Full-time residents and business owners from Crown King and other, smaller communities to the north were allowed to return home Friday, nearly two weeks after the Gladiator Fire started and prompted an evacuation order. While Crown King largely was spared, the nearby landscape was charred by the more than 16,000-acre wildfire.

“Hopefully when they get up there, they’re still going to have a good time,” fire information spokesman Art Morrison said of any holiday visitors.

Established as a mining town in 1870, Crown King has become a popular destination for all-terrain vehicles because of its numerous hills and gorges. Cabins nestled in the forest draw weekend visitors from Phoenix, about 85 miles south. The town has about 350 full- and part-time residents, with a grocery store, a century-old saloon and other small businesses.

Most of those residents left after the wildfire started May 13. They’ll have to get a re-entry pass from the Yavapai County sheriff’s substation in Mayer before they can return.

Despite strong winds, high temperatures and low humidity, fire crews were able to get a hold on the blaze. They were focused Friday on patrolling and mopping up containment lines, and crews were being released as the threat of the fire spreading decreased.

Morrison said clumps of trees still are smoldering in the fire’s interior, and there’s still a concern that high winds Friday could push embers beyond the containment lines and start spot fires. Winds gusts of up to 50 mph were predicted in Yavapai County, where the fire is burning in the Prescott National Forest.

But he was optimistic.

“We’ve had five days of red flag warnings, and we did not lose a single inch of line in those five days,” he said.

The fire, which was 35 percent contained, is expected to be turned over to local forest officials on Sunday. An emergency response team then will evaluate the risk of erosion ahead of monsoon rains to prevent flooding, Morrison said.