History of Otero County, New Mexico

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History of Otero County, New Mexico
High Rolls and Mountain Park, New Mexico

High Rolls Hotel and Cottages

The High Rolls Development Company was Incorporated the 11th of August, 1909, by Simon Kotosky, Emil Kohn,
H.H. Fisher an D.C.Jones. They planned a new townsite and power company in the High Rolls area.
Jim Alexander, a hustling photographer vent to High Rolls to photograph the area for advertising purposes.
The townsite was surveyed and platted in September of 1909.
Hatt Hassey started getting rock for the foundation of the big new hotel, to be built at High Rolls, in
October of 1909. Early in 1910 Elmer Wooten started building the hotel about 100 feet west of the passenger
depot. The hotel was almost complete in June of 1910 when the worst windstorm in years came along and blew
down the building. The loss amounted to about $1,000.00, but there were no personal injuries. According to
C. C. Braunstein the first hotel building looked like a barn and the second building was such nicer.
Dr. Clayton Patch made an agreement with the High Rolls Development Company, in December of 1910, for use of
the hotel and cottages. He planned to make a year round resort and sanatorium. This agreement was probably
never used. The hotel was two stories high and there were bedrooms on the second floor, one newspaper report
says there were 25 bedrooms but that is doubtful. There was a bath at each end of the upstairs hall.
Downstairs was the kitchen, dining room and the lobby. The ceiling and walls were wood, and the rooms had
beaded ceilings, the door frames were of redwood. The lobby had beautiful stairs with carved railings.
There were no heating facilities for all the rooms of the hotel by there was a big wood or coal burning stove
in the lobby. The stove was too big for home use. The hotel may have opened to business in 1911 with Palmers
operating it the first season. The information is a little hazy for the first year. The hotel opened for the
season in April of 1917 with Mrs. W. H. Harkness as manager. According to Mrs. Carol Johnson of Tularosa who
was 12 years old at the time, Mrs. Mnems was the cook that summer and Mrs. Carol Johnson's mother did the
canning for the hotel and Mrs. Carol Johnson washed the dishes. H. LaSalle, engineer, started the plans for
the cottages at High Rolls in 1909. The cottages were to be frame buildings with a hip roof and the
foundations were of logs. The outside was overlap four inch dropped siding and inside walls and ceilings were
of wood. The cottages were built for summer occupancy and the insulation was poor. Some people did live in
the cottages all year. They had one and two rooms. Later sone of the cottages had a lean-to-shed built on to
be used as another room. The water was piped to each of the cottages but there were no water heaters. Each
cottage had an out door privy.

During the summer of 1911 KID PAYA the Bantam Champion of Mexico lived in one of the cottages with E. Haeville
who was his sparring partner and the people of High Rolls watched the workouts of the two wen. The kid was
training for a 16 round, fight in Jaurez, Mexico the later part of July. The newspapers give different numbers
of cottages at High Rolls and in 1914 the Weekly Cloudcrofter of March 13 stated that F. H. French was building
two more cottages at High Rolls. He is the same French who finished the inside of the Fresena church. The Otero
County news of August 28, 1917 reported that the hotel company had fifty cottages furnished and with spring
water piped from the Johnson Ranch in Karr Canyon several miles south of High Rolls. Mr. and Mrs. Heade lease
the large High Rolls Hotel and forty cottages for the season in 1927. These cottages were later sold to
individuals and today 1988 there are still some of the original cottages in use on Cottage Row. There are
probably now in the year 1994 only one or two of the original buildings there. The hotel was partially torn down
and people used the lumber in other buildings. Today the Bi11 Dennis family lives in the old hotel and it has
been remodeled.

Information from Virginia Stanbrough