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HISTORY OF THE
EKLUND HOTEL
The history and
lore of the Eklund Hotel, Dining Room and Saloon play a significant
part in the heritage of Clayton, NM. James Lee Burke wrote about the
Eklund in his book Bitterroot, "…(we) drove back to Texas through
the northern tip of New Mexico and stopped for the night at Clayton,
a short distance from the Texas state line. We walked…to a
nineteenth-century hotel named the Eklund and had dinner in a dining
room paneled with hand-carved mahogany. The hotel was three stores,
built of quarried stone, anchored in the hardpan like a fortress
against the wind, …On the wall of the small lobby was a framed
photograph of the outlaw Black Jack Ketchum being fitted with a
noose on a freshly carpentered scaffold. Another photograph showed
him after the trapdoor had collapsed under his feet. Most of the
patrons entering or leaving the dining room were local people and
took no notice of the photographic display…(we) walked outside under
a turquoise sky…I looked back over my shoulder at the stone rigidity
of the hotel and its scrolled-iron colonnade…and I wondered if
cattle and railroad barons had hosted champagne dinners in the hotel
dining room, or if cowboys off the Goodnight-Love Trail had knocked
back busthead whiskey in the saloon and shot holes in the ceiling
with their six shooters…But I think it was all of the above, truly
the West."
The first two floors of the west side of what is now the Eklund
Hotel was build in 1892; for two years the ground floor was used as
a store and the upstairs rooms were rented out. In 1894, Carl Eklund,
a Swedish immigrant, came to Clayton, NM and bought the building. He
opened the Saloon using the historic bar and back-bar which is still
in use today. It is said that he won the bar in a poker game with
ten dollars he had borrowed.
The saloon business flourished and in 1898, Mr. Eklund built the
first two floors of the east side of his then prospering venture,
including a kitchen and dining room. In 1905 a third story and the
second-floor balcony were added. Considered the finest hotel in the
area, the Eklund's rates were quite expensive, running about two
dollars a night! Always progressive, Carl Eklund saw to it that his
hotel was the first place in Clayton to get electricity, public
telephones and a switchboard.
In 1908, the Clayton Union County Courthouse was partially destroyed
by a tornado. Several County offices were moved into a portion of
the Eklund's rooms and business proceeded as usual. A makeshift jail
was constructed on the north side of the first floor. In more recent
years, that room has been used as a private dining room.
In 1937, Mr. Eklund turned the management of the Eklund Hotel over
to his daughter and son-in-law under whose management it remained
for thirty-five years. The Eklund was sold in 1972 to an investor
who restored the historic Dining Room and Saloon, but Hotel
operations were suspended. The Eklund was sold again in 1987 and
1990. In 1992, a group of private investors, mostly local residents,
purchased the Eklund and struggled to keep the Dining Room and
Saloon operating. By the late 1990's, the success of those struggles
enabled the owners to start planning very carefully and thoroughly
the restoration of the historic Hotel space and operations. The
financing was closed and construction began on June 10, 2003 and
completed in March, 2004. The original forty-two rooms and community
bathrooms have been made into twenty-six rooms each with a private
bath. The Dining Room and Saloon have also undergone renovations.
The Eklund
Hotel, Dining Room and Saloon welcomes you to come and experience
the fully restored "Bit of the Old West" in Clayton, NM
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