ON THE TRAIL OF A GHOST IN SANTA FE, N.M.
An enchanting search for an elusive Santa Fe spirit becomes sidelined by the city’s endless charms
Plus the historic city’s art, architecture and legacy
Most visitors to Santa Fe, N.M., come to immerse themselves in the city’s internationally renowned art and culture. Others are drawn by the cuisine. Restaurants include James Beard Award winners and hole-in-the-wall taco stands, and the city’s red and green chilies are famous for their flavour. Still more tourists come to experience the crisp, cerulean skies and clean air as they navigate the surrounding Sangre de Cristo Mountains. There are also desert explorers and river rats, whose kayaks and standup paddleboards dot the surrounding waterways, giving Santa Fe a recreational edge akin to Boise, Idaho, or Boulder, Colo. — minus the crowds. But I travelled to Santa Fe in July partly to look for a ghost. Specifically, I was hoping for a glimpse of Julia Staab, a GermanJewish bride brought from the old country by her husband, Abraham, in the late 19th century. Julia is believed to haunt La Posada de Santa Fe Resort and Spa, a grand property off the city’s main plaza where she and her family once lived. I discovered the Staabs in the pages of American Ghost: A Family’s Haunted Past in the Desert Southwest, a 2015 memoir by my friend Hannah Nordhaus. Hannah, who is Julia’s great-great-granddaughter, explored Julia’s journey to the untamed western United States and mysterious death — reputed to be grim, likely violent and possibly self-inflicted. Full disclosure: Mine was not an original mission. Julia’s spirit has beckoned ghost hunters to Santa Fe since the late 1970s, when she was first reported to have made paranormal appearances — showing up on the staircase in the hotel’s main building and waking guests in her former bedroom. Her story intrigued me as much as the city itself, a place I hadn’t visited since my own childhood but whose allure as an exotic, historic destination loomed large in my imagination. La Posada was the ideal starting place. Situated on six acres (2.4 hectares), the resort consists of the Staab House, the original Victorian mansion Abraham built for Julia in 1882, now remodelled in the adobe style of the Southwest. Extensive artwork lines the walls and rooms in the Staab House as part of the hotel’s art program. Long before galleries dominated the Santa Fe cultural scene, La Posada showcased the work of U.S. artists. Today it curates professional artwork through exhibitions and sales, earning it a reputation as “the art hotel” of Santa Fe. Guests stay in adobe casitas around the property, most built in the 1930s to house-visiting artists, and the entire resort has a secluded, peaceful ambience. My family listened to American Ghost on the drive to Santa Fe, and upon arrival I dragged my crew into the Staab House to admire the historical photos and to climb the Grand Staircase. My attempts to telegraph my presence to Julia were interrupted by my hungry, energetic sons, ages six and eight, and I made a quick reassessment: Despite my personal desire to delve into Julia’s world, this trip would be punctuated with catering to their needs. Our four days became more of a reconnaissance mission to historical Santa Fe than a thorough exploration of it. After a quick lunch, we strolled through the old town of Santa Fe, passing the one-time location of the Staab mercantile on the main plaza. We admired the turquoise and silver jewelry sold by Indigenous merchants — many Hopi, Arapaho and Navajo. The artisans gather under the portico of the Palace of the Governors, and their wares are stunning. Some of the shops we explored were in centuries-old buildings, and we had to duck as we walked through the doorways to avoid hitting our heads on the low, narrow entrances. At San Miguel Chapel — believed to be the oldest in the U.S., it was built sometime between 1610 and 1628 — we paused to marvel at the thick adobe walls and the wooden altar screens at the front of the chapel. For lunch we drove to the TuneUp Cafe, a small diner situated in a residential neighbourhood about a mile (1.6 km) from downtown. After ringing up our order of chilis rellenos and enchiladas, the cashier gently informed me that many Santa Fe locals avoid the plaza because of all the tourists. She likened the atmosphere to a theme park. I considered her criticism as I savoured the rich, cheesy food on the café’s shaded patio. Although it’s true that kitschy gift shops and Tshirt stores exist downtown, they mix with quite the concentration of world-class art, some of it hanging at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum and the New Mexico Museum of Art. I don’t doubt the locals experience tourist fatigue — the city reports two million visitors each year — but still, I disagreed. The sheer abundance of art and architecture, legacy and history rendered Santa Fe more mythical than overwrought. In fact, there is so much to Santa Fe that we encountered only a fraction of its charms in our short trip. We indulged in not one but two delectable chocolaterias. (We preferred Kakawa Chocolate House for its drinkable chilichocolate elixir.) At the Railyard Arts District, my sons explored an old railcar before sampling their first sopaipillas, dipping the crisp, deep-fried puffy bread into honey at La Choza, a casual restaurant with sumptuous red and green chili sauce. The farmers’ market, which operates year-round in a dedicated, enclosed building, offered fresh produce, live music, slushed lemonade and — the boys’ pick — sweet cinnamon rolls from Cloud Cliff Bakery. But the kids’ favourite experience, by far, was Meow Wolf, an interactive art exhibit in an industrial part of town whose centrepiece is a haunted house that features a murder mystery with clues for patrons to follow. My kids couldn’t have been less interested in Julia Staab at La Posada, but Meow Wolf House of Eternal Return enraptured them.