Jacob Lake Inn operator: North Rim businesses face difficult road ahead after fires

SALT LAKE CITY — As officials estimated, the White Sage and Dragon Bravo fires had burned nearly 70,000 combined acres Thursday near the Grand Canyon's North Rim. Family members who operate a historic inn said businesses in the area face a difficult road ahead.

"We don't know what our future looks like, which is terrifying to say because we've been around for 102 years," said Melinda Rich Marshall, with the Jacob Lake Inn. "We know that our ancestors have persevered, but at the same time, they've always had the canyon open. Again, it's just hard to know what's going to happen."

Marshall said she was allowed on Tuesday to return to the inn for about an hour-and-a-half, and what she saw brought some relief.

She said firefighters had set up their camp at and around the inn.

"They're covered in ash, and they're, you know, sleeping in tents, and we're just grateful for what they're doing to protect not only Jacob Lake but the forest that we love so much," Marshall said. "To be able to go there ourselves, to be able to see that, was just incredibly encouraging that, again, we're going to be OK."

Marshall said it appeared to her that the closest the flames had reached the inn was about 3 miles, but that a ranch in the area, also owned by her family, had been burned.

The devastation in the broader area was hard for her to see.

"That drive up from the base of the mountain to Jacob Lake, to that kind of perimeter burn line — I mean, it's pretty devastating," Marshall said.

Marshall also described what it looked like around the Le Fevre Overlook.

"You can see the current burn — the big, huge plumes of smoke — from that location," she said. "There are just miles and miles of trees that are gone."

Friends of the owners of Jacob Lake Inn set up a *GoFundMe to help with the business's recovery once the fire is under control.

Marshall believed businesses that rely on North Rim traffic — whether closer to the canyon or as far away as Kanab — would face challenging circumstances in the months ahead with the North Rim closed for the rest of the 2025 season.

"Any effort to come down and visit, whether or not the canyon is open or not, will kind of be life or death for those communities," Marshall said.

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