Serving as cook for General Grant and President Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, Henri Lambert (1838-1913) drifted west in 1864 in hopes of finding gold. Initially settling in Elizabethtown, New Mexico , Lambert moved to Cimarron in 1872 and built this hotel at a cost of $17,000. Its saloon, restaurant and 43 rooms were witnesses to at least 26 murders during Cimarron's wilder days, most committed in "self defense."Clay Allison, Black Jack Ketchum and Buffalo Bill Cody have all left their mark on the St. James , as attested by the numerous bullet holes in the tin ceiling of the main dining room."*