. Maxwell made the decision to sell his land in 1869 to a group of English investors who established the Maxwell Land Grant & Railway Company, and then went to retire in Fort Sumner.75 A piece of Maxwell’s land in Cimarron had apparently been sold to a man named Henry Lambert in 1871; however, there exists no documentation as to how this occurred. From a legal perspective, New Mexican land grants present a formidable documentary challenge. As historian Maria Montoya writes, “New Mexico land grants conveyed complex property rights to different people,” which is why”the U.S. legal system has seen these documents as ambiguous and invalid.”8
April 14, 1865: Releasing Henry Lambert of His Duty
President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on Friday, April 14, 1865. Henry Lambert was relieved of his duties as President Lincoln’s chefon that day and, with a heavy heart, he moved to the northeastern corner of New Mexico–a place that resembled where he grew up. Lambert was born October 28, 1838, in France. At the ripe age of 12 was sent off to learn how to be a cook in Le Havre. From there, his journey took him seemingly all over the world on ships, submarines, and even in a circus. Lambert traveled from South America, Maine, New York, to Washington D.C., and Virginia. He served at the president’s pleasure, but–after an assassin’s bullet took Lincoln’s life–Lambert moved west in an attempt to make his fortune at mining.9 Settling originally in Elizabethtown, NM–northwest of Cimarron–Lambert had little luck at mining, so he resurrected a restaurant and saloon.10 At some point in 1871 Lambert jumped at the opportunity to buy from the Maxwell Land Grant; he then packed his belongings and moved southeast to Cimarron to hopefully strike wealth in another fashion. However, controversy arose as to the actual title to the land. On May 10, 1875, the piece of land officially Lambert’s, for the price of $102.9 He soon opened the Lambert Inn.
The Hotel & Its Guests
The Lambert Inn was eventually remodeled and renamed as the St. James Hotel in 1882.9 It was located just off the main street through town, now known as Highway 21 to Rayado and the Philmont Scout Ranch; the hotel was also positioned just south of the Cimarron River. The two-story hotel was made of traditional stucco in a hue of brown. Underneath its flat roof, the inside was adorned with traditional 19th century furniture, the lighting was shabby and relics/taxidermy animals were scattered about. There was enough room in the back of the hotel for Lambert’s family to live, but eventually expansion was necessary to accommodate his guests. The hotel’s doors were open to all kinds of of people: justice seekers, justice takers, thieves, Native Americans, Hispanics New Mexicans, Santa Fe Trail traders, and outlaws, to name a few. The hotel bore witness to at least 20 murders; Fred Lambert, Henry Lambert’s son, apparently recorded 26 killings at the hotel. The phrase, “Lambert had another man for breakfast,” was common for the towns people to hear.2 Many important figures in western history stopped through at some time or another.
As more individuals continued to flood Cimarron, the town continued to grow. It soon gained “15 saloons, 4 hotels, a post office, and a newspaper.” 2
The Natural Succession & Renovations
Henry Lambert died January 24, 1933.9 Fred Lambert, son of Henry Lambert, served Cimarron’s Sheriff; Fred and his brother, Gene, began a remodel of the 43-room hotel in 1901. They discovered more than 400 bullet holes in the roof. Although subsequent remodels have removed many of these, today visitors can still bear witness to 22 bullet holes in the tin punched ceiling of the dining room. Much of the original furniture remains, and relics of those individuals who passed through–including some ghosts.
Visit the Hotel
Address
617 South Collison Cimarron, New Mexico 87714
Reservation and Information
Please Call (888) 376-2664 or (575) 376-2664 Email front.desk@exstjames.com Or Visit the Website at http://www.exstjames.com/book-now
Bibliography
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Chilton et al., New Mexico, A Guide to the Colorful State. New York, Hastings House, 1940.
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Cimarron Chamber of Commerce. “Cimarron: Where the West is Still Wild” (brochure). New Mexico, 1986, https://www.cimarronnm.com/brochures.html. Accessed 13 November 2019.
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Colfax County. History of Colfax County. Colfax County, New Mexico, 2016. http://www.co.colfax.nm.us/community/history_of_colfax_county.php. Accessed 13 November 2019.
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Federal Highway Administration & New Mexico Department of Tourism. New Mexico Santa Fe Trail National Scenic Byway, n.d., https://www.santafetrailnm.org/index.html. Accessed 13 November 2019.
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Miller, Michael. “Maxwell Land Grant: An Astounding Piracy of the Public Domain.” New Mexico History, 21 July 2015, https://newmexicohistory.org/2015/07/21/maxwell-land-grant-an-astounding-piracy-of-the-public-domain/. Accessed 13 November 2019.
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Montoya, Maria E. Translating Property: The Maxwell Land Grant and the Conflict over Land in the American West, 1840-1900. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002.
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National Park Services. New Mexico. Santa Fe National Historic Trail CO, KS, MO, NM, OK, 25 February 2019, https://www.nps.gov/safe/planyourvisit/places-to-go-in-new-mexico.htm. Accessed 16 November 2019.
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Stanley, Charles F. The Grant that Maxwell Bought. Santa Fe, Sunstone Press, 2008.
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St. James Hotel. (n.d.) retrieved from http://www.exstjames.com/about
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Varney, Philip. New Mexico’s Best Ghost Towns: A Practical Guide. Albuquerque: The University of New Mexico Press, 1987.
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Zimmer, Stephen & Lamm, Gene. Images of America: Colfax County. South Carolina, Arcadia Publishing, 2015.