DeFoore said an older man told him he used to pick up bottles thrown from the hotel windows and turn them in for a cash reward.

DeFoore said the back-room gambling was routine, and during the 1950s, a clerk sold bootleg whiskey, which he stored in the hotel's vault. But, he said, Mr. Beckham did not allow women of the night in his hotel.

Mallory said at the time, the town's single women might have hung around in hopes of meeting a new husband.

"A lot of women in town who weren't married came to the railroad track and wanted to get one of the railroad employees," she said. "(If you were) looking for a boyfriend you happened to be around, and around the hotel or through the general area to see who came and went."

Mallory said the hotel's folklore and history are hard to separate.

"There are all kinds of things and it's hard to sift through what actually happened," she said.

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Information from: Tyler Morning Telegraph, http://www.tylerpaper.com