Lodge History: 

Art McKenzie purchased a small log cabin on the shore of West Grand Lake in 1946. With the aid of local men who recently returned from WWII, they built seven additional cabins on the lake shore. Grand Lake Lodge was established as a full-service lodge the same year, and Art’s log cabin became what today is the main lodge, including the dining room where they served the guests.

The Lodge has seen many visitors who have come to fish Grand Lake Stream and West Grand Lake for landlocked salmon. The Lodge has proudly served the baseball legend, Ted Williams and the host of the children’s show ‘Howdy Doody’, Buffalo Bob Smith. 

Local guides traveled West Grand Lake and the surrounding waters taking their sports out for fishing and adventure. They were well-known for guiding in Grand Lake canoes, and cooking for their guests on the lakeshore. Some of these well-known guides were the Moores, Spragues, Bonus, Yates, Bagleys, and Whites, just to name a few. These rich guide traditions and stories still remain at Grand Lake Lodge, and within the town.

With a myriad of Lodges in the Grand Lake Stream area, Lodge successor Harry Lewis noticed the changing demand of guests requesting to be on their own schedules. Lewis subsequently changed the camps over to housekeeping cabins in the 1970’s, and dissolved the American plan. The Lodge has been under new ownership since 2020.

Since its inception, the Lodge owners understood that success was related to their cooperation with the community. Today we continue to channel this approach by hiring locals to assist with all of our operations, and we aim to strengthen the guide culture while providing guests an enjoyable place to visit.