Last updated: January 26, 2023
Place
St. James (Don Diego) Hotel, Cimarron
Photo/Courtesy of the St. James Hotel
Quick Facts
Location:
Corner of S. Collinson Avenue (New Mexico Highway 21 or Santa Fe Trail) and 17th Street in Cimarron's "old town"
Significance:
Hotel on the Santa Fe Trail
Designation:
Certified Site
MANAGED BY:
Henri Lambert, who had been President Abraham Lincoln's personal chef, established a saloon here in 1872. By 1880, the saloon had evolved into the 2-story, Adobe Street James Hotel. As a vital outpost of the Santa Fe Trail, Cimarron and the St. James are linked to early land grant settlers, ranchers, and desperados, including such notables as settlers Lucien Maxwell and Carlos Beaubien, Buffalo Bill Cody and his cohort Annie Oakley, Kit Carson, Frank and Jesse James, Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, and Blackjack Ketchum. The notorious gunman Clay Allison allegedly danced naked on the bar. The bar, once part of the present dining room, still has bullet holes in its pressed tin ceiling.
Site Information
Location (Corner of S. Collinson Avenue (New Mexico Highway 21 or Santa Fe Trail) and 17th Street in Cimarron's "old town")
The hotel is open for self-guided walking tours and is described in the chamber of commerce's walking tour booklet.