Mountain lodge owner dies at 76

Thursday, Nov. 17, 2005 | 7:02 a.m.

It is just about impossible to find a stretch of the Mount Charleston area that Collie Orcutt and his wife, Barbara, did not traverse on horseback.

"One day we rode to near the peak and hiked up the rest of the way to the top where he gave me a great big kiss and said, 'Remember this moment because we will not be going back,' " Barbara Orcutt said of the tiring effort.

In the last five years, poor health had prohibited Orcutt from traveling up the mountain that he loved. His doctor in recent months permitted him to make brief visits. He made his last trek just last week "to finish that dimension of his life," Barbara Orcutt said.

Collie Orcutt, a West Texas cowboy who bought the Mount Charleston Lodge in 1974 and expanded it to meet growing tourism demands while steadfastly keeping its rustic charm, died Tuesday of an apparent heart attack. He was 76.

Married in 1973, the Orcutts were working as real estate brokers in Florida when they came to Las Vegas in 1974 for a Realtors convention at Caesars Palace.

"Being from Florida, I had never seen snow," Barbara Orcutt said. "From the hotel, we saw the snow on Mount Charleston, rented a car and went up to the mountain. We fell in love with the area and thought it would be an excellent place to raise children."

The couple bought the small restaurant and lounge from restaurateur and show producer Frank Sennes. In 1980 the Orcutts sold the property to a corporation that ran it into bankruptcy before the couple again acquired it in 1982. In the mid-1990s the Orcutts built 24 cabins to serve overnight guests.

In 1996, 30 armed Internal Revenue Service agents stormed through the lodge's doors and seized the property for $372,500 in unpaid taxes. Six days later, the Orcutts had made arrangements to settle the debt and reopened the lodge that today is run by Barbara Orcutt, the couple's children and their grandchildren.

"Purchasing the lodge turned out to be a commitment that took over us," Barbara Orcutt said.

"Collie would want to be remembered as an honest West Texas cowboy who was devoted to his family and an environmentalist who loved horses and maintained the trails. He was a man of the mountain."

Ed Koch can be reached at 259-4090 or at koch@lasvegassun.com.