Screaming ghosts, inexplicable voices and ghosts in the kitchen: Inside the ghost hall of New Mexico
You can expect to find spirits in the bar – but they are usually the kind that is poured.
The patrons of the Legal Tender in Lami, New Mexico, have long reported some kind of intangible “presence” in the bar, which stands on the site of an old salon dating back to 1881, but things reached a ghostly peak one night earlier this month.
Cindy Lou However, Philip Hurd was sitting with her husband at a table when they heard the unmistakable sound of female screams coming from the restaurant’s kitchen.
They checked the kitchen, but it was empty, with the back door locked.
Spooky Saloon: Mysterious screams at night are heard in the historic Legal Tender bar.
“I don’t believe in ghosts,” said Hurd, who works at Legal Tender. “It simply came to our notice then. When I do something like this, I want to know the facts.
Two other bar staff members, Dachin Francis and Avery Young, say there is much more to the story than this spine-chilling scream;
“Even when you’re alone in a room here,” Avery says, “you never feel alone.”
And Frances said she was getting ready to lock up at the end of a shift when she and her colleagues heard pots and pans rattling in the dark kitchen. Discreetness, proving most of the courage, they slammed the door, locked it, and left.
Many employees refuse to stay in the last hour of closure.
Ghost of a Chance: Christine Mackenzie, of Galisteo, left, Lewis Hawkins, of San Marcos, center, and Mike Macmillan of Santa Fe, play a round of faro at the Legal Tender poker room
There is too much evidence of a grave presence to write off the story of a mixture of imagination and alcohol,
Both staff and visitors report inexplicable voices and something that sounds like a heavy object dragging on the floor of the main dining room. A chandelier hanging over this room has repeatedly swayed wildly without the slightest gust of wind.
For those familiar with the legal trade, it makes sense that some of its long-dead customers are still present.
For the first time in place of Legal Tender in the early 1880s, a business was opened serving the trade brought by the newly built Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe railroads. Somewhere along the way, the old salon became known as the Pink Garter.
In the late 1960s, it was renamed the Legal Tender under the ownership of RO Anderson. Wichita Lineman singer Glenn Campbell played there in his early days.
Jingle these pots and pans: The kitchen was at the center of several of the ghost events
The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1984. Over the years, a number of historical figures have passed through the Lamy area, including Teddy Roosevelt and Billy the Kid – the latter reportedly was on a train that stopped in Lamy on the way to a small prison. Santa Fe.
More obscure figures have also found their way through the village and may never have left it – a border guard reportedly shot by a bullet fired while playing poker is reported to have broken down, as has the woman on board the alleged train. that she died of appendicitis in one of the back rooms of the salon, for example.
Their spirits – known as the Man in Black and the Lady in White – have long been rumored to roam the Legal Tender.
The ghost of a young girl is also associated with the site, although no one has ever developed her previous story.
But Cindy recently met a woman in her 90s who lived in Lami in the 1920s and remembers a playmate from that period who died of tapeworm at the age of seven or eight. The two girls often visited the store, which was once the site of Legal Aid. Cindy also tells anecdotes about kitchen workers who felt the invisible thump of a finger on their sides and a presence tightening the strings of their aprons.
Cindy Lou is not afraid of the ghosts of the legal trader – but still holds a torch at hand, just in case.
Cindy Lou’s NGO Learning Mind has joined the Lamy Railroad and History Museum to revive the Legal Tender. She and other volunteers reopened the restaurant last spring. It serves food from Thursday to Sunday, plus most holidays. Employees often sit for about half an hour after closing to talk about work – and exchange ghost stories.
Parapsychologist Johnny Alm has conducted about five Legal Tender investigations in the past six months using a high-tech audio recorder and a “ghost measure,” a device that detects changes in electromagnetic fields and can detect paranormal energy.
This ghost machine flashes red when it encounters inexplicable energy, and almost goes crazy during a recent late-night tour of the kitchen, about the same time as the lantern of a new Mexican photographer went out. The batteries were new. The flashlight worked well when he left the restaurant.
A four-hour ghost hunt, a recent October evening, brought a chorus of inexplicable noises: although Cindy admits that the ice machine sometimes makes a sound that sounds like a distant shot.
Alm’s ghost lit up when Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata was played. “If there’s one thing a ghost can do, it’s Hurd,” Hurd said.
On his audio recorder, Alm caught strange sounds, including what looked like a ghostly whisper and at one point what looked like the voice of a man saying “Get out.”
“I feel strongly that there are several entities there, at least three,” she said.
She has felt this childish spirit in her presence at least twice, she said. She also feels masculine energy. “There is no fear. In fact, I feel impatient with the spirit of the Man in Black, as if he wants his place back, “she said with a laugh.
Cindy doubts that the Lady in White or the Man in Black are still around. She said various “clean-ups” had been carried out in the building over the past few decades in an attempt to ward off the spirits, and perhaps the two old women had disappeared.
But Cindy is sure that a lush female energy is clinging to the site. She has reason to believe that this is a more modern spirit, that of a young woman who disappeared in the area not so long ago.
It is not for Cindy to describe what is happening in Legal Tender as persecution. “It’s just a presence, someone’s energy or something that’s here,” she said. “This is energy from different times; even from another dimension.
And she said she was never afraid – even when she heard an inexplicable whisper or her name being called by others when she was alone in the building.