It was built for a lady, a certain lady who’s home was far from these vast and empty plains. He had met her in Kansas City at the Cattleman’s Association Ball. She was the daughter of the biggest Cattle Baron in Kansas. Maybe he had exaggerated a little bit about the size of his Outfit. He had not lied about the size of his ranch. It was 500,000 acres, give or take, What he had not mentioned was that it took about 1,000 acres for one cow to exist.

He left Kansas with a promise, got home gathered his ranch hands and Old Juan Senna the local carpintero, showed them a drawing of one of the mansions he had seen in Kansas City and told them, “We are going to build this”.

Time passed, the house got finished. All that was left was to go back to Kansas, pick up his bride and live happily ever after in his castle. All the way back to New Mexico on the train she kept asking about the ranch and their house. He showed her the drawing that had been the inspiration for the house and said, “It looks just like this”. The train pulled into Estancia late at night. The ranch hands were there to meet the couple at the depot and take them in a fancy surrey on the long dark road back to the ranch. The bride and groom went upstairs for a night of bliss.

The next morning the bride looked out those big upstairs windows and saw a vast dry and empty land, not a blade of grass. The harsh landscape, with nothing on the horizon, it all came crashing in on her and she screamed. A sound so loud and full of despair that was swallowed up in the lonely vastness. She left that morning, left behind a broken heart and a ghost house. The loneliness and despair in that scream was so powerful that it haunted the place and to this day no one has ever been able to live in that house.

Well, that about wraps it up Pard. Stay tuned for another exciting adventure from Tales Of The Lonesome Prospector.

The Ghost House