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DOUGLAS — Celebrating its 100th year in operation, Douglas’s famous, or infamous, Gadsden Hotel continues to offer guests the beauty of a different era, a rich history, legends and even a few ghost stories.
The Gadsden opened its doors in 1907, and visitors were greeted with a jewel of the architectural firm Trost & Trost.
With a magnificent Italian white marble staircase leading up to the second floor with a 42-foot-long, one-of-a-kind, Tiffany-designed stained glass desert scene, the first impression is striking to say the least.
  
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Four marble columns, decorated with 14-karat gold, rise from the lobby floor and lead one’s eye to the stain glass sky lights. The hotel stands five-stories tall and has 150 rooms.
Legend has it that Pancho Villa rode his horse up that staircase and a nick in the marble is attributed to that ride. Some say he’s still there in ghostly form. Sightings of a ghostly figure in black with no head have been reported by staff and visitors since Villa’s death in 1923.
As the story goes, a map to Villa’s buried treasure in Mexico was tattooed on his head. After his assassination, his loyal followers removed and buried the head of Villa beneath the ashes of the hotel, which was damaged by fire. Knowing the hotel would be rebuilt over the macabre burial site, they figured his treasure would eternally safe. Some say the ghostly figure is Villa walking the halls of the basement hunting for his lost head and the treasure map.
Hotel workers and guests also have had sightings of a khaki-clad apparition usually around Lent and Christmas. Other guests have reported lights mysteriously turning on and off and things being knocked over in their rooms.
Though the hotel was gutted by fire in 1928, it was reopened in 1929, still retaining its glory.
It’s most well-known claim-to-fame was when the cast of “The Life and Times of Judge Roy Bean” came to town in 1971. Paul Newman, Ava Gardner and director John Huston, among other notable actors, called the hotel home during the shooting of the film. Several other movies, “Terminal Velocity” for one, had scenes filmed in the hotel lobby.
The Gadsden Hotel has gone through the hands of several owners.
Over the years, the condition of the grand hotel also deteriorated.
It’s been in the hands of Hartman Brekhus and the Brekhus family for the past 19 years, and they have worked to re-establish the hotel as a top-quality destination for travelers.
“My father-in-law bought the hotel twice — once in 1981,” said Robin Brekhus, manager. “But he couldn’t find anyone to run it. So, two weeks later, he gave it up.”
The hotel meant so much to his late wife Doris, that the couple purchased it again in 1988.
His sons Henry and Robin packed up and moved from North Dakota into the hotel and renovations began. They brought it up to date with amenities most travelers expect, even jacuzzis.
“Hartman and Doris were afraid it would be torn down if somebody didn’t take it over,” said Robin, who now can’t imagine living anywhere else.
The Brekhus family loved the area from the start, particularly Hartman, an 83-year-old pilot who fought wildfires in Cochise County from the air 20 years ago.
“Ever spent the winter in North Dakota?” he asked with a smile. “That’s why I like it here.”
He and his wife made the trek every winter from their wheat farm in North Dakota. Though he kept up the commute for a few years after his wife’s death in 2001, he calls the Gadsden home and lives comfortably with his family near the Douglas International Airport that he loves so much.
His son Henry had his first solo flight out of the Douglas airport when he was just 16 years old. His grandsons Scotti and, most recently, Dakota soloed after their 16th birthdays.
With such a history and love of flying, the Brekhus family is planning the first annual air show at Douglas International to celebrate the 100th birthday of the Gadsden. The festivity, which is called the Border to Border Air Show, begins on March 16, where people can meet the pilots, several daredevils among them, have some appetizers and dance the night away.
On March 17, pilots take to the skies offering some of the best stunt flying around, Robin said.
There also will be carnival rides, entertainment all day, a car show, an art car show and a bike show. In the sky, plane rides for the curious and tandem jumping for the adventurous. The event is free.
In the evening, Craig Carter and the Spur of the Moment Band will entertain at the Hangar Dance.
HERALD/REVIEW reporter Shar Porier can be reached at 515-4692 or by e-mail at shar.porier@bisbeereview.net.
Ezai I. Martinez wrote on Jun 24, 2009 7:58 PM: