Hotel Ghost

Ghost: Rebecca

Place: The Lodge at Cloudcroft, New Mexico

Deal: A local lumberjack was sweet on Rebecca, a chambermaid way back when, until he saw her canoodling with another gent. Soon, Rebecca had disappeared. But maybe not for good: mysterious flames roar in fireplaces, and objects that shouldn't move of their own accord find a way. Rebecca, is that you?



The Lodge takes its Rebecca legend seriously, with literature at the front desk and a rather startling Rebecca mannequin in the lobby. Sets the mood in this atmospheric mountain getaway, to spy the celebrity spirit as soon as you enter the hotel. Don't wink at me, don't wink at me...

Hotel Ghost

Place: St. James Hotel, Cimarron, New Mexico

Ghost: Irritable, "Yippee-Ki-Yay"-era poker winner

Deal: He won the poker hand. He got good and shot. He barely made it back to his room -- #18 -- and promptly expired. Now this vintage, velvet-and-wood-laden hotel, in memory of that long-ago guest who died during Cimarron's wilder, Westier days, keeps Room 18 locked. In fact, staff only enters to refill a glass with hooch (said hooch is frequently found drained).



I visited the St. James on a late fall day some years back. The shadows outside were long, the cottonwoods near the hotel deeply gold (and their leaves were especially clacky), and the upper hallways of the hotel dark and atmospheric. Room 18: locked. Good thing, too.