Originally, shops were on the first floor and rental rooms on the top. Carl Eklund bought the building, some years later and added a saloon. The saloon brought in enough money to add that third floor.   

 On the side of the hotel, there was a pleasant little sitting area with tables and flowers.  We could see where a brick addition had joined the old stonework.

The Lobby
​

The lobby had a living room feel, with a small sitting area and some unusual rockers.

​Nuns and Popes for Sale

​Near the entrance, there was a small gift shop where we could buy postcards or jewelry.

But for a more unusual travel souvenir, we could have bought a gourd painted like a nun or monk or pope! The "innkeeper" was busily working on her gourd crafts when she wasn't attending to desk. 

​​Framed Hotel History
​
​While Don distracted our gourd artist to get us checked in, I found some  historical goodies.

Hotel wallpaper, circa 1893 (with an arrow on the bullet hole) and a rosary, found imbedded in the plaster wall of room #2, when they did renovations.

Up We Go 
​

There was an elevator, but the stairs were handy to our second floor room.

206, The Dorsey
​
​There were 3 rooms on the second floor, that shared the hotel's balcony. Our room #206 was the middle one.

It was named Dorsey, not for Tommy of Big Band days, but Stephen Dorsey. Mr. Dorsey started up this town of Clayton, and gave the town his son's name.

Western Decor
​
​Originally there were 42 guest rooms and some community bathrooms. After renovations were completed in 2004, there were 26 rooms with private baths.  

I was happy to not share a bath down the hall.  Ours was spotless and the towels were fluffy. The western style furniture was newish, but not exactly hotel quality. I don't think it would have stood up to those rough cattlemen who stayed here 100 years ago.

Outside Time
​
​There was a steady wind, gusting through town all evening, but we were determined to make use of the balcony.  

Don and I spent a little time hanging out on the breezy terrace, keeping an eye on Main Street.

The Luna
​
​If it had been a weekend, we could have strolled across to the old movie house.

There were no shows on Tuesday night, so we took a walk down Main Street.

Train Tracks
​
​We walked down past the Feed & Supply warehouse.  

We didn't see any trains, but we heard them in the night. You have to get used to train sounds if you want to stay in old hotels.

​The Saloon
​
​We had to wait for the big set of metal gates to be unlocked, before we passed through the swinging saloon doors. Funny, they had similar locked gates keeping us out of the dining room as well.

Maybe that's because Clayton has had to deal with some notorious characters in the past.  We learned about Blackjack Ketchum when we had a drink in the saloon. There were some rather eerie pictures of him being hung.

The Old Oak Bar
​
​The beautiful bar, that Mr. Eklund won in a poker game, was mighty impressive.

You could picture some dusty characters lined up along the stand-up bar. The lack of stools meant you could get a good look at the arches and pillars in the design. The lack of a bartender, made it hard to get a drink. 

Quiet at First
​
​We amused ourselves with the buffalo head and some old photographs until a young woman wandered out to serve us a drink.  

The dining room was closed, so we ended up eating dinner in the bar, which eventually filled with a crowd of mostly locals. The meatloaf, salad and soup was actually quite tasty. 

Morning
​
​Don and I waited for the gates to open in the formal dining room for the complimentary breakfast.

The woman putting out the food seemed to have a system that we didn't want to disturb. 

Our food server told us that some guests just want to sit there because it's  pretty. I wanted to ask her, "And why exactly aren't guests allowed to sit there?" But she sort of scared me.

​Don doesn't look scared in this photo, but he should have been!
Look at the whispy bit of a ghost that seems to be photobombing this image! Yikes, that might be the spirit of Blackjack Ketchum!

What's Notable?
​
​I'll remember how sturdy The Eklund felt, in this town of dust and wind. The sandstone exterior, will be what I remember.  The interior was less impressive with lobby knickknacks and mixture of real and "new" antiques.

 

We immediately noticed a man stretched out, snoring on the couch. We tiptoed past the man and the big TV, which was showing a western movie.
​
In Search of the Inn Keeper
​
​We assumed the man wasn't the owner, since the hotel is owned by 3 sisters.  

We wandered through the dining room and found Linda in the kitchen.  She checked us in and chuckled over the sleeper.  "Oh he's a frequent guest."

The Barber's Room?
​
​Linda told us we'd find our room upstairs.  We walked past this beautiful door at the base of the stairs. It  had the original knob and transom. The door was actually open at the time, since it belonged to the sleeping man.  

Over the years the hotel has been converted to apartments, then a single home and back again to a hotel. Sadly some of the historic charm disappeared, when old doors and walls were removed and new ones were added. I'm not sure if the window was old or new, since It was completely hidden behind the drapes and window unit. I did peek through to see if there was a view, but only saw a brick wall.

Decor
​
​The decor was a little like a vintage resale shop. There was a little lace here, a flower vase and a quilted heart there.

We bought a couple beers at the grocery store next door and sat on the patio beside the building. (Luckily we didn't need the fire escape during the night.)

View
​
​We didn't have a view from our room, but the view from the patio showed us the Matador water tower.

In the morning we came down and headed through the sitting room. Our sleeping friend was now at the breakfast table.

A Feast and Good Talk
​
​Don and I joined the other two guests at the quilt covered table for breakfast.

Eric was a geological engineer, I think and Bo was a Nuclear engineer, so we had some intelligent table talk.

Erik, who is a frequent guest because of oil field work, asked if we'd been to the jailhouse, down the street. He said it was a must. Later, Linda gave us a key and we had a pretty amazing visit in the creepy building that once housed prisoners above and the jailer's family, below. ​

Bo, who grew up in Matador but was visiting a family grave site, remembered the jail keeper who used to live there. We heard from others that the jail was haunted, but Don and I had no encounters when we explored on our own.

Bo's Stories
​
​It was fun to hear Bo tell stories about living in town, when it was thriving during his childhood. He said he used to get his hair cut at the hotel's barber shop, that is now a guest room. He talked about the once famous, Bob's Oil Well gas station, just down the road.

He remembered eating at the petrified wood cafe, next door. What I read later, told me that the station's owner, killed himself at a Hotel, in Matador. I'm guessing it must have been our hotel, since we didn't see another hotel in town that would have been around in 1946, when Bob shot himself. Yikes! I think our hotel did have stories to tell.

​What's Notable?
​
It was a pretty dull town and a not so exciting hotel. But our breakfast with Bo and Erik ended up making the visit memorable. When it came time to check out, I once again couldn't find Linda and had an awkward encounter, after knocking on doors to find her.  The vibe of our stay was more boarding house than bed & breakfast... but I'm kind of okay with that.
​