New book highlights haunted hotels across New Mexico

A big fan of the supernatural, the owner of the Painted Lady Bed and Brew had no idea the building he'd purchased was haunted. "Ever since I was like a little kid, I always wanted a haunted house, " said Jesse Herron. "People that have stayed here have said things... they'll look at me and I'll be like... yes, it is haunted," said Herron. Now known as the "Painted Lady Bed and Brew" in the Sawmill District of Albuquerque, it was originally the "Swastika Saloon" built in the 1880s and at one point served as a brothel. "The sawmill was right across the street and you had the window, so they would be... I imagine them on the sidewalk outside trying to lure guys in," he said while in an old bedroom of the brothel, now a suite for guests. Full of New Mexico history, it's one of 14 haunted locations in the new book, "Haunted Hotels and Ghostly Getaways of New Mexico." "They keep history alive by keeping these hotels open," said Donna Blake Birchell, the author of the new book. She included another Albuquerque location, the "Red Horse Vineyard" in the South Valley. Other famous locations include the St. James hotel in Cimarron, and the La Fonda Hotel and La Posada both in Santa Fe. Birchell says the idea for the book came to her after a ghostly encounter at the Plaza Hotel in Las Vegas, New Mexico. "There was a huge pressure on the small of my back and I couldn't turn over," she said. Birchell hopes the book brings visitors to the locations, and also brings their history alive. "Stay at these properties or at least visit them and support them, because they're wonderful people," she said...MORE