If you want to look at old stuff you don’t go to Las Vegas. (Unless you want to see Wayne Newton, I guess.) The city’s barely a century old, kicking up in 1905, but didn’t start to resemble the Vegas everybody thinks of until the 1950s. And then it became an almost entirely different city in the ‘90s and ‘00s. The last few decades have seen a number of legendary resorts close down, their gleaming facades and sparkling neon signs going dark and disappearing from the Strip as developers replaced them with bigger, newer, and more modern hotels. The Dunes, the original Sahara, the Aladdin, the Stardust, and many other casinos that your grandparents might’ve lost money at have all closed in the last 30 years, and even the first wave of “family friendly” resorts from the ‘90s have changed drastically since then. What’s a Vegas history nut to do?
We might not be able to visit these buildings today, take in a show or gamble at their casinos, but at least we can still admire their striking, brilliantly designed neon signs. The Neon Museum is a non-profit open-air museum just off the Strip that’s devoted to preserving and displaying the unique signage that is as much a part of the Vegas myth as showgirls and jackpots. It preserves both Vegas history and the artistry of these iconic signs, and needs to be a stop on your next Vegas trip.
Signs at the Neon Museum in Las Vegas
The museum’s Neon Boneyard is home to dozens of classic signs, from the iconic space age style of the classic Stardust sign, to the stories-tall Hard Rock Cafe guitar that resettled here in 2020. As you walk through the Boneyard you can see the years progress in the design and construction of the signs. The earliest signs tend to have metal rods jutting out of their outlines; these were used by employees to climb up and replace burned out bulbs or fix broken neon tubes. (Very much pre-OSHA, obviously.) Amid those early examples you’ll see far more recent signs, like the giant pirate skull that adorned Treasure Island when it opened in 1993, a remnant of Vegas’s attempt to rebrand as a Disney-like family vacation center (but, y’know, with gambling and nudity); and that massive Hard Rock guitar, which resembles a 12-string guitar due to its neon tubes (despite only have six machine heads on the neck), and which greeted guests from 1995 to 2020. And the collection isn’t confined to casinos; some of the most charming signs include a dancing shirt that once advertised a laundromat, a giant martini glass from the city’s first gay bar the Red Barn, and a cute duckling with an almost unnecessary amount of neon tubing that once stood outside a car dealership.
It’s a relatively small collection on display. It might take an hour to tour it all, and you should definitely try to do one of the official guided tours so you can learn the history of the most notable signs. As you’d probably expect, it’s best at night, when signs are illuminated, although I’ve visited in the daytime as well and it’s still impressive and fascinating. And just getting into the Boneyard is part of the history lesson, as the museum’s visitor center is within the gorgeous Space Age lobby of the old La Concha Motel.
Brilliant! at The Neon Museum in Las Vegas
Outside the Neon Boneyard sits the museum’s North Gallery. It’s home to classic signs that haven’t been restored or aren’t operating, and also to an immersive sight and sound exhibit called Brilliant. Designed by artist Craig Winslow, Brilliant brings these old signs and the thrill of Old Vegas to life through light projections, classic film clips, and an iconic Vegas soundtrack. There is a difference between seeing the actual neon light up in the Boneyard and the semblance of neon provided by the projections in Brilliant, but I can’t say that one is “better” than the other. That’s a testament to the job Winslow did designing his show; the combination of music, film, and light, and the way it brings certain signs to life at specific moments, has a spark to it, a dynamism, and a clear structure and thought process that results in a genuinely moving and overwhelming artistic experience. It’s not like looking at the real signs themselves, but it’s something else, something just as interesting and powerful.
Las Vegas is making more of a concerted effort to preserve and present its history. Some of the oldest casinos in town, like the Golden Gate and the El Cortez on Fremont Street, have undergone recent renovations that modernize their amenities while maintaining their pre-war charm. The Mob Museum, which opened in 2012, presents the history of organized crime both in and outside Las Vegas in a more serious fashion than you might expect. When it comes to keeping the flame of Vegas’s past alight, though, the Neon Museum is still the top.
Senior editor Garrett Martin writes about videogames, comedy, travel, theme parks, wrestling, and anything else that gets in his way. He’s also on Twitter @grmartin.