Minnesota's Largest Ski Area Loses Iconic Restaurant To Devastating Fire

Lutsen Mountains, the largest ski resort in Minnesota, is mourning the loss of Papa Charlie's, an iconic restaurant, tavern and music venue.

The fire broke out on Saturday, June 24th, 2023. A cause has not been determined. Check out the report from local news station FOX 9 for a video of the fire:

As you can see in the video above, Papa Charlie's is right next to Lutsen's gondola, the only such lift in the entire American midwest.

Read below for more information from Lutsen's Facebook statement that was posted on Saturday evening:

Lutsen Mountains: "Sadly, we lost our beloved Papa Charlie's restaurant today in a fire. We thank the six local volunteer fire departments that responded keeping the fire contained to the Papa Charlie's building and keeping everyone safe. 

All of our servers and network equipment were housed in that location, so resort communication will be limited until we can get that restored. We will update how this impact operations as we get more information."

The biggest issue, other than losing the restaurant itself, is that the resort's internet servers were housed in the building.

The resort provided another statement about what to expect moving forward:

Lutsen Mountains: "The fire is out. The six volunteer fire departments did an amazing job containing it to the immediate building but it is a total loss. 🥲The gondola and other facilities were not affected! 💙🙏. That being said our servers unfortunately were housed here and our systems will be down at least until Tuesday. 

Please bear with us while we work to put back some of our technological infrastructure. We are overwhelmed with the outpouring of support and we can’t say thank you to all those who came to help. It could have been much worse. More updates will come. ❤️ Thank you. ❤️"

Lutsen Mountains Stats/Info:

Vertical: 825 ft. (lift-serviced)

Skiable Terrain: 1,000 ac.

Average Snowfall: 120 in.

Lifts: 8

Trails: 95

Snowmaking: YES

Night Skiing:

Mega-Pass: Indy Pass

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