FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Fayetteville firefighters were called out late last Monday night to Lake Fayetteville where they found the Mulhollan Bird Blind burning. The blind is named after Paige Mulhollan. His son, Kelly Mulhollan, said he's heartbroken to see it gone.
"I can hardly figure out what these words meant," Kelly said. "I like that it has never crossed my mind. I just never would have dreamed that that would have happened. And so it was a tremendous sense of loss because this has been part of our routine for a long time."
The blind was built by the City of Fayetteville in 2016 using donations in memory of Paige, who passed away in 2012. He and his wife, Mary Bess, were huge bird watchers.
"After my father passed, some of the local birders started talking about the idea of building a bird blind on Lake Fayetteville," Kelly said. "Lake Fayetteville has always been a hot spot for birding here, and so that idea just caught fire. A number of people got together, and I was part one of those people, and we called ourselves the blind committee."
Kelly said while the fire was devastating for the family, losing it gave them a sense of how much the area meant to the community.
"I don't think we knew, until this, quite this sad thing happened, that how many people loved the blind, but there's been an outpouring we've gotten," he said. "We've received hundreds and hundreds of messages from people who were very disturbed and felt a great sense of loss, and also seemed to want it to be rebuilt."
Kelly and his wife, Donna, said they believe the blind helped people gain a passion for bird watching.
"I don't think that a lot of the people that came here were birders. They just were people walking along the trail, and part of their routine was coming by here and having a look," Kelly said.
"Maybe it turned some people into birders," Donna said.
Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused the fire at the Mulhollan Bird Blind.
Kelly said they are going to rebuild, but he isn't sure when that will be. If you want to donate to rebuilding the blind, visit this website.
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