Location Description and History

When Santa Fe was founded in 1607, official records show a fonda, or inn, was among the first businesses that was established. La Fonda was a popular destination for trappers, traders, mountain men, merchants, solders, politicians and the like. Over the centuries the hotel was destroyed and re-built several times over. The original hotel adobe hotel occupied the corner of the Santa Fe and San Francisco street, where the Santa Fe trail terminates at the town's central plaza. Soon after New Mexico became a U.S. Territory in 1848, the inn was purchased by Anglo-American owners who changed its name to the U.S. Hotel. The gambling Hall continued to be a major feature, however, providing entertainment for military officers and the occasional professional gambler. Fortunes were made and lost here, and one unfortunate person lost his life in 1857 at the end of a rope strung up in the hotel's backyard by a lunch mob.

Ten years later the Honorable John P. Slough, Chief Justice of the Territorial Supreme Court, was shot to death in the hotel lobby. Clearly the "Wild West" and "territorial justice" were still facts of life in Santa Fe.

During this time, the hotel was sold again and became The Exchange Hotel the name under which it operated for nearly six decades. Sometime during this period several tunnels were constructed underneath the hotel that lead to the courthouse.

An old tradition claims that in Spanish times Santa Fe had a single hotel, La Fonda ("The Inn"), at the same location as the present-day La Fonda. However, no documents have been found to confirm that. Local historian Marian Meyer has reported that an American couple, William and Mary Donoho, operated the place from 1833 to 1837. The hotel has also been called "the Exchange Hotel", "The Fonda", "The U.S. Hotel" and the "La Fonda Americana".

After the American conquest in 1846, the La Fonda was still the only real hotel in town. One guest complained that "it was so badly kept and supplied that few people paid it a second visit."

Entrance to the lobby was on the corner, and an inside door gave access to the hotel's saloon. There was a long placita, or interior courtyard, and a high-walled corral attached to the north for patrons' horses. On June 14 1862 a soldier named James Bennet visited the La Fonda and wrote in his journal about what he witnessed. Bennet was seated in the La Fonda’s lobby when a cowboy came in and started shooting up the hotel. The cowboy said he was from Texas and was getting even for a friend of his who was killed. The cowboy shot a lawyer in the stomach and another man in the arm before he was captured and thrown into jail. Later that night the cowboy from Texas was lynched and hung in the backyard of the La Fonda. Also in 1867 the hotel was sold again and became The Exchange Hotel. the hotel would remain under this name for the next sixty years. Sometime during this period several tunnels were constructed underneath the hotel that lead to the Palace of Governors and the courthouse. The current building was built in 1922 on the site of the previous inns. In 1925 it was acquired by the Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Railroad which leased it to Fred Harvey. For more than 40 years, from 1926 to 1968, La Fonda was one of the famous Harvey Houses, a renowned chain of fine hotels.

Many people believe that Judge Slough continues to walk its hallways. In the 1970s, a guest reportedly called the front desk to complain that someone was walking up and down the hallway in front of his room. When an employee was sent to investigate, he saw a tall man in a long, black coat disappear into a stairwell. However, when he followed him to the stairs, there was no sign of the mysterious man. Perhaps this was yet another sighting of the judge.

Another ghost that is seen in the hotel is that of a man wearing 1800’s clothing running across the Plazuela Restaurant. Both guests and staff alike have reported the sight of a ghostly figure that walks to the center of the room and then seemingly jumps into the floor and disappears.The ghost disappears as he jumps into the ground where the old well used to be. The La Plazuela, is situated directly over the old well. Furthermore, maintenance men have seen this specter in the bowels of the hotel. This is followed by storage areas being found topsy turvey.

Other reported phenomena includes an apparition that haunts the Santa Fe Room, as well as a spirit that walks the hallways near the La Terraza, a restaurant located on the east side of the hotel's third floor floor. One evening, a security guard was making his rounds of the hotel when he entered one of the hotel's banquet rooms called the New Mexico Room. The room appeared to be empty. When he was halfway across the floor he 'felt' someone and sensed that someone was behind him. Turning around, he saw a man in the middle of the floor moving towards the center of the room. When he confronted the man, the figure disappeared through the floor. Freaked out by the man's sudden disappearance, he ran to the front desk. Just as he arrived the manager came running down the hall in a state of near panic. The manager said that he was downstairs in housekeeping and he 'felt' an icy cold presence move through him. The area the manager was in is directly underneath the New Mexico Room, where the figure disappeared through the floor.

The hotel is also the home to an apparition of a young bride who was murdered on her wedding night by an ex-lover. She mainly haunts the wedding suite (Room 510). A night auditor of 20 years has witnessed the apparition of a bride walking into the hotel lobby, only to vanish as she approached the front desk. The same apparition has also been seen on the elevator, the hallway outside room 510, and the basement.

The hotel's bar is haunted by two different ghosts. The first ghost is that of a "cowboy". He is often seen sitting at the bar around 2:00 to 3:00am. When approached the figure disappears. The second ghost is African-American gentleman that may be one of the former bartenders. this same ghost was seen by a tiler working on the tile in the bell tower. He claims that there is no way the man could have entered the area without being seen as there was only one door and he was blocking it.

Other miscellaneous events include;

Room 274 – (at the front of hotel) Housekeeping was going to clean up room when she witnessed someone lying in the bed with the sheets pulled up over his head. Thinking that he had not checked out yet, she returned to the front desk, double checked and found out the room was supposed to be vacant. She got the houseman to go with her to wake up the man and get him out of the room. The houseman went to the form on the bed, pulled back covers, and there was no one there.

Elevator to bell tower – security guards making rounds would always be met by the elevator, even on empty floors. Even heading down the stairs, he would still be met by the elevator. A guest using elevator to get to his room saw a shadow that did not match his own shadow. This typically happens only with the left elevator.

The fireplace in the Santa Fe room apparently lights itself in the winter if wood is placed in it.

Security guard doing paperwork near fireplace sat down, left area for a moment, came back and area furniture was rearranged.

Auditory phenomena reported near food/liquor storage area, supposedly happens more often to new employees.

We arrived on site at 1:43 a.m. and checked in with the front desk where we were assigned a security guard to escort us throughout the building. We started at the La Plazuela, the dining room where the man leapt to his death a century ago. The site of the well is still visible, as it lies in the center of the room, outlined by circular pattern of stones. We started a clockwise sweep of the room and initially had a reading of zero on the EMF Detector. However, as we moved over to the left side near the well, Buck began picking up readings of 8 milligauss which registered for a few seconds then vanished, only to reappear again seconds later. After a through search of the La Plazuela, we moved out into the lobby and over towards the lobby bar. To our surprise we once again started to pick up some suspect readings. Several pictures were taken while Buck moved through the area, trying to pin down the source of the readings. The EMF registered 10 milligauss for several seconds near the bar and we had a steady reading on the "stage" in the west corner of the lobby. From here we started a search of the first several floors, circling around so we would end up back at the front desk. As Buck started to go up the first set of stairs from the lobby, he got a positive reading, so we began to check the area for a natural source of the EMF field. The photographs taken of the area around and on the staircase show odd shadows and "wisps" of smoke that were not visible to the naked eye.

The Santa Fe Room is reported to be the most haunted in the hotel, but oddly enough, we did not pick up any significant EMF fields here, despite a very intense search. Of all the areas in the Hotel, this is the room that the employees have had most of their encounters. Objects supposedly fly off the southern end of the table for no apparent reason and "ghostly" knocking is heard on the southern blue door.

After searching the remaining areas on the upper floors, we were taken to the Grand Dining Room. This immense Room with its high vaulted ceiling made it difficult to cover effectively. Still we swept the room with the EMF detector and didn't find any type of fields that were suspect. No paranormal activity has been reported here by employees.

By 2:30 a.m., we were ready to proceed to the basement. Several different types of activity had been reported there. Some of these include moving cold spots, a sensation of being watched by a unseen presence. One witness report obtained on a follow-up investigation, describes a presence of a malevolent red haired man at the top of the stairs leading down to the boiler room.

"I kept thinking he was going to throw me down them," he reported. "I wouldn't say that I was frightened, but I was a bit apprehensive". Curious over this report, we later brought in a medium from Albuquerque who saw the same red haired figure and had the same feeling that the man wanted to throw her down the stairs. She feels that this hostility has something to do with a legal argument that occurred long ago. During this follow-up investigation, Carlton Spencer also interview several employees who work in this area. Recent ghost related events have included:

A glass, sitting on a table in the employee break room, flew past a woman's head, bounced off some shelving, and landed on the floor, all without breaking.

A random, rapid ringing of each of the 7 phone lines, including the pay phone, one line at a time. The phones have been checked again and again, but no explanation has been found.

We began by sweeping the hallways first. This area is another difficult place to investigate because all of the water pipes and electrical wiring that can interfere with the EMF detectors and possibly give false readings. The halls generally had a background reading of 6 milligauss with spikes up to 30 milligauss in some areas. Some interesting areas were several "hatches" in the floor which gave off fluctuating EMF readings. Oddly enough, none of the employees we talked to knew what these hatches were for or where they went. They were about 1' x 1.5' in size and had been painted over with the rest of the floor. They were also secured somehow, preventing access. Carl was also unable to come up with a answer to the nature of these hatches.

3:00a.m., we had now worked our way around the hotel and were in-route to the front desk, when Buck noticed a old door at the end of the mini-mall hallway. The security guard was not aware of what was behind it, so we had her open it up to take a look. Inside was a small set of stairs leading down to a hall about 30 feet in length.

The hall terminated with two very old doors, one on the right, the other dead ahead. Naturally, we wanted to know what was behind these two doors. The security guard began to check her keys in the locks on both doors, but none of them would work. While attempting to unlock the door on the right, Buck suddenly registered a sharp spike of 10 milligauss on the EMF detector. We all went to the front desk to find a key that might fit the doors. The night clerk accompanied us back to the hall with the master keys and once again tried to open both doors. None of his keys fit the locks either. By now the security guard and the night clerk were talking about a set of tunnels that were constructed about a hundred and eighty years ago, that led underground from the hotel to the courthouse. Apparently, these halls also contained some sort of a dungeon type of rooms, were the used to hold prisoners and renegade indians during the early development of Santa Fe. It is also interesting to note that during the follow up investigation, Carl contacted the manager about this hall and he didn't know what was behind these doors, nor did he have a key that fit the locks either.

The last destination of our investigation here was the underground parking garage. During the construction of this multi-layer structure, workers discovered human remains and the work was stopped until the area had been surveyed by archeologists. The artifacts discovered here are on display in the Santa Fe museum. It was determined that this area was a burial ground of the ancient Pueblo and perhaps the Anazazi Indians. The whole area had a odd feel about it.

The pictures were taken whenever Buck got a suspect reading on the EMF detector. This area seems to have the highest concentration of paranormal activity in the hotel. However the vastness of the place and lots of utility lines made a through search very difficult.

Recommend another investigation of the location.