The heavy footsteps paced the hallway of La Fonda on the Plaza, a landmark hotel in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Back and forth, back and forth, the footsteps continued late into the night, loud enough to keep one guest wide awake. He called the lobby to report the disturbance.

A hotel employee was sent to investigate. When he arrived, he saw a man in a long, black coat walk into a stairwell and then … disappear. But when the employee followed him into the stairwell, there was no one there.

Could it be the ghost of the Honorable John P. Slough, a judge who got into a deadly argument in the hotel’s lobby with a member of the Territorial Legislature of Dona Ana County back in 1867? His signature accessory, after all, was a long, black coat. And numerous hotel guests have seen his apparition roaming the hallways and lobby.

Judge Slough isn’t the only spirit believed to be lingering at La Fonda on the Plaza. But any hotel that’s been around for 400-plus years -- and has been the site of violent gunfights and public hangings -- is bound to have its share of things that go bump in the night. While the hotel that stands today was built in 1922, official records show that it’s on the site of the city’s first inn, built back when the city was first established around 1607.

And then there’s the ghost of the young bride who was murdered on her wedding night by an ex-lover. She is seen haunting the wedding suite -- Room 510 -- as well as the lobby, an elevator, and the basement.

You may hear of other ghostly encounters at La Fonda: the ghost of a cowboy haunting the bar, or a housekeeper who saw the outline of someone lying under the covers in the bed of an unoccupied room -- only to find no one there when she pulled back the sheets.

Come for the ghosts, but stay for the Pueblo-style architecture with the colorful tiles, hand-crafted chandeliers, and thick wooden beams. But maybe sleep with the lights on.