Menger Hotel

One of my favorite places to stay in Texas is the venerable Menger Hotel in San Antonio. The Menger is situated across the alley from the Alamo, as the Bob Wills song goes. Famous guests include Robert E. Lee, U.S. Grant, Sam Houston, Babe Ruth, and Bob Dylan. Teddy Roosevelt recruited the Rough Riders in the bar.

I stayed at the Menger a while back and was given a free "upgrade." That's right. I was placed in the King Ranch Suite. The suite, of course, is considered to be the most haunted place in the hotel, and, considering that the hotel was completely booked, it looks like the person who had booked the suite was too afraid to sleep there. Captain Richard King of King Ranch and Santa Gertrudis cattle fame died in that very room. In fact, he died in the very bed where I slept. The bellman, to his credit, assured me that the mattress had been changed. That is reassuring considering that Captain King died in 1885. 

I will not pretend that I slept particularly well in the King Ranch Suite, and I will not lower my credibility by relating a tale of what some would consider supernatural weirdness and others merely a psychosomatic manifestation of a theatrical, overactive imagination. Nonetheless, if you have never stayed at the Menger, I highly recommend it. The hotel is truly a Texas treasure.