Nearly 90-Year-Old Yellowstone Lookout Hit by Lightning Burns Down
A Yellowstone National Park fire lookout built in 1931 burned to the ground after it was struck by lightning Tuesday.
The Mount Holmes Fire Lookout is located southwest of Mammoth Hot Springs and north of Madison Junction.
A park employee reported the blaze late Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, park officials attempted to fly over the fire in a helicopter but the flight was diverted to an incident outside of the park, according to a press release from the park service.
A radio repeater was also damaged in the fire.
As of Wednesday evening, the Mount Homes Trail is closed west of its junction with the Trilobite Lake Trail. The summit of Mount Holmes is also closed until unsafe conditions can be mitigated and no longer pose a danger to the park visitors.
"[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 the 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."