An Unexpected Stop at the St. James

The St. James Hotel in beautiful downtown Cimarron, New Mexico is a great placed to take visitors to our state. It was the center of the wild west and claims as guests Pat Garret, of Billy the Kid Fame, Bat Masterson, and Black Jack Ketchum to name a few. It was a bar brawl including Jack that made for a couple of the ghosts that are said to still wonder the halls. It was not on my itinerary for Friday but a spring snow storm changed my plans. And the plans of several hundreds of spring breakers.

From Raton to Angel Fire Cimarron canyon is a required bottleneck. The narrow twisting road that winds beside the Cimarron River and the Palisades is challenging driving in the best of times. Add ten inches of snow, growing dusk and five wrecked vehicles and the State Police consider it impossible. We were all directed to the St. James for dinner and/or drinks to await the clearing of the wrecks.

The St. James has an excellent kitchen and it was a wee past dinner time. Dinner time was when court recessed to be continued on Thursday next. The plaintiff and his friends headed to the White Bar in Raton. Myself and my two witnesses headed in two cars to see just how far we could get before the snow storm closed in. All afternoon the court security staff had been giving us updates with road after road falling like dominoes to the major snow making system out of Colorado. Around 9 the management of the St. James released some reserved rooms (note: if you cannot get out generally nobody else can get in) and we did the college days thing of how many people can you squeeze into a room and still get any sleep. We were all tired enough even the ghosts could not keep us up.

I want to extend my heart felt thanks to the State Police, the citizens of Cimarron, and the staff of the St. James for making what could have been a very difficult time a very pleasant and fun adventure. I am definitely going back to the St. James for a meal and to say hi to new friends I made.

BTW I am home now. The canyon was open by this morning and so after a great buffet breakfast that came with the room we took off to Angel Fire and the abandoned fur kids.

Comments

  1. thebutlerMarch 20, 2010 at 5:54 PM

    At least you were able to find a silver lining to get your mind away, for a few hours at least, from the events of the day.

    ReplyDelete

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