Posted on: January 20, 2026, 12:10h.
Last updated on: January 20, 2026, 12:13h.
- 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 previous lodge on the site was also destroyed by fire in 1961
- The building’s history’s 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 11,000 square feet, will feature a two‑story A‑frame design with an expanded restaurant, outdoor patio, and a bi‑level parking garage.
“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.
Mt. Charleston, a 40-minute drive from the Las Vegas Strip, has served 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
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.
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.
