Wednesday, March 13, 2013

It's a gas baby: The Neon Boneyard of Las Vegas, Nevada

These photos have an annoying but necessary watermark on them because the Neon Museum only allows photos for personal use. They charge for commercial use so they can raise money to keep restoring the signs.

 This nice lady lead the tour we took back in 2008.














As fans of both roadside stuff and decay, the Las Vegas Neon Museum's Neon Boneyard is just about the coolest place we've ever seen, even when it's 100 degrees outside. As Vegas's casinos and businesses get torn down to build even bigger, more up to date places where you can lose your kids' college fund, the Neon Museum's earnest preservationists have arranged to have the classic old signs dragged to an area on the outskirts of town. And thank God, for these signs are history. The Boneyard spreads over two acres and contains over 150 donated and rescued signs dating from the 1930's up until today. It's a surreal experience to take the tour, a real bargain at $18, and led by local Vegas sign historians/volunteers. The Museum is lovingly restoring the signs and putting them up around Las Vegas as historical goodwill ambassadors reminding visitors of Sin City's glorious past. They look fantastic restored but I find them even more amazing in their Boneyard state of ruin. The irony is overwhelming. Something that was once so glittery, happy, huge and spectacular is now rusted, busted, and tapped out. A trip to Vegas is simply not complete without a trip to the Boneyard. The Neon Museum uses the tour fee to keep on restoring the signs so visit them, please. Here's their website: http://www.neonmuseum.org/tour-info

7 comments:

  1. A big "to-do" on my big "to-do" list. I havent' been to LV since 2001 ... I need to fix that.

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  2. I love the non-gambling sites in Vegas, like this place, the Atomic Testing Museum, and the late, great Liberace museum.

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  3. Boneyard state of ruin. Something that was once so glittery, happy, huge and spectacular is now rusted, busted, and tapped out. Stop talking about me. It's rude!

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  4. Bill, You are the very definition of the word "glittery".

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  5. Great photos of some great old signs. I linked to it from my website today because I think my readers will enjoy it too.

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  6. Thanks for the plug, Don, and keep up the good work on your site, too!

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