Location Description and History

The Saint James Saloon and Hotel was built by Henry Lambert, a former cook of General Grant and President Lincoln, during a time in New Mexico's history where law and order was unheard of, until 1903. While many well-known people, such as Annie Oakley, Buffalo Bill Cody,General Sheridan, Wyatt Earp, Zane Grey & Bat Masterson, stayed at the Saint James, so did many of the criminal element, who considered New Mexico a haven from legal justice. It's not surprising then, that the Saint James had a raucous, violent history, with 26 documented killings and many other undocumented ones. Gunfights, brawls and knifings took their toll on the living, and explains why there are so many restless spirits still checked in as residents of the hotel.

The building was last remodeled in 1985. There are no air conditioners, phones or televisions in the rooms, and some rooms lack private bathrooms. Several of the 14 rooms have seen better days, with plaster and wallpaper peeling off, but others have been restored to their original grandeur.

Room 18 at the hotel is kept locked because it houses the ghost of an ill-tempered Thomas James Wright, who was killed at its door just after winning the rights to the hotel in a poker game.  He obviously doesn't like company. One former owner said she was pushed down while in the room and, on another occasion, saw a ball of angry orange light floating in the upper corner. The room holds only a bed frame without a mattress, a coat rack, a rocking chair and bureau.  Sitting atop the bureau is a Jack Daniels bottle, a basin and pitcher, a hand of cards, an Ace Copenhagen tin, and several shot glasses.  On the wall is a bad painting of a half-naked woman.  Respectful of the spirit, the room remains un-rented. He is unfriendly, very angry, wants to be left alone and gives off evil vibes. He has been known to knock over unwanted people who come into room #18, and has spun his chandelier, which is hanging in room #18, around and around to let the living know that he is still there. So, the owners give this spirit what he wants.

A mischievous "gnome-like" old man, named Little Imp by the owners, plays tricks on the living, annoying many, especially new employees. He once appeared on a bar stool, and laughed at the young man hired to clean up the dining room. He is also the one who took a steak knife from the holder in the kitchen and stuck it in the floor between the two owners of the hotel. More evidence points to him as well, when lamp shades and glasses crack all by themselves, and objects disappear and reappear in other places.

This investigation was a follow up to see if the recent remodeling has had any effect on the reported "paranormal activity" of the hotel. The primary focus on investigation was the second floor, specifically the poker room and rooms 17 and 18.

Photographs

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Video

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EVP

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Everyone that we talked to believed that the "Little Imp" ghost and the stories surrounding him were fabricated by a previous employee of the hotel and eventually was broadcast on Unsolved Mysteries, sealing it in the annuals of the hotel's haunted history.

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Photographic Analysis

DSCF1713 (Room 17) Two unusual light abnormalities, one light and one dark, were photographed with a spectrum modified Fuji fine pics camera. Image analysis shows indications of the objects being three dimensional (below) and having temperature variations from their surroundings. Both objects are absent from the photograph taken before but are present in the following photograph, DSCF1714.

DSCF1714 (Room 17) Two unusual light abnormalities, one light and one dark, were photographed with a spectrum modified Fuji fine pics camera. Image analysis shows indications of the objects being three dimensional (below) and having temperature variations from their surroundings. Both objects have changed position and density from the previous photograph. The photo taken after this one lacks either abnormality.

EVP Analysis

EVP audio controls were intact and have negative results (no EVP or voices). The purpose of the audio controls is to insure that the "EVP" is not the voices of other people in the area or noises that may sound like a voice when played back. However the frequency counter registered several frequencies around 100 kHZ during the recording session. The observed frequencies appear to correspond with the time intervals when EVP was recorded. This is too low to be CB radio ( 26.965 MHz to  27.405 MHz ), HAM radio ( 3.675 Mhz to 4.000 Mhz) or Amplitude Modulated (AM radio) carrier frequencies (535-1605 kHz).

This leaves four possible explainable sources for the frequency counter measurements.

1. Land Mobile Radio System (LMRS) is a wireless communications system(s) intended for use by terrestrial users in vehicles (mobiles) or on foot (portables). Such systems are used by emergency first responder organizations, public works organizations, or companies with large vehicle fleets or numerous field staff. Such a system can be independent, but often can be connected to other fixed systems such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) or cellular networks.

2. Power line communication or power line carrier (PLC), also known as Power line Digital Subscriber Line (PDSL), mains communication, power line telecom (PLT), power line networking (PLN), or Broadband over Power Lines (BPL) are systems for carrying data on a conductor also used for electric power transmission.

3. 101.4 kHz - Transmitters used to detect buried electronic markers used by telephone companies.

4. LORAN (LOng RAnge Navigation), a terrestrial radio navigation system using low frequency radio transmitters that uses multiple transmitters (multilateration) to determine the location and speed of the receiver. The current version of LORAN in common use is LORAN-C, which operates in the low frequency portion of the EM spectrum from 90 to 110 kHz. 

Due to the fact that these systems do not transmit vocal audio, it is uncertain if we were reading one of these sources or the transmission frequency of the EVP itself. Further investigation around the hotel reveled that the 100kHZ frequencies occasionally appear for very short intervals (a few seconds).

The spectrograms of two EVP samples were analyzed to determine if they are actual voices or just a random noise. A spectrogram is an image that shows how the spectral density of a signal varies with time. Also known as spectral waterfalls, sonograms, voiceprints, or voicegrams, spectrograms are used to identify phonetic sounds.

The control sample was obtained by recording one of our investigators mimicking what he/she believe is being said in the EVP sample. The samples are used for comparative purposes only.

Note: There is a margin of error between the control and source (EVP) samples due to variations in the pitch and length of the control sample. Based on the similarities between the samples, it is probable that both EVP samples are actually voices and are saying what we identified was being said.