With his front legs severed and an ear missing, Brighty the Burro has undoubtedly seen better days.
Visitors were greeted by the 600-pound bronze statue at the Grand Canyon Lodge on the North Rim of the national park. This summer, a wildfire ravaged the neighborhood, reducing the nearly century-old building to rubble. Brighty’s body and head were largely undamaged when he was discovered burned.
With NBC 7, you can watch San Diego News for free, anywhere, at any time.
Brighty strapped himself into the back of a pickup vehicle and set off for the roughly five-hour drive from his house on the North Rim to the South Rim on Friday while firefighters worked to contain the obstinate flames.
He will be temporarily housed in the museum collection of Grand Canyon National Park in order to undergo evaluation. Whether the burro can be meticulously restored or if a new statue needs to be made will be decided by park officials and conservation specialists.
Although there is no set timeframe for the endeavor, social media users are already lending their support to bring the burro back to his previous splendor. They discuss reading the children’s book, which is largely based on the original burro’s travels navigating the canyon, and taking family photos with the sculpture in the background.
For many people, it’s a really precious and symbolic piece of history, park spokesperson Jolle Baird told The Associated Press.
U.S. & World
Fact focus: No, taxpayers will not receive new stimulus checks this summer
Erin now a catastrophic’ Category 5 hurricane as Caribbean braces for flooding: NHC
The heavy statue, which depicts a free-spirited burro who lived more than a century ago, is a timeless representation of life along the rocky canyon. As the seasons changed, Brighty was known to move up and down the canyon. He would give kids rides and help carry water to a North Rim summer camp in return for pancakes.
Testing for any harmful elements on the sculpture will be one of the team’s first tasks, according to Baird. The park may then have to work with a foundry to restore the burro to its original state, contingent on the damage assessment.
As the National Park Service lays out a plan for repair and reconstruction on the North Rim, Brighty is a little but crucial component of what will be a multi-year endeavor. More immediately, Baird stated that starting next week, a specialized team that works on soil stabilization, erosion control, and reseeding will start evaluating the burned regions.
Early in July, lightning caused the Dragon Bravo Fire. After burning for around a week, it exploded into a rapidly spreading fire that destroyed the Grand Canyon Lodge and other cabins, forcing evacuations. The abrupt and drastic change in the wind greatly outstripped predictions, according to the National Park Service, which has defended its response to the fire.
Over the past few weeks, firefighters have been hindered by persistently hot, dry, and windy weather, which has made fighting the fires on the North Rim and other parts of the West, from California, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico to Idaho and Montana, more challenging.
Over 17,700 firefighters and support staff are deployed to roughly four dozen big fires that are now raging in the United States, according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
