The Grand Canyon Lodge, a hotel built by the Union Pacific Railroad in the 1930s, was destroyed in a wildfire, the National Park Service announced on July 13. The structure is one of 50 to 80 that have been lost in a 20-square-mile wildfire on the north side of the Grand Canyon. 

The Union Pacific, through its subsidiary Utah Parks Company, built a lodge at North Rim in 1928, but it burned down four years later. A new one was quickly built on the site of the original, with some modifications, and opened in 1937. Utah Parks Company operated in Canyon, Zion, and Grand Canyon national parks, as well as Cedar Breaks National Monument, from the 1920s until 1972. After Utah Parks shut down, UP donated most of its park properties to the National Park Service. 

Grand Canyon Lodge isn’t the first railroad lodge to fall victim to fire in recent years. In 2017, the Great Northern Railway-built Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park was destroyed, although it was later rebuilt. In 2024, the Jasper Park Lodge, built by Canadian National, was nearly destroyed in a fire but sustained only minor damage.

—Justin Franz