McKENZIE BRIDGE, Ore. – A historic inn burned to the ground, taking with it a guestbook signed by Herbert Hoover, Clark Gable and the Duke of Windsor.
The cedar-paneled Log Cabin Inn was 100 years old.
No guests were at the inn Wednesday afternoon, and one employee was able to escape without injury, firefighters said.
The Cascade Range inn was along the McKenzie River and Highway 126 more than 40 miles east of Springfield.
“It just took too long to get enough people up here to do the job,” said Dale Ledyard, chief of the McKenzie Fire and Rescue unit in Waterville. He said the wood construction made the building vulnerable to fire.
The inn was listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building opened in 1906 to replace the original 1880s inn, which burned. In the early 1900s, it was a stagecoach stop.
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