Location Description and History

Built in 1915, the Val Verde is not as large as other hostelries in New Mexico, but from a stand point of beauty and convenience, she stands without a peer. It contains sixty guest rooms, a commodious dining room, a kitchen, a spacious lobby and writing rooms. Designed by noted architect Henry Trost. Located between the Santa Fe Railroad Depot and the Plaza, the hotel was popular with traveling salesmen and visitors to town. Since the 1980s, it has been extensively restored and now houses shops, a restaurant, and rented rooms. The restaurant features a unique panorama of views along the Santa Fe Railroad's route from El Paso to Albuquerque. In present times the rooms are rented out as apartments, with two of the old rooms composing one apartment. The kitchen and dining room were converted to a restaurant while the old lobby is now a bar. During its history, a total of 10 people have died in various locations in the hotel. Five of these were suicides. The last suicide occurred just after our second investigation of the Val Verde. We were allowed access to the room where the suicide occurred to check for any possible activity. One orb and several suspect EM fields were discovered. Several of these suspect fields were near the area where the body was found. The body decomposed for several days before it was found. With the exception of a few "grander" suites, the rooms share two common bathrooms located on the second floor. Each room is equipped with its own shower. Inside the building, one stair case leads to the upper floor.

Five men burned to death in the boiler room, located under the present day bar, while performing maintenance on it. The scars from the fire are still visible in the Boiler room today.

Bartenders hear a thumping sound under the floor of the bar. Many believe it is the deceased workers who died in the fire banging on the ceiling with shovels or other tools. Some other eyewitness accounts include;

Cindé Trott, a 10-year Val Verde waitress, said one day another waitress who no longer works there heard a sinister voice say, “How are you my darling?”

“She started crying,” Trott said.

Another time, Trott said, she was in the waitress station and a pitcher sitting securely on top of the ice freezer flew off the top and broke a glass above the sink several feet away.

Trott isn’t the only employee who’s had a haunting experience working a the Val Verde.

“A few times I’ve been down in the basement I’ve had the impression somebody’s behind me,” said waiter Chris Parra.

Val Verde employee Fran Calderon said a woman in a blue dress and a man wearing a white shirt will make an appearance in the bar.

Calderon said a Val Verde manager once saw a “weird light” in one of the rooms at the steakhouse and felt a bizarre static electricity.

“It made the hair on the back of their neck stand up and it made their skin kind of red,” she said. “It’s a weird feeling you get. It’s not scary, but you can actually feel their (the ghosts’) presence. It doesn’t make you uncomfortable.”

We started our investigation at 8:30pm by searching the area around the hotel's main entry and bar. After locating nothing suspicious or interesting in these areas, we moved upstairs and searched the main hallway, attic and several of the rooms adjoining the floor.

With the exception of two low EM fields here, nothing else of interest was found. The Team then searched the basement, Boiler room and the west wing of the hotel that is currently under construction. All of these areas contained high levels of airborne dust making any sort of photography difficult, if not impossible. We did obtain one interesting photograph at the end of the west wing which shows an object in motion with plasma like characteristics.

At 11:00pm the ghost hunt was ended.