Latest news with #Brighty
San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
A Grand Canyon mascot is recovered from the rubble. Can Brighty the Burro be restored?
Missing an ear and his front legs detached, Brighty the Burro certainly has seen better days. The 600-pound (273-kilogram) bronze statue used to greet visitors at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the national park's North Rim. The nearly century-old building was reduce to rubble this summer when a wildfire swept through the area. Brighty was found charred, his head and body mostly intact. As firefighters continued their work Friday to corral the stubborn flames, Brighty hit the road — strapped into the back of a pickup truck for a roughly five-hour journey that would take him from his home on the North Rim to the South Rim. The plan calls for temporarily housing him in the Grand Canyon National Park's museum collection so he can be assessed. It will be up to park officials and conservation experts to determine if the burro can be carefully restored or if a new statue will have to be created. There's no timeline for the effort, but fans on social media already are weighing in with support for returning the burro to his former glory. They talk about taking family pictures with the sculpture in the background and reading the children's book that's loosely based on the original burro's adventures traversing the canyon. 'It's a very special symbolic piece of history for a lot of people,' park spokesperson Joëlle Baird told The Associated Press. An enduring symbol of life along the rugged canyon, the hefty statue represents a free-spirited burro who lived more than a century ago. Brighty was known to migrate up and down the canyon as the seasons changed. He'd help haul water to a summer camp on the North Rim in exchange for pancakes and would give children rides. One of the first chores for the team will be testing for any toxic materials on the sculpture, Baird said. Then, depending on the damage assessment, the park could end up working with a foundry to make the burro whole again. Brighty is a small but important part of what will be a yearslong effort for the National Park Service as it charts a path for restoration and reconstruction on the North Rim. More immediately, Baird said a special team that focuses on stabilizing the soil, controlling erosion and reseeding will begin assessing the burned areas starting next week. The Dragon Bravo Fire was sparked by lightning in early July. It burned for about a week before exploding into a fast moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of cabins. The National Park Service has defended its handling of the fire, saying a sudden and extreme shift in the wind far exceeded forecasts. Persistent hot, dry and windy weather has hampered crews over the past several weeks, making it more difficult to fight the flames on the North Rim and elsewhere around the West — from Idaho and Montana to California, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, nearly four dozen large fires are burning in the U.S., with more than 17,700 firefighters and support personnel assigned to them.
Winnipeg Free Press
a day ago
- General
- Winnipeg Free Press
A Grand Canyon mascot is recovered from the rubble. Can Brighty the Burro be restored?
Missing an ear and his front legs detached, Brighty the Burro certainly has seen better days. The 600-pound (273-kilogram) bronze statue used to greet visitors at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the national park's North Rim. The nearly century-old building was reduce to rubble this summer when a wildfire swept through the area. Brighty was found charred, his head and body mostly intact. As firefighters continued their work Friday to corral the stubborn flames, Brighty hit the road — strapped into the back of a pickup truck for a roughly five-hour journey that would take him from his home on the North Rim to the South Rim. The plan calls for temporarily housing him in the Grand Canyon National Park's museum collection so he can be assessed. It will be up to park officials and conservation experts to determine if the burro can be carefully restored or if a new statue will have to be created. There's no timeline for the effort, but fans on social media already are weighing in with support for returning the burro to his former glory. They talk about taking family pictures with the sculpture in the background and reading the children's book that's loosely based on the original burro's adventures traversing the canyon. 'It's a very special symbolic piece of history for a lot of people,' park spokesperson Joëlle Baird told The Associated Press. An enduring symbol of life along the rugged canyon, the hefty statue represents a free-spirited burro who lived more than a century ago. Brighty was known to migrate up and down the canyon as the seasons changed. He'd help haul water to a summer camp on the North Rim in exchange for pancakes and would give children rides. One of the first chores for the team will be testing for any toxic materials on the sculpture, Baird said. Then, depending on the damage assessment, the park could end up working with a foundry to make the burro whole again. Brighty is a small but important part of what will be a yearslong effort for the National Park Service as it charts a path for restoration and reconstruction on the North Rim. More immediately, Baird said a special team that focuses on stabilizing the soil, controlling erosion and reseeding will begin assessing the burned areas starting next week. The Dragon Bravo Fire was sparked by lightning in early July. It burned for about a week before exploding into a fast moving conflagration that forced evacuations and consumed the Grand Canyon Lodge and dozens of cabins. The National Park Service has defended its handling of the fire, saying a sudden and extreme shift in the wind far exceeded forecasts. Persistent hot, dry and windy weather has hampered crews over the past several weeks, making it more difficult to fight the flames on the North Rim and elsewhere around the West — from Idaho and Montana to California, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico. According to the National Interagency Fire Center, nearly four dozen large fires are burning in the U.S., with more than 17,700 firefighters and support personnel assigned to them.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Did the 'Brighty of the Grand Canyon' statue survive the wildfire?
A beloved statue of a famous burro was heavily damaged in a wildfire that ripped through the tourist hub of Grand Canyon National Park's North Rim, park officials said. Brighty lived in the Grand Canyon in the early 20th century and was featured in a 1953 children's novel by Marguerite Henry, "Brighty of the Grand Canyon," which would later be adapted into a movie, prompting the statue to be made in his honor. The Brighty statue called the Grand Canyon Lodge its home for decades before the lodge was engulfed in flames the night of July 12. The lodge had been designated a National Historic Landmark in the late 1980s and was visited by tens of thousands of people each year. Did the Brighty of the Grand Canyon statue survive? Yes, the statue of Brighty of the Grand Canyon survived the Dragon Bravo Fire, which destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge and about 100 other structures, according to Grand Canyon National Park spokesperson Joëlle Baird. While Brighty did not melt, he was "heavily damaged due to the fire," Baird said. In the coming weeks, a specialized team will assess the grounds of the Grand Canyon Lodge, including the condition of the Brighty statue, she said. Brighty's condition has been of such interest that the Grand Canyon National Park website has added a question about the statue to its FAQs about the fire's impact. "Future plans for restoring or commemorating Brighty are being discussed as part of the North Rim recovery efforts," the site said. "The statue holds deep meaning for many visitors, and the park is committed to honoring that legacy in future planning." A photo of unknown origin posted on social media after the fire showed a damaged Brighty tipped over, with a hole in the statue's underside and missing back legs. News alerts in your inbox: Don't miss the important news of the day. Sign up for azcentral newsletter alerts to be in the know. Baird and the Grand Canyon Historical Society said that the hole in the hollow statue was present before the fire and was part of the casting process. Baird said that it appeared from the photo that Brighty had lost a portion of his two front legs and one of his floppy ears. Davy Crockett, vice president of the Grand Canyon Historical Society, said that the photo may look worse than reality. "His legs fell off because the joints weren't bronze and melted. He fell over. A photo is circulating that shows a big hole in his hind end. That hole was there before, where he sat on the pedestal. As far as we know the rest of his body is intact, but we have only seen a photo that has a poor angle," Crockett said in an email. Who was Brighty of the Grand Canyon? Brighty was a real donkey who helped some of the Grand Canyon North Rim's first settlers establish camp by carrying water through rugged terrain, said Crockett, an author and Grand Canyon historian. John Fuller, a herdsman who lived seasonally on the North Rim, found the lone burro on a journey to the future site of Phantom Ranch near Bright Angel Creek at the bottom of the Canyon, according to Crockett's book, "Grand Canyon Rim to Rim History." Brighty would become known for his gentle nature, Crockett said. Brighty lived wild and would come and go as he pleased, climbing up to the North Rim in the summer, and back into the canyon in the fall, said Crockett. Brighty helped carry water from a spring to the Wylie Way Camp on the North Rim, making the trip as many as four to seven times a day, according to Crockett. It was more than half a mile each way and a 200-foot elevation change, according to Crockett's book. In the 1960s, Henry's novel about Brighty was adapted for the silver screen, with Brighty played by a donkey named Jiggs, according to IMDb, an online movie database. The Brighty statue was sculpted in the late 1960s by Peter Jepsen, who was commissioned by the movie's producer to create the statue as a promotional effort, according to a Facebook post by Grand Canyon National Park. Hikers rubbed the nose of the Brighty statue as a ritual for good luck, Crockett said. Grand Canyon Historical Society considering fundraiser for statue Tom Sulpizio, president of the nonprofit Grand Canyon Historical Society, said he has seen an outpouring of concern for the fate of the statue, including from families connected with the story of Brighty, such as the family of Martha McKee Krueger, whose father worked with Brighty hauling water, and the family of Stephen F. Booth, the producer of the 1967 movie. "It's a cultural icon that captured the imagination of children and adults," Sulpizio said. He said he had hope that a portion of the statue survived, even if badly damaged. "Bronze doesn't melt at wood-burning temperature. So, if ponderosa pine burns at 800 degrees Fahrenheit, bronze doesn't even start melting until 1,200. But it gets sooty. It got darkened, the patina was affected," Sulpizio said. The Grand Canyon Historical Society was considering a fundraiser to help preserve or restore the Brighty statue, once the fire is fully contained and it is safe to start recovery efforts, Sulpizio said. Rey Covarrubias Jr. reports breaking news for The Arizona Republic and Email him at: rcovarrubias@ and connect with him on Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and X (formerly Twitter) at @ReyCJrAZ. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Beloved statue of 'Brighty of the Grand Canyon' damaged by wildfire
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Arizona wildfires torch key bridge and Grand Canyon icon. What we know
Two longstanding Arizona structures were destroyed by fire in the past six weeks as 2025 wildfires took their fiery toll. The Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim of the canyon burned to the ground on July 12 when the Dragon Bravo fire consumed it as the blaze tore across the rim's forested lands. The fire, which started July 4, also claimed surrounding visitor cabins. As of Aug. 11, the fire was still burning and had encompassed 143,808 acres, according to InciWeb, a fire-tracking website that compiles information from various U.S. government agencies. The fire also burned cabins surrounding the lodge, the visitor center and — notably — a bronze statue honoring Brighty, a wild burro who roamed the canyon more than a century ago. On Aug. 1, a brush fire ignited the wooden underpinnings of the OxBow Bridge in southwestern Arizona. The flames quickly climbed up the wooden structure and sent it collapsing into the Colorado River below. The bridge is along a local road and connects the Arizona town of Cibola with California. Grand Canyon Lodge The site where the lodge burned in July was no stranger to fire. The original lodge was built in 1928 but was "nearly destroyed" in a 1932 fire, according to the National Park Service. The rebuilt lodge opened in 1936, following much of the original plan from architect Gilbert Stanley Underwood and incorporating the original Kaibab limestone that came from canyon walls near Bright Angel Point. The resurrected lodge was designed to withstand the region's heavy snows. The next iteration of the lodge will have to take into consideration fire resilience, because of the increasingly hot and dry climate that contributed to the Dragon Bravo fire. The park service said planning for a new lodge and other visitor amenities was underway, but "this process will take time." Brighty the Burro The bronze statue of Brighty, a real-life burro who lived in the Grand Canyon more than a century ago, was "heavily damaged" in the fire, according to park officials. But like the lodge in which he stood, the Brighty statute will not be forgotten. Park officials said they are committed to honoring the burro's legacy as they move forward. They have not been specific if that would involve repairs to the statue or some other form of tribute. Oxbow Bridge This bridge, spanning the Colorado River from the tiny Arizona town of Cibola, was built in 1960, according to the Arizona Department of Transportation. It was 17 feet long and consisted of 40 spans. La Paz County Supervisor Holly Irwin, whose district includes the bridge, said the intent was to rebuild. Crucial details on who would do so and how to pay for it have yet to be worked out, she said. The closest river crossing is via the Farmer's Bridge, which is about 3.5 miles north of the Oxbow on River Road, according to county reports. Reach the reporter at or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on social media@maryjpitzl. . Subscribe to today. This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Grand Canyon Lodge, Oxbow Bridge lost to fire but may rise again
