Strange Setting

8/1/2025

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
It was a scenic spot, six miles north of Las Vegas, New Mexico, situated at the Gallinas Canyon. It would go through many incarnations including being the set for the 1978 film The Evil.

The Montezuma Hotel was formerly known as the Phoenix Hotel c.1892

W.W. Donaldson purchased the land in 1841, and up to 1854 he was advertising for invalids to come to enjoy the benefit of the Hot Springs.

In 1846, the U.S. Army bought this piece of land, and built a military hospital. Situated close to hot springs, soldiers injured in the Mexican-American War were brought here to recuperate.

During the 1880s it was run by Christian Duper.

Less than 20 years later it was sold and converted into the Adobe Hotel. During these years investors eyed the scenic beauty, and soon built another hotel named the Hot Spring Hotel. It was advertised to cater to wealthier clientele, and the springs were described as "curing syphilitic and kindred diseases, scrofula, cutaneous diseases, rheumatism, etc.". The going rates in 1868, were $15 per week for a room without baths, and $20 per week with a bath. Billiard tables with the choicest liquors and cigars were available. Even the governor visited the springs.

In 1875, it was being advertised as a resort for invalids and pleasure seekers.

Montezuma Hotel after the fire c.1885

The hotel went through different incarnations, including a change of name. The Montezuma Hotel promoted its two hundred and seventy rooms to those who were sick, but wanted to enjoy it's manicured parks, the shops and even a zoo. It burned down in 1884 due to clogged gas lines.

In 1885, they were advertising the new hotel and referring to it as the new Montezuma, built at the cost of $100,000. It's grand opening was short-lived since it burned down four months later.

The hotel was rebuilt on the same site under the new name Phoenix Hotel. In 1891, it once more became the Montezuma Hotel.

The castle-like structure sits at the gateway to the Gallinas Canyon which offered great trout fishing. During the time it was a hotel, it had its own rail line and train that would bring visitors directly to the property. There was a stone grandstand horse race track name King's Stadium. The hotel was a favorite place of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria who visited often.

An online blogger commented on what was happening at the Montezuma Hotel at the turn of the 20th century:

My grandfather, Percy Joseph Farmer, was the medical director of a Wellness/Hotel effort at the Montezuma from 1904-1908. He was a married neurologist from St. Louis, whose father, Joseph Bryant Farmer, bought the hotel as a place where Percy could go and work and also recuperate from his own heart problems. Percy’s wife Mabel went with him and his sister Jenny Farmer. Sadly, Jenny died in her 20s. Percy, his father, his son, and his daughter ( my mother) all died of heart problems.

I have one or two letters written back and forth from his father and him in about 1906 about various people coming to stay there, how they were feeling, etc. Percy returned to St. Louis and practiced there until his death in the 30’s.

Jesuit seminarians trained in response to the Cristero War in Mexico

Through all these years, the magnificent pleasure resort failed to make an economic success and was ultimately closed in 1903, due to bankruptcy.

In 1903, the YMCA bought it for $1. The Southern Baptist College bought it in 1922, and less than 10 years later sold it to the Catholic Church. Its purpose was to train Mexican Jesuits so they could return to Mexico and spread the Catholic religion.

During the rule of Mexican President Calles in the late 1920s, Mexicans were imprisoned for wearing religious items and saying "Adios" in public, because it translates to "with God". The punishment was hanging or firing squad. The period from 1926 to 1929 were known as the Cristero War. Priests had to register and church property was confiscated. The church went underground, and close to 500 seminarians came to train at the Montezuma, to offset the persecution of the Catholic religion.

The old gymnasium was turned into the chapel. The seminarians throughout the years participated in local religious parades, and received priests in training until 1972.

Movie poster for The Evil c.1977

Then for some weird reason, in 1977, the Catholic Church rented out the empty structure as a set for the horror film The Evil.

The premise of the movie surrounds psychiatrist C. J. Arnold and his physician wife Caroline (Richard Crenna and Joanna Pettet), who purchase an old manor to be used as a drug rehab clinic. The caretaker who comes on the property with trepidation, is lured into the basement where he meets a grisly end. The realtor tells the Arnolds the house was built by Emilio "Old Man" Vargas, but forgets to mention its history of weird deaths, and that the local tribes called it the "Valley of the Devils". Vargas built a hotel as a spa, but the steam pools and the sulfur pits dried up the day the hotel opened. This drove Vargas into seclusion.

Dr. Arnold asks ex-patients and students to come and help him get the place ready, and it's all downhill from there, especially after the good doctor releases a demonic force trapped by Emilio Vargas, many years before.

An online blog describes the following:

There is a legend (whether it is true or not I do not know but I have been told it is so) about the time when the monks lived in the Castle. There are six rooms on the the 3rd floor that have been blocked up and never reopened. It is in these rooms that several of the monks were walled up inside of these rooms alive and were left there to suffer a certain doom of slow starvation and what-have-you. A total of 12 monks were walled up because they were considered a threat to the others living there. This was before skytsophrenia [sic] was 'well-known'.

There are also plenty of ghost stories about the castle--the movie The Evil was filmed here, and legend has it that the proprietor of the original hotel walks around at night, and that an opera singer who died here can be heard singing sometimes. There was a local legend that you could not take a clear pic of the fireplace, as the place was haunted.

Landscape surrounding the Montezuma (Phoenix) Hotel shortly after it was bought by the YMCA c.1904

In 1981, the Church sold the property to Armand Hammer (1898-1990). Hammer was the son of a Russian born communist activist. He trained as a doctor, but made his fortune in pharmaceuticals and whiskey. He took cover Occidental petroleum and it became one of the largest companies in the United States. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, he was also known for his art collection and his close ties to the Soviet Union.

He converted the hotel into the United World College of the American West (UWC-USA), which describes itself as an independent boarding school, which caters to international students. Approximately 75% of the students are international. It's headquartered in London. Its aim is: "to make education a force to unite people, nations, and cultures for peace and a sustainable future." If offers a a two-year, co-educational boarding school that offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma program.

"The school's mission is to develop bridge builders and compassionate leaders who can address human and environmental crises."

Partial page from Harpers's Weekly, 1890, describing Las Vegas Hot Springs (now Montezuma, NM). Upper image is "Mountain View near the Springs". First inset is "Taking a Mud Bath". Third image is "The Montezuma", and the top of "View in the Cañon" appears to the lower left.

During the years it ran as a hotel there were rumors of deaths there that resulted in a haunting. One of them pertains to an opera singer who died in the late 19th century at the hotel, and she's heard singing at different times and places in the hotel. Her death has not been verified. However there have been others who have met their end while at the Montezuma.

In May, 1885, Atkins Martin a popular head porter at the hotel died very suddenly. He was sick only 20 minutes before he passed away. He had served in the 9th cavalry and at times served as General Hatch's body servant. He had been honorably discharged from the military in 1880.

In 1913, Joe Saavedra a porter died, and in 1922, Oscar McCoy, 27, former assistant manager of the Montezuma died due to illness that most probably was consumption, since he h moved to Santa Fe from Oklahoma for his health.

There are rumors that guests also died during their stay, but these deaths were hushed up since the place was supposed to improve a person's health. It would not have helped their image if a stay at the Montezuma sped up your death instead of delaying it.