HauntBound archive · catalog record
Reported phenomena, as catalogued
An 1892 saloon-turned-hotel in the town that hanged Black Jack Ketchum, with a reported ghost named Irene in Room 307.
15 Main St, Clayton, NM 88415
Research updated September 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$
Room rates and dining prices aren't posted online; call the hotel or book through its website.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic three-story downtown hotel with a saloon, two dining rooms, and upstairs guest rooms.
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1892 · National Register of Historic Places, 2002 · Santa Fe Trail-Era Railroad Town · Black Jack Ketchum's 1901 Hanging
The west side of what's now the Eklund Hotel went up in 1892 as a saloon and gambling hall in the young railroad town of Clayton. Carl Eklund, a Swedish immigrant, bought the building in 1894 and expanded it over the next decade — adding the east side in 1898 and a third story with a balcony in 1905.
Clayton's most notorious historical event happened a couple of blocks away and became tied to the hotel by way of the outlaw's own appetite: Thomas "Black Jack" Ketchum, convicted of train robbery, reportedly favored the Eklund's chicken dinners. He was hanged in Clayton on April 26, 1901, in an execution so badly miscalculated it became notorious. A framed photograph of Ketchum being fitted with the noose still hangs in the hotel's small lobby.
The hotel earned a spot on the New Mexico State Register of Cultural Properties in 1971 and joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2002. Its 24 guest rooms went through a full renovation in 2004. Architects Keith and Jeannette Barras, who specialize in historic preservation, bought the hotel in 2011 and still run it, along with its bar — one of the state's better-known surviving saloon spaces — and two dining rooms.
Sources
The hotel's best-known ghost story centers on Room 307, where a maid named Irene is said to cause creaking floorboards and make faces appear in the wallpaper. Local news coverage repeats the story with little elaboration on who Irene was or when she worked at the hotel, and the hotel's own history pages don't name her. A 2018 Amarillo television report attributes an account of her death to the hotel's owners, but no contemporary record has been found for it, and the earlier write-ups that carry the Room 307 story don't mention it at all.
Co-owner Keith Barras, an architect who bought the hotel with his wife in 2011, treats the stories with a shrug. His favorite anecdote isn't scary: a guest once thanked her husband for gently rubbing her head all night to ease a migraine, and he denied doing it. Barras offered that maybe she'd been "touched by an angel" rather than anything sinister.
A second, better-documented figure gets tied to the hotel more by association than by any reported sighting: Black Jack Ketchum, hanged two blocks away in 1901, was a regular at the Eklund's chicken dinners before his arrest, and local ghost-tour material lists him among the spirits said to wander Clayton's downtown, the hotel included.
Notable Entities
Sleep in one of 24 guest rooms above the hotel's 1892 saloon, renovated in 2004. Current owners Keith and Jeannette Barras, architects who specialize in historic preservation, have run the hotel since 2011 along with its bar and two dining rooms. Book by phone or through the hotel's website.
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