Historic Oregon hotel from ‘The Shining’ reopens after fire

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Timberline Lodge, the historic Oregon hotel featured in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining” reopened to guests on Sunday, just days after a fire erupted and forced an evacuation.

Fire officials in Clackamas County said the fire broke out sometime before 9:30 p.m. Thursday in an attic of the Timberline, a historic Mount Hood hotel that served as the exterior for the Overlook Hotel in Kubrick’s 1980 thriller.

Just after 11 p.m., a Clackamas Fire spokesperson confirmed to Nexstar’s KOIN that no one was injured, and that the fire had been contained to the attic and the roof. Around that time, the department also confirmed on X that the blaze was declared to be “under control.” Roughly a half hour later, the fire was out, a spokesperson for the lodge told KOIN.

The fire caused little damage, according to officials.

“There are challenges ahead, but we are through the worst of it,” Timberline’s John Burton told Nexstar’s KOIN, adding the emergency response was “nothing short of remarkable.”

Timberline was able to offer breakfast Sunday morning, and staff was dispatched to help guests get around the repairs and the water remediation.

In addition to “The Shining,” Timberline’s film repertoire includes 1960’s “All the Young Men,” 1973’s “Lost Horizon,” and 1993’s “Hear No Evil,” according to IMDb. The 2019 film “Doctor Sleep,” which is based on Stephen King’s sequel to “The Shining,” also used the hotel for exterior shots.

Kerry Tymchuk, the executive director of the Oregon Historical Society, called Timberline Lodge a “jewel of the Northwest.”

It was built through the Works Progress Administration (WPA) and the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) launched by President Franklin Roosevelt to help the country emerge from the Depression.

“This was in the height of the Depression, 25% unemployment rates across the country,” Tymchuk told KOIN. “Most of the time they weren’t trained carpenters or trained craftsmen. They were just ordinary citizens out of work and they were put back to work to do massive projects across the country, including this jewel of the Northwest, the Timberline Lodge.”

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Its dedication brought the first notoriety to the lodge and another generation of people learned about it through a film.

“Franklin, the president, and Eleanor, the first lady, came out to Oregon to dedicate the lodge in 1937, on the same trip they dedicated the Bonneville Dam,” Tymchuk said. “And then it was a star of the Jack Nicholson movie, ‘The Shining,’ in 1980. That added to its fame and added a lot of tourists going up there to see where the movie was filmed.”

The interior also has a story.

“The interior decorating, which again, was largely done by WPA and CCC,” and” Tymchuk explained. “They also had an arts project where artists were provided money and a stipend to do work. And much of the art inside Timberline was done by the Federal Arts Project. It’s a timeless classic.”

Timberline became a national historic landmark in 1977.

“It’s a classic, historic building that, almost 100 years later, tells the story of the Depression, what America went through and how America came out of the Depression,” he said.

An investigation into what caused the fire was launched, but hotel officials say “it is suspected fireplace embers ignited the roof.”

Michael Bartiromo and KOIN’s Danny Peterson contributed to this report.

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