Ellis Island Owners Rebuild Mt. Charleston Lodge Near Vegas After Fire

Posted on: January 20, 2026, 12:10h. 

Last updated on: January 20, 2026, 12:33h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Vegas Myths Busted.
  • The owners of Ellis Island Casino have begun rebuilding the Mt. Charleston Lodge
  • The popular Las Vegas getaway was destroyed in a 2021 fire
  • The site’s previous lodge was destroyed by fire in 1961
  • That building’s history spans a century, and once included a casino leased to the Frontier Hotel and later owned by the owners of the Hacienda 

Construction is finally underway on the replacement for the Mt. Charleston Lodge, more than four years after a 2021 fire destroyed the structure. The new lodge, approved at just under 11K square feet, will feature a two‑story A‑frame design with an expanded restaurant, outdoor patio, and a bi‑level parking garage.

A rendering of the new Mt. Charleston Lodge shows an 11K square-foot, two-story A-frame design that will feature an expanded restaurant, outdoor patio, and an attached, bi-level, 190-space parking garage. (Image: Steelman Partners)
Another view of the new lodge. (Image: Steelman Partners)

“We’re excited to share more details as the County approves our final plans, Christina Ellis, VP of development, said in a statement. “We will be going full steam ahead as weather allows.”

The Ellis family — owners of Las Vegas’ Ellis Island Casino — purchased the Mt. Charleston Lodge in April 2018, for a reported $2.1 million, from the Orcutt family, who had owned it since 1974.

The lodge as it looked until the 2021 fire. (Image: Mt. Charleston Lodge)

Mt. Charleston, a 40-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip, has served as a favorite year-round escape for tourists and locals for more than a century.

Located 7,717 feet above sea level near the top of Kyle Canyon, it offers the closest skiing to Las Vegas in winter and reliably cooler temperatures in summer — often 20 degrees below the Strip.

Fire on the Mountain

Fire guts the Mt. Charleston Lodge in September 2021. (Image: X/@Nevadablue59)

Only three years after Ellis Island purchased the resort, the main lodge, which stood for 60 years, burned down. No one was injured in the fire, which was traced to a storage room, though the cause was never determined.

The lodge’s undamaged 23 cabins remained open after the fire, but their appeal was greatly diminished with no restaurant, bar, or hangout for guests to socialize with other guests.

The original lodge as it appeared in 1953. (Image: Las Vegas News Bureau)

Fire also destroyed the original Mt. Charleston Lodge restaurant and bar in 1961, when the property was owned by the owners of the Hacienda resort.

That structure dated back to 1915, when the site formed part of Griffith’s Camp, a dude ranch where out-of-state visitors stayed for six weeks to establish residency to qualify for quickie Nevada divorces.

In the 1930s, the lodge was known as the Charleston Park Lodge and Casino, and in 1948, it was leased to the Frontier Hotel, during the era when it was also referred to as The Ponderosa. Available records do not specify when that lease ended.