Episode 66– You can also listen on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google podcasts, and Amazon Music

About the Episode:

Bunny and Timothy discuss the legend of the Lodge at Cloudcroft.

“The Lodge at Cloudcroft is a historic & elegant country inn resort resting at 9,000 ft. Originally established in 1899, The Lodge holds a rich and treasured history. Within its halls you can feel the influence of famous guests like Judy Garland & Pancho Villa as well as the ghostly presence of the spirit Rebecca. As you check in to the hotel, you truly get the sense that it’s charmed…”

Links
The Lodge website
I Love New Mexico blog page
Bunny’s website
I Love New Mexico Instagram
I Love New Mexico Facebook 

Original Music by: Kene Terry

Featuring:

The Lodge at Cloudcroft

“Constructed in 1899 by the Alamogordo and Sacramento Mountain Railway as a by-product of the railroad’s search for timber and railway ties, the resort of Cloudcroft became immediately successful mountain retreat. Owned and operated by the railroad, the resort’s initial building was a pavilion, now The Pavilion Bed and Breakfast at The Lodge.

As the actual log-constructed Lodge reached completion in 1901, an article in the Albuquerque Journal-Democrat reported, “This beautiful building will be known as The Cloudcroft Lodge and its interior will be furnished with a lavish hand, yet in keeping with the character of the place. Fireplaces, with wide, hungry mouths, will sparkle, crackle and dart forth welcome tongues of flame to hundreds of merry guests, who will find a new pleasure in life during the long, sultry summer.”

In 1908, the El Paso and Southwestern Railroad System, the resort’s new owner, advertised that the hotel, restaurant, dancing pavilion, tennis court, golf links, bowling alley, billiard parlor, burro trips and children’s playground were accessible for weekend rates of $3.00 round trip. Lodge rates were $12.50 and up per week.

In the early morning of June 13, 1909, a disastrous fire destroyed the original Lodge due to a defective flue in the kitchen fireplace. While all guests were accounted for, most escaped without their belongings. The summer season continued unimpeded, however residents of the growing town grew very concerned that the hotel would not be rebuilt and it would mean the end of Cloudcroft.” 

The Lodge at Cloudcroft website 

Episode Transcript

Bunny : (00:00)
Hi there. I’m Bunny Terry, and you’re listening to the I Love New Mexico podcast. Whether you’re a native new Mexican, who’s Lived here For your entire life, or you’re just considering a visit, this episode is for you. Join us as we share a lot of New Mexico stories, talk about all things New Mexico, and include topics like what’s magical here, where you ought to visit, what’s happening, and the things you absolutely cannot miss in the land of Enchantment. We’re excited that you’re here, and we can’t wait to show you what an amazing place New Mexico is, because let’s face it, I love New Mexico. If you’ve been following the I Love New Mexico podcast, you know that we spent the month of October talking about, um, the mysteries and the, um, magic and, and on occasion the spirits that inhabit New Mexico. And one of the interviews that we had hoped to get in before Halloween was, um, this one, which is with Tim Timothy Welch from the marketing group at the Cloudcroft Lodge, because we’ve heard rumors that the lodge in Cloudcroft has a ghost. But because we didn’t get to do this interview prior to Halloween, I was just telling Tim before we came online that we, we really wanna know all about the lodge and a little bit about cloud crop. We know that there are people who listen to the podcast who are in a different country. We have an international audience. And, um, so I, to me, Cloudcroft is a really magical place, and I want other folks to know about it. So, Timothy, please introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you and how you came to be affiliated with the Logic Cloudcroft.

Timothy : (02:07)
Absolutely. So my name’s Timothy Welch. Um, I’m a marketing assistant here at the Logic Cloudcroft. Honestly, my affiliation goes back to when I was a child. I grew up here in Cloudcroft. Um, I think in fourth grade is when I first visited here. Um, and I’ve been working here the past two years.

Bunny : (02:29)
Well, I like that we get to talk to somebody who grew up there, because lots of times, we’ll, you know, sometimes we’ll get somebody who’s running a museum and they’ll say, well, you know, I moved here from Cleveland, but I really love it. But , when somebody like you sticks around and finds a job and becomes a part of the community, even as adult, that’s a big deal. So, talk to people and assume that there’s a portion of our audience that doesn’t know anything about New Mexico. Tell folks where Cloudcroft is. Exactly.

Timothy : (03:02)
So Cloudcroft is located in Southern New Mexico, um, very close to where, um, white Sands in Alamogordo is. Um, it was first founded in 1899 by the El Paso Railroad Company. Originally they were trying to locate, um, timber, um, to continue their lines further out east, I believe. Um, so when they set a survey team up here, they figured, wow, this is such a beautiful place. Let’s create a resort town. Um, so Cloudcroft has pretty much operated as a summer resort, primarily. Lots of pine trees, um, cool climate. Um, we’re at 9,000 feet, so a lot of people come out to wow. Escape the summer heat.

Bunny : (03:52)
Well, 9,000 feet. So we’re in Santa Fe and you’re at a higher elevation than we are. So it’s Alpine Forest and, um, cool nights. I’m interested in hearing what the temp is today.

Timothy : (04:07)
Oh, what is the temperature today? It’s very cool. Sorry, I didn’t check

Bunny : (04:16)
. It’s okay. . It’s okay. What, uh, no snow yet, right?

Timothy : (04:21)
Not yet. I imagine we’re very close. Um, there we go. It’s currently 39 up here. I imagine it’s gonna drop very soon here.

Bunny : (04:34)
So what is, is it a village? Is it a town? What’s the population? If you go to Cloudcroft, what should you expect?

Timothy : (04:42)
It’s a very small village. Um, so the local population is probably no bigger than a thousand during the summer. Um, maybe a couple hundred less, um, year round. We have a couple of summer visitors, um, and a lot of winter visitors. So it’s what you would expect from a small town. There’s a close knit community. Um, everyone’s really, really friendly if you’ve lived here for as long as I have. Everyone knows everything about.

Bunny : (05:18)
Well, and the cool thing about that because I grew up in a small village on the eastern side of the state. And the cool thing about that is that the moment that you need help of any kind, it’s there, right?

Timothy : (05:32)
Oh, absolutely. We have, um, a lot of snow during the winter. Of course, a lot of people will get, uh, stuck if they don’t have the proper equipment. And so a lot of people just drive around town, they’re like, oh, do you need help? They’ll take you out if people are just walking down the street and see that you are, um, cutting wood, for instance, they’ll be, Hey, can I help you out with that? No, it’s just, it’s a very considerate community. Um, everyone’s really, really willing to help out.

Bunny : (06:08)
So, talk about the lodge. What’s what I, because it’s very historic, right?

Timothy : (06:15)
Incredibly historic. So the lodge as an institution, has been around since 1901. So when they first established Cloudcroft as a resort, they needed a place for all the people to stay. Um, they first established the Pavilion, which was more of a community center with some lodging, and then they decided to build this much larger, um, lodge in 1901, made out of pine trees. Uh, I think it had about a hundred rooms at the time, which a little ambitious for the, um, kind of people we kept coming up here these days. So that original lodge lasted for about 10 years. It burnt down in 1909. Uh, sadly due to a defective flu in their fireplace. Thankfully nobody was hurt. Uh, but the town very quickly realized without the lodge, there was no way to support the community. So in 1910, um, a local doctor whose name escapes me at the moment, uh, contacted the owners of the lodge and they’re like, look, if you don’t rebuild, we’re not gonna make it. I have. Um, so he established a ward up here to take care of children who were suffering from heat stroke in El Paso. Uh, his own child had suffered from that and passed away, sadly. So he commissioned, um, all the doctors in the area to contact them and be like, Hey, we need the lodge rebuilt. So with a law of convincing, they finally, um, managed to convince ’em to rebuild at a new location, a little higher up on the hill at our current location. Uh, and we’ve been open since 1911.

Bunny : (08:18)
And did they rebuild at that? I mean, did you, do you have a hundred rooms now?

Timothy : (08:22)
Oh, no, . Um, so I believe the original count in this building was somewhere around 50. Uh, these days we’ve condensed them, ’cause those rooms were very, very small. Um, we’ve condensed them into, um, about 38 here in the main hotel building. And then as the years went by, we’ve, um, since acquired the Pavilion and that has, uh, eight rooms. And then we have another building right across the parking lot from the main hotel called the Retreat that has four luxury suites.

Bunny : (08:57)
So I said, it’s so interesting that you say it was built by the railroad because we just did an episode about Ghost in Albuquerque, and there was a building that’s Ho Hotel Park Central, which was originally built by the ATSF, the Atchison Topeka and Santa Fe railroads to house workers, but also as a hospital for railroad workers. So back around the turn of the century, I think that was in, that was built in the late 1890s. And they, you know, then it became a TB sanitarium, and then it became a psychiatric hospital for children. And so it’s sort of ripe for, um, spirit life and, but it’s, I just think, you know, it’s sort of like the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas. Obviously the growth of New Mexico and the history of New Mexico is so tied to the railroad and, and, you know, all, all of those dates, I mean, even my hometown is, was founded on the date that they built a railroad trestle across the Canadian River in 1901. So I, I never knew that. I never knew that the lodge was built by the railroad. But talk for a little bit about the famous ghost that you have living there or hanging out there

Timothy : (10:20)
. Uh, so that famous ghost, her name is Rebecca, uh, the Legend Ghost, that she was a chained roommate here, um, somewhere between 1911 and 1930. Uh, very flirtatious. She had a lumberjack boyfriend who was often off on logging trips, ’cause logging was still a very big industry back then. So she didn’t really wait around for her man. Um, got involved with somebody else. Uh, her boyfriend came back very early from a trip and found her with him. And all we know after that, she promptly disappeared.

Bunny : (11:05)
Oh,

Timothy : (11:06)
. Um, there’s been a law of theory and speculation as to what exactly happened. The most common being that, um, the lumberjack boyfriend had gone rid of her in a jealous fit of rage. Uh, there’s some argument as to what exactly he did. Um, some people say she was taken out to the forest and dealt with other people, say she was thrown from the tower. Um, but that’s just the magic of these sorts of myths. Uh, there’s a law variation, but there’s definite facts that remain the same all throughout the years. Uh, and then of course, um, we’ve had so many guest encounters with Rebecca.

Bunny : (11:52)
And what are those like? I mean, when you, uh, uh, I’m curious to know what the encounters

Timothy : (11:59)
Include.

Bunny : (11:59)
Right.

Timothy : (12:01)
So there’s many accounts. Um, there was a guest who went up to the tower one morning, really early in the morning just to see the beautiful view. Um, he encountered this woman who was polishing all the brass doorknobs on the third floor, just kind of nodded to her, went about his way. He came back down to the front desk to compliment, um, the person working there as to our housekeeping staff. And the girl at the front desk just kind of backed away and started shaking. And she’s like, sir, the only people here this morning are myself and maintenance. So they went back up. No woman was to be found. Uh, there’s a lot of similar accounts to that. Um, so, uh, lots of people see her walking down the hallways. Uh, people have sworn up and down that, uh, she’s whispered in their ear when they’re trying to sleep. Uh, , I think we had, um, I think someone said that they had their luggage tossed around the room when they came back to the room and they weren’t quite sure what was going on. They’re like, okay, Rebecca, please be nice. We believe you’re real. Didn’t have any problems after that.

Bunny : (13:28)
You know, I hear those accounts a lot where somebody will say to their ghost, hang on, we recognize that you’re here. In fact, we talked about that. A friend of mine who had a ghost encounter at the St. Francis Hotel in Santa Fe, I, and she like said to this orb in her room, dear, I need to get some sleep. I’m looking at houses tomorrow. Can you please go elsewhere? And the orb disappeared. It’s almost as though, um, in her, in her mind, she felt like, um, the spirit needed to be recognized and then would sort of calmed down.

Timothy : (14:04)
Oh, absolutely. I, I would say Rebecca definitely likes the attention. She’s a very mischievous woman. Uh, lots of people would say that, uh, ashtrays would move on their own. Uh, people walking into the restaurant named after her, um, would say that they would enjoy a drink. Um, and suddenly the lights would flicker in there and be like, okay, Rebecca, we know you’re there. Hi, can we please enjoy our meal ? Um, and she’d be like, okay. But no, absolutely acknowledgement. She loves the attention.

Bunny : (14:43)
And I’ve heard stories that people can see her in the windows in the tower. Is that right?

Timothy : (14:51)
I’ve not heard that personally, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Um, she loves hanging out up in the tower. Um, and definitely she likes hanging out in our governor suite on the ground floor. Uh, I’d say those are the two main places to see her.

Bunny : (15:08)
And what is the tower Timothy? I don’t, I don’t understand what that is.

Timothy : (15:13)
Right. Uh, so the tower, um, the lodge has a large bell tower located above our third floor. It has a 360 degree view of the surrounding area. Very beautiful view of White Sea. So in the old days, it was a bell tower. Uh, so whenever the train would arrive at a station 20 feet in front of our main entrance, they would ring the bell to let the staff know that guests had arrived. And I would imagine, um, being with her duties as a chamber made, Rebecca would’ve been up there quite often.

Bunny : (15:54)
Well, so we’ve established that you have a resident spirit, but, um, what else? I, you know, I don’t want people to miss the opportunity to know more about the lodge so that they can come and visit. And in fact, I’m one of those people I wanna, I wanna get down there. So talk about, are you open year round

Timothy : (16:12)
These days? Yes. Uh, originally we were a summer resort, but starting in the fifties we started doing year round. Uh, our biggest seasons are still summer and holidays, but, uh, lately we’ve been having visitors, um, during the fall, during the spring. Uh, so our rooms, honestly, the best way to describe the lodge is coming up to, um, and walking into the past. So it definitely hearkens back to an older, I hesitate to say Victorian area. Mm-Hmm. . But there’s a lot of, um, the rooms are, um, so craftsman style. We’ve recently renovated those rooms, so lots of wooden paneling, um, heated tiles in the bathroom, uh, . Uh, so it, it’s a charming look. Um, but definitely, um, caters to, um, modern sensibilities. We have a lovely restaurant site called Rebecca’s. Uh, so they, they have a fine dining. Uh, we also have a golf course that used to be the highest in the United States, I believe that’s nine holes played twice, and that’s open from April to October.

Bunny : (17:43)
And other things, I know that there is a, um, ski run, right? If you like to snow ski.

Timothy : (17:52)
Yes. Uh, so that’s called ski cloudcroft. Mm-Hmm. that’s located probably not even a mile, um, east of town. Mm-Hmm. . So most years, um, if we have enough snow, there’s quite, the courses can be quite, um, challenging. I’ve been down that run a few times myself, uh, other years. Um, honestly, it depends on how much snow we get. Um, sure. It depends on how open they are. Um, there’s definitely a lot of, um, tubing on their bunny hill. Uh, but yeah, a very wonderful, um, ski resort. It was first founded as a matter of fact, by one of the previous owners of the lodge, uh, buddy Ritter.

Bunny : (18:43)
Oh, yeah. Well, so, um, I would think if I am somebody looking for a weekend getaway in the mountains in New Mexico, that, um, that that cloudcroft would be a pretty relaxing place.

Timothy : (19:02)
Very much. Um, so we do have RSO about 45 minutes from here, and some people are like, why Cloudcroft over rso? And I would always, oh, sorry. . Okay. No, I, I would always say that Cloud Cross’s a much smaller, quieter place. So like, if you’re coming up from a big city like El Paso or like Santa Fe and you just want peace and quiet, relax, um, just take in all the nature surrounding you, cloud Cross’s a perfect place to go.

Bunny : (19:41)
We have a lot of people who like to travel to where there’s hiking. I’m sure you have that right

Timothy : (19:46)
Quite a bit. Uh, so in regards to the train, uh, we have a trail that leads up to the last remaining part of that train called the Mexican Canyon Trestle. So if you’re coming up from Alamogordo along Highway 82, you can’t miss it. It was, um, this large trestle at the very end of the train route up to Cloudcroft. Uh, I believe it’s over a hundred years old by now, but we have a trail that leads directly up to that. Uh, there’s also the OSHA trail located very close here in town. Um, more scenic walking. Um, you’ll see a lot more wildlife, especially deer, elk. And then I believe there’s other hiking trails in the surrounding area. Uh,

Bunny : (20:37)
You’re not very far. I was just thinking about people who might wanna do a circular tour of, of New Mexico, but I think one of the cool ideas that, um, I’ve had before is to go to Carlsbad. I mean, how, I don’t know how far you are from Carlsbad, but like, do this Southern New Mexico tour, go to Carlsbad, go to Cloudcroft, stay a couple of nights, and then go to White Sands. Um, I think that’d be a great little three or four day tour. What do you think?

Timothy : (21:06)
Oh, absolutely. So when guests come in from our state and they’re like, what is there to do around here? We always, always recommend go to White Sands. Um, mm-Hmm. , honestly, cloud Cross the perfect location to do day trips from. So head out to White Sands, head out to Carlsbad Caverns. Uh, sometimes we’ll even suggest if you really want to look for something big, you can head to El Paso. There’s also quite a bit to do in Alamogordo. Just half an hour from here. There’s, uh, the National Air and Space Museum. Mm-Hmm. , uh, there’s quite a lot of, um, local attractions in New Mexico for sure. So honestly, if you want to stay here in Cloudcroft, and especially at the lodge, um, just coming in, um, one way or the other, um, staying here for maybe one or two nights heading out to the other direction, um, it’s definitely a good place to stop while you’re doing that tour of New Mexico.

Bunny : (22:11)
So if people want to find the lodge, I we’ll put up a link. There is a link with this podcast, but can you tell people, for folks who are driving around, what’s, what’s your e what’s your website address

Timothy : (22:22)
So we can be found@thelodgeresort.com. We also have social media channels on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads now. Uh, you can find all of our UpToDate information there. Uh, we also advertising a couple of local radio stations as well.

Bunny : (22:40)
Cool. Well, Timothy, this has been great. I’ve always been curious about the lodge and now, um, and now I know now I can plan my trip.

Timothy : (22:50)
Absolutely. Now we’d love to have you up here.

Bunny : (22:53)
It’d be really, really fun. And, um, I, you know, I went to school at New Mexico State a long time ago, long, long ago. And, um, I had cousins who lived in Alamogordo, and so we, I would come over and stay in Alamogordo and we would come up and ski that slope in Cloudcroft. So I have some really good memories there. I can’t wait to come back.

Timothy : (23:16)
Absolutely. Cl Cloudcroft and the Lodge are definitely places that you can make a lot of memories at.

Bunny : (23:21)
Well, thank you so much for being a guest.

Timothy : (23:24)
Oh, my pleasure.

Bunny : (23:26)
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to listen to the I Love New Mexico podcast. If you’ve enjoyed this episode, please feel free to share it with your friends on social media or by texting or messaging or emailing them a copy of the podcast. If you have a New Mexico story that you’d like to share with us, don’t hesitate to reach out. Our email address is I love New Mexico blog@gmail.com and we are always, always looking for interesting stories about New Mexico. Subscribe, share, and write a review so that we can continue to bring you these stories about the Land of Enchantment. Thank you so much.

Speaker 4: (24:21)
I am back on the road heading out west to the mountain time zone. There’s one thing on my mind,

Speaker 5: (24:31)
There’s

Speaker 4: (24:32)
A girl in New Mexico whose eyes.