Historic Royal Hotel in Yampa burns to ground

The historic Royal Hotel & Bar in Yampa burned to the ground Saturday night because of a malfunctioning coal-fired heating unit. No one was hurt in the fire that broke out at about 11 p.m. Hotel staff and guests evacuated the building, said Tammy Delto, a firefighter with the Yampa Fire Protection District. In the early 20th century, the Royal Hotel, built in 1906, was one of three hotels in Yampa that served miners, timber and railroad crews, ranchers and travelers on the Wolcott Stage line, according to the Routt County website. Western adventure novelist Zane Grey stayed at the Royal while he wrote his novel "The Mysterious Rider." The hotel also gained notoriety for being the home of a ghost named Rufus, according to the Steamboat Today website. Rufus supposedly died of the flu during the epidemic in the early 20th century. "Others claim Rufus was a gambler who was murdered after cheating in a poker game," the website said...more