A dream realized.

Mount Lemmon needs a lodge. We’re making it happen.

Lodges used to be the heart of our village town, where guests could stay and locals could congregate. Today demand is high but space is limited. Residents meet at the Community Center where they must pay for the use. There are long lines during busy times at the few restaurants that serve the community. The craft fair offers an opportunity for shopping in summer and autumn, but there are only three small gift shops.

Summerhaven will have cohesiveness once again with a new heartbeat. In honor of our local architectural history, the Lodge will echo Alpine Chalet influence. Guest rooms will be simple, rustic and elegant offering another 16 rooms for lodging. Food will be fresh and local (Beyond Bread) with fast service. Gifts will exceed expectations in style and quality at all price points without competing with our dear neighboring businesses.

100 years in the making.

Stewards of Southern Arizona’s precious “sky island”.

A young man headed to Arizona during the Apache Wars (early 1800’s) to protect ranch land. He married a local woman and sought a cool place to take his family during the hot desert summers. My great grandfather found his sky island and in 1915 Eugene Childs formed a partnership and developed Summerhaven, a mountain village in the Santa Catalina Mountains locally known as Mount Lemmon. He began our family’s generational love and care for Mount Lemmon.

There has been a lodge in Summerhaven since the earliest days, a refuge for desert dwellers. Time saw two old lodges develop and prosper from the 40’s through the early 80’s. They offered an old world atmosphere and created magic mountain memories. An Alpine Lodge was built and later destroyed by the Aspen Fire in 2003.

Both old lodges held many fun memories for my family and the whole community: ragtime piano and singing to diners, stealing raspberries from the secret garden, and learning how to dance in the Mt. Lemmon Inn dance hall on weekends. Ski clothing fashion shows on winter weekends, learning to square dance, sweet 16 birthday party with surprise rock band, Sunday breakfasts, shuffleboard and picking fresh apples at the Ponderosa Lodge.

These past 18 years there has been no lodge. Many locals have fond memories of the magic of the mountain in the old days and it can happen again. That is why we are bringing the lodge back!

Follow the link to view the KGUN story about our lodge:

Click Here!