Marathon's 1927 rancher's hotel designed by Henry Trost; Alfred Gage died within a year of opening, and Room 10 carries the most persistent reports of apparitions and unexplained disturbances.
102 NW 1st St, Marathon, TX 79842
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
$$$
Hotel rooms; restaurant and bar open to non-guests.
Access
Wheelchair OK
Historic single-story main building with accessible public spaces; some rooms in courtyard annexes
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1927 · Henry Trost Mission and Spanish-style architecture · Alfred Stevens Gage ranching empire history · One of three Trost-designed hotels in Big Bend corridor · Restored by JP Bryan 1978
Alfred Stevens Gage arrived in West Texas in 1878 at age 18, reportedly with little more than ambition. Over the following decades he assembled a ranching operation that eventually exceeded 500,000 acres in the Big Bend region. By the mid-1920s he had accumulated enough capital to commission a proper headquarters hotel at the Marathon railhead — the closest depot to his holdings — and hired El Paso architect Henry Trost to design the building.
Trost, who had already designed the Hotel Paisano in Marfa and would go on to design the Holland Hotel in Alpine, executed the Gage in a Mission and Spanish-style design consistent with the regional vernacular. The hotel officially opened for business in April 1927. Alfred Gage died the following year, in 1928, less than two years after the building opened — close enough to opening that guests who had met him were still checking in when he died.
The hotel declined over the following decades. When JP Bryan purchased the property in 1978, it had fallen into disrepair. Bryan's restoration brought the building back to operating condition and established the Gage's current identity as a destination hotel in the Big Bend corridor. The property now includes the original main building, multiple courtyard annexes, a restaurant, and bar.
The hotel is one of three Henry Trost designs in the Big Bend-Alpine corridor — along with the Paisano and the Holland — that have developed paranormal reputations, a coincidence that has not gone unnoticed by regional tourism writers.
Sources
The Gage Hotel's paranormal tradition holds that three spirits remain in the building. The most prominent candidate is Alfred Gage himself — the rancher who died within a year of his hotel opening, and who by several accounts has been seen walking the original corridor toward the lobby. A second figure is described in the hotel's lore as a 'lovesick bride from the 1920s,' though no historical record of this person has been identified in the sources consulted. The third figure is unnamed and appears primarily on the front porch and in the gardens.
Room 10 in the original main building has the most documented list of reported incidents. A guest who stayed there in 2002 recorded waking in the night to see what appeared to be an old cowhand standing at the door to the bathroom. Separate accounts from Room 10 describe a woman's voice — heard as if reading or reciting quietly — that has no identifiable source. Guests have also described being touched on the shoulder by something not visible when they turned around.
Room 39, in an annex section of the property, has drawn its own cluster of reports from guests who have woken or been otherwise disturbed during the night without being able to attribute the cause to anything physical. The apparitions reported in the gardens and on the front porch — figures that saunter rather than move with urgency — have been noted by both overnight guests and visitors passing the property at night.
Notable Entities
The original main building rooms — particularly Room 10 — carry the most consistent paranormal reports, including apparitions in the corridor and on the front porch, disembodied sounds, and unexplained presences. Room 39 in an annex section has also drawn accounts. The hotel operates a restaurant and full bar.
Every HauntBound history is researched from documented sources. We clearly separate verified historical fact from paranormal folklore.
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