SALADO - There are those who say if a person looks and listens carefully late nights, the ghost of Sam Houston can be seen on the balcony of the Stagecoach Inn in Salado delivering his anti-secession speech to the locals.

Many legends thrive about this venerable hostelry at 1 S. Main St. that is reputed to be the oldest continuously operating hotel in Texas. It gives the place a distinctive panache.

Historians can’t find any original sources to prove it, but legend says Houston, Robert E. Lee, Gen. George Armstrong Custer, and bandits Sam Bass and Jesse James all slept here - hopefully not all on the same night.

How did these stories get started? Someone saw the names listed in a hotel register. No one knows who saw the names or when. The registers - all of them - are said to have mysteriously disappeared sometime in the unknown distant past - possibly stolen.

They say Bass and James are rumored to have buried gold somewhere on the grounds of the inn. That myth expanded over the years to include a hidden cave on the property (that actually exists) where the bullion was supposedly squirreled away by the desperados.

Historian Charles Turnbo in his book “Salado Texas” wrote that the hotel is thought to be one of the oldest remaining structures in Salado.

“The simple, somewhat primitive wood-frame two-story building is a good example of frontier architecture,” Turnbo wrote. “It features a rectangular layout and has upstairs and downstairs galleries supported by square columns running the length of the front.”

Thomas Jefferson Eubanks opened the inn for business Jan. 1, 1861, under the name Salado Hotel, said Mary Belle Brown, a seasoned researcher of Salado history.

“Eubanks was my great-grandfather,” she said.

Mrs. Brown said she has read many articles placing the hotel’s opening in 1852 and even earlier.

“Of course the original plat for the town wasn’t even drawn until 1859-60,” Mrs. Brown said. “Lot No. 10 - approximately 2½ acres - was designated for a hotel and Mr. Eubanks bought it for $100 Dec. 3, 1860.”

An advertisement in the Belton Independent dated Jan. 5, 1861, announced the opening, she said.

Mrs. Brown said a title search found the property changed hands 21 times over the years.

It’s name changed in 1875 to the Lone Star Hotel. Sometime between 1894 and 1900 the name was changed to the Shady Villa Hotel. In 1943 it was renamed the Stagecoach Inn.

Legends of the famous and infamous

The stories about famous guests are problematic. Even the medallion placed on the front of the Inn by the Texas Historical Commission tempers its words.

“Gen. George Armstrong Custer, Gen. Robert E. Lee and Cattle Baron Shanghai Pierce are among those who are thought to have stayed here,” the inscription reads. It doesn’t mention Sam Houston.

Historians use government documents, court transcripts, personal and business correspondence, diary entries and articles in newspapers to establish fact.

Bell County historians Michael and Nancy Kelsey said nothing they can find points to Houston having delivered the anti-secession speech from the balcony in Salado.

“If someone can find it, I would like to see it,” Nancy Kelsey said.

But if Houston did speak in Salado, the time frame for him doing so was quite narrow - a window of less than 30 days. The Salado Hotel opened Jan. 1, 1861. On Feb. 1, Texas adopted an ordinance of secession and U.S. Gen. David Twiggs surrendered all U.S. troops, stores and installations to Texas.

The same would be true for Lee. In the months preceding Texas withdrawing from the Union, Lee commanded the Second Cavalry at Fort Mason in San Antonio. When Twiggs surrendered his troops to Texas on Feb. 1, Gen. Winfield Scott ordered Lee back to Washington within days.

Although Lee could have gone to Salado to sleep at the inn during January, it’s likely his focus was elsewhere during that time. And like Houston, no newspaper accounts of the day mention his arrival.

After Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox in 1865, Lee accepted a post as president of Washington College (now Washington and Lee University) in Lexington. He spent the remaining five years of his life there.

Custer came to Texas in August 1865 to keep order after the Civil War. He spent three months in Hempstead in East Texas, then two months in Austin. He was recalled to Washington on Feb 1, 1866.

There is a 60-day period where Custer certainly could have stayed at the Salado Hotel. But no newspapers of the day reported his visit. And Custer with his dashing good looks and flamboyant style was a favorite with the press.

As to Sam Bass and Jesse James, they were wanted men on the lam known for hiding out at places like Enchanted Rock in Burnett County.

“Do you suppose they would have checked into a hotel and signed the register?” historian Michael Kelsey asked grinning.

Buried gold on the grounds of the Inn

It’s never been found.

But Wilbur Foster of Salado, 92, who was maintenance man at the Stagecoach Inn during the 1960s and 70s said guests would try to find it in the middle of the night.

Foster said the gold mania actually started in the 1920s and 30s when a rumor started that an old cave near Jarrell had gold in it.

“You mention gold and people go crazy,” Foster said chuckling.

Foster said guests at the inn would go in search of gold purportedly buried in a cave beneath the original Inn.

“I had to build a little house over the entrance and lock it up,” he said.

The cave containing a spring was discovered sometime after the civil war and was used as a source of drinking water for the hotel.

“A rumor was the cave was used during the Civil War to store gunpowder,” Foster said. “You wouldn’t want to keep gunpowder in all that water.”

Great cuisine is no legend

In 1943 Dion and Ruth Van Bibber bought the inn. They restored the old structure and added a modern dining room and kitchen to the rear.

The recipes and menu items Mrs. Van Bibber created 65 years ago are still offered today. There is no printed menu. Waitresses recite the menu to diners - a tradition started by Ruth Van Bibber.

Over the years the restaurant has gained national recognition for the originality of its country cooking and has been featured in the Ford Times and Life Magazine. Locals and tourists alike talk about the freshness and flair of the cooking.

Van Bibber was known for slipping a perfectly mixed and chilled martini to his best customers - on the house - since Salado was in a dry county.

In 1960 the Van Bibbers sold the hotel to a nephew, William Bratton who built the modern motel, swimming pool, coffee shop and Longhorn meeting room at the back of the property facing Interstate 35.

The current owner, Morris Foster, has since completed major upgrades to the property.

The whole package

Both locals and tourists come back to the Stagecoach Inn because of all it represents – its heritage, its history, its colorful setting, its food and the legends. Don’t tell the Inn’s biggest fans that the legends aren’t true. It doesn’t really matter. It’s all become part of the whole package that makes it what it is.

And for anyone who has trouble seeing Sam Houston’s ghost on the balcony on those dark nights? Well, a relaxing Van Bibber martini will do wonders for the vision.

Editors note: Historical research assisted by the files of Nancy and Michael Kelsey, Charles Turnbo and Mary Belle Brown.