Fire consumes Motherlode Lodge in Hatcher Pass

HATCHER PASS — Fire destroyed a Valley landmark Friday evening, authorities said.

Callers reported fire in the 13,208-square-foot, wood frame Motherlode Lodge about 6 p.m. By the time Alaska Division of Forestry officials arrived, the building — which lies outside any of the borough’s numerous fire service areas — was allowed to burn down, said Norm McDonald, Forestry’s Mat-Su area fire management officer. Units with the Palmer and Central Mat-Su departments also responded.

“When they got on scene, it’s still snowy, so the potential for (a) wildland (fire)’s not there,” he said. “We do wildland, we don’t do interior attack on structure fires. It was already fairly well-involved. With that old interior, it’s unlikely it would have been saved even if we’d had a fire department on scene.”

Forestry officials directed traffic and notified the fire marshal, who will make a final determination of the fire’s cause, McDonald said.

While fire may not have been at the top of concerns about the lodge, it was likely on it, McDonald added.

“I don’t know if it’s always been a risk, but I’m sure it’s always been in the back of the owner’s mind,” he said.

A smaller version of the lodge was built in 1942 as a hotel, bar and restaurant for the nearby Independence Mine, which is now a state historic site. It was expanded to its present site in the early 1980s. The lodge has been in private hands since its construction.

Borough property tax records list Jill Reese of Anchorage as the primary owner. The land is valued at $14,700 and the property is valued at $317,400, for a total appraised tax value of $332,100.

Saturday, the lodge owners posted a statement to Facebook asking for information about a break-in that occurred “right before the fire started around 5:30-6:30 p.m.” The post also asks people with pictures of the beginning of the fire, or vehicles that were outside at the time the fire started, to contact them via private message to the Motherlode Lodge page on Facebook.

“We all grieve together the loss of this special place that held so many memories and the hope of its future restoration,” the post says. “We are heartbroken.”

The note, signed by the Reese family, says the building was being renovated and was not insured at the time of the blaze.

“It was very loved, we had plans for it and were actively working on its renovation,” the statement reads, in part.

The Reese family asks the community to share memories and photos of special times at the lodge to their Facebook page.

Valley musician, builder and mountaineer Marty Raney said he drove to the site Friday night when he heard the news. He said he hugged Jill while she cried, the intense heat of the flames bouncing off their faces.

At the fire scene Raney said he saw former Motherlode regulars he hadn’t seen in years.

His family spent nearly every weekend there when their kids were young — hiking, running, skiing and exploring in Hatcher Pass. Driving past the old lodge had a way of replaying those old memories, he said.

The fire was the third of three fires that burned portions of the Valley Friday evening. Other fires burned along Begich Drive and Palmer Fishhook Road, and Forestry officials responded to concerns about burning wildlands at the other scenes. Winds were not as severe in the pass as they were at lower elevations, McDonald said.

The building is a total loss, McDonald said.

“It’s a neat old building, and it’s been in the Valley a long time,” he said.

By 9 p.m., the building was reduced to smoldering rubble.

The building was not connected to electricity at the time the fire started, according to borough emergency manager Casey Cook.

“The fire’s cause is unknown,” he said. “The fact that there was no electricity or natural gas puts it on the suspicious side of unknown.”

The investigation is continuing, Cook added.