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Photographs August 2, 2002
 
La Plata's Gate Lodge was damaged by a tornado that ripped through the area on April 28, 2002, and was demolished on August 3, 2002. The powerful tornado, in addition to killing 5 people, also heavily damaged or destroyed more than 1,000 homes and businesses.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Using insurance proceeds from the Tornado damage, owners of the former Motor Lodge had begun to gut the single story room building.

While a couple of drops remained, nearly everything else had been ripped from the rooms and piled in heaps in the parking lot or into a nearby dumpster.
 
 

Kyle Snyder related that the former Motor Lodge after it was an an Econo Lodge became a Roadway Inn before becoming unaffiliated.

He also recalled that a strong thunderstorm had torn the cupola from the Gate Lodge back in 1991. The tornado of 2002 finally did the rest of the unique Landmark structure in!
 
 
 
 
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