Investigation in Yellowstone Lookout That Burned Down Wraps Up
A lightning strike caused a historic lookout in Yellowstone National Park to burn from the top down last month, park officials said in a news release Monday.
The nearly 90-year-old lookout was located southwest of Mammoth Hot Springs and north of Madison Junction.
Park managers do not plan to rebuild the lookout. Park staff repaired a radio repeater that was damaged in the fire.
The Mount Holmes Trail west of its junction with Trilobite Lake Trail and the summit of Mount Holmes have reopened.
"[T]he Mount Holmes Fire Lookout maintained its historic-era role as one of Yellowstone National Park's staffed lookout locations until 2007," Yellowstone National Park Deputy Superintendent Pat Kenney said in a July press release. "The building was eligible for inclusion on the National Historic Register of Historic Places, both for its significance in early park resource protection efforts and as an outstanding example of the rustic architectural style that typified early park architecture.
"We are disappointed that this historic structure, as a window into the past, is gone."