Historic Grand Canyon Lodge Destroyed by Wildfire as Blaze Continues Across National Park’s North Rim

Constructed in 1937, the lodge was one of dozens of buildings consumed by the fast-moving Dragon Bravo wildfire, which has raged across thousands of acres

Christian Thorsberg

– Correspondent

July 14, 2025 3:18 p.m.

A wildfire on the Grand Canyon’s North Rim has consumed some 5,000 acres and destroyed between 50 and 80 structures, including National Park Service administrative buildings, visitor facilities, a gas station and a water treatment plant.

But perhaps no loss has been more historic than that of the Grand Canyon Lodge, which has served as the area’s only hotel since 1937 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1987.

The Grand Canyon is one of the country’s most-visited national parks. Throughout the lodge’s nearly 90-year history, it has been a beacon for summer visitors to the park’s lesser-traveled North Rim, which receives ten times fewer travelers than the popular South Rim.

The lodge sits at the end of the North Rim’s only road and foregrounds visitors’ first views of Arizona’s geological wonder, a canyon shaped over millions of years by the Colorado River’s mighty flows. The lodge contained a saloon, deli, coffee shop, post office, gift shop and a visitors center.

“It just feels like you’re a pioneer when you walk through [the lodge],” Tim Allen, a resident of Flagstaff, Arizona, and regular visitor to the Grand Canyon, tells the Associated Press’ Felicia Fonseca and Jaimie Ding. “It really felt like you were in a time gone by.”

Thousands of visitors have taken refuge in the lodge and its 120 surrounding cabins, many of which were also lost to the blaze. Constructed with beams made from ponderosa pine and grounded by a heavy limestone facade, the lodge is actually a reconstruction. The original, built by architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood in 1928 for the Union Pacific Railroad, was consumed by a kitchen fire in 1932.

Like the original blaze, the recent fire caused no injuries or casualties. Officials confirmed on Sunday that the lodge had been consumed by the Dragon Bravo fire, which was ignited by a lightning strike on July 4 and continues to burn amid windy, hot conditions. Together with the nearby White Sage fire, some 55,000 acres have burned and hundreds of firefighting personnel have been deployed to the region as of Monday morning.

Last week, National Park Service officials evacuated all tenants from the lodge, including Caren Carney, who was visiting with her family from Georgia.

“We told my son while visiting that this is now a family tradition and he should bring his children when they are 12,” Carney tells the Associated Press.

Carney had first visited the lodge as a child during a family trip, and she was looking forward to taking her own kids on the same adventure. “I hope there will be something as magnificent for them to see in the future, and I’m so glad we got to have one final look at it in the present before it was lost,” she adds.

First responders are still assessing the extent of the damage, including which artifacts and artworks may have been damaged or lost inside the lodge. These include a 600-pound statue of “Brighty the Burro,” a donkey who lived in the canyon for 30 years and was friendly with tourists and miners, Erin Van Rheenen wrote for Atlas Obscura in 2018. The donkey’s story was immortalized in the 1966 film Brighty of the Grand Canyon.

“I am incredibly saddened by the destruction of the historic Grand Canyon Lodge, and my heart goes out to every person impacted by the Dragon Bravo Fire,” Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs tells the Arizona Republic’s Perry Vandell and Rey Covarrubias Jr. “As someone who was born and raised in Arizona, I know what the Grand Canyon National Park means to so many people, not just in Arizona, but all over the world, and how devastating it is to see this damage done to one of Arizona’s most cherished landmarks.”

Hobbs has called for an investigation into how the National Park Service, which has closed all area hiking trails, corridors and campgrounds until further notice, has responded to the fire.

The Interior Department “takes the threat of wildfires with the utmost seriousness and is committed to protecting lives, communities and treasured public lands through science-driven fire management and rapid response,” Elizabeth Peace, a spokesperson for the department, tells the Washington Post’s Andrew Jeong in an email.