A historic restaurant in Apache Junction, Arizona, burst into flames in the early morning hours as firefighters try and battle the scorching heat.
Superstition Fire Rescue And Police Department say that a neighbor saw the flames and called 911 to report the sky high tentacles of the fire.
The restaurant, known as The Mining Camp Restaurant, near Val Vista and Mining Camp Road, is a historic and integral part of the community since 1961.
Superstition Fire and Medical call the disaster a “complete loss” as many locals have came out to witness this piece of history turned into ash and rubble.
The owner first opened the restaurant in 1961. He and his wife were both sleeping in a small house separate from the restaurant when the fire started.
It's stunning location is something that travelers from across the world have come to know and love, at the base of the Superstition Mountains gave visitors that old Wild Wild West, Arizona cowboy feel just a short drive from Phoenix.
Information about the restaurant on The Mining Camp website states that the exterior of the building is mostly built from ponderosa pine from Payson, Arizona. Newspaper clippings and antlers as well as saddles and several hundreds of other historic items from “The Wild Wild West” were hung on the walls inside the building.
Travelers would come from all over the world to take a seat at the dinner table, where plates remained packed with food until diners were full. Meal time represented the old-mining-camp style, where dining on tin plates meals filled with all you can eat BBQ ribs, cowboy baked beans, coleslaw, homemade bread and delicious prickly pear cactus jelly.
The investigation into the fire is ongoing by local responders. While there is still no word yet on what caused the blaze, but Superstition fire and medical say the restaurant was not open Monday and it does not appear to be weather related.
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