Kennedy Meadows was first settled in the late 1800s by Thomas Kennedy and served as a rest stop for early travelers crossing the Sierra. Frank Kurzi later took it over as a tent camp and pack station. The original hotel, built in the early 1900s or early 1920s, was accidentally burned by U.S. Marine Corps troops in 1943, and the present building was rebuilt in the summer of 1944. In October 2007, a fire destroyed the Kennedy Meadows Lodge, seven cabins, and seven other buildings. The Bloom family, with help from many friends and family of Kennedy Meadows, rebuilt and reopened the lodge seven months later, and it continues as a gateway to the Emigrant Basin and the High Sierras.