The Neon Museum

We'd never taken a tour of the neon sign graveyard.   I'm so glad our friends from La Crescent suggested going.    It is now officially a museum with a guided tour to explain the history and stories behind many of  these old signs.    This place really is a graveyard (or junkyard) of old neon signs and in many cases, pieces of neon signs.     A few of them actually still work and are lit for evening tours.       How many of these do you remember?

An old Sahara's sign, but also the Horseshoe from Binion's.

The Binion's Horseshoe Hotel and Casino opened in 1951.     Benny Binion was an American gambling icon and mob boss.      After his death in 1989 the family removed the "Horseshoe" part of the casino's name to update it's image.

The Silver Slipper (which opened in 1950) didn't use words in their sign, just a huge silver slipper.   This casino was located on the grounds of the Last Frontier Village along the very early Las Vegas Strip.     This one is now in front of the museum.

I hope the Frontier's sign was more interesting when it was lit.      It's pretty bland just sitting there!

The style of lettering was typical of  "The Jetson's" era.

This colorful sign was for a very short-lived car dealership.

This sign was a very early one from The Golden Nugget.     That yellow blob in the middle depicts a gold nugget.      The numbers "1905" showcase the year Las Vegas was founded.

The El Cortez was another old popular casino.

I didn't hear the story about this larger than life pool player.    I'm guessing he was about 12 feet tall.

This museum/graveyard is a popular place for movies and TV shows, including a "date site" for an episode of this years The Bachelor reality show.