Nevada, a state well-known for its exciting nightlife and busy casinos, also has a more sedate but no less fascinating side: its deserted locations. These locations, which were once teeming with life, are now menacing reminders of the past. An overview of five of these overlooked locations is provided below:
Neon Sign Graveyard
Since its founding in 1996, the non-profit Neon Museum has focused on gathering, preserving, examining, and showcasing vintage Las Vegas signs for historical, educational, artistic, and cultural reasons.
The Neon Museum complex consists of the Neon Boneyard Main Collection, an outdoor exhibition area, a Visitors’ Center housed inside the lobby of the former La Concha Motel, and the Neon Boneyard North Gallery, which holds more recovered signs.
The collection of the Neon Museum documents advancements and trends in technology and sign design from the 1930s to the present.
Depending on the season, the Museum is open for business seven days a week, with varying hours. Seeing some of the historic, deserted signs that once adorned the Las Vegas strip is well worth the fee to enter the Neon Sign Graveyard.
Fontainebleau Las Vegas
Situated on a 24.5-acre plot of land, the Fontainebleau Las Vegas was formerly the El Rancho Hotel and Casino and the Algiers Hotel. The news of Fontainebleau Las Vegas broke in May of 2005.
Although a number of banks had committed to provide funding, Fontainebleau sued the organization in April 2009 when it declined to carry out the project.
The construction was severely delayed, and it was halted in June 2009. In February 2018, Witkoff and Marriott International announced their partnership to rename the resort The Drew Las Vegas in memory of Witkoff’s late 22-year-old son, Andrew Witkoff.
The construction timetable for the property is being met and will be completed in time for the opening of the Fontainebleau Las Vegas.
When completed, the Fontainebleau will have more than 3,700 hotel rooms, over 550,000 square feet of convention space, a variety of eateries, shops, nightlife activities, and a casino.
Read More: Haunting Heritage: Discovering the Secrets of 5 Ghost Towns in Missouri
Sandhill Road Tunnels
The only four-lane stretch of Sand Hill Road was from Interstate 280 to Santa Cruz Avenue. Previously, the northern terminus of Sand Hill Road terminated in the middle of the Stanford Shopping Center parking lot.
For a number of years in the late 1990s dot-com boom, Sand Hill Road commercial real estate was more expensive than almost anywhere else on the earth.
Rainwater is diverted away from homes and businesses by a secret system of underground tunnels located beneath the bright lights and busy streets of Las Vegas.
The homeless population of the city has mostly taken over these hundreds of miles long and, in most cases, three-foot-high underground corridors.
Read More: Haunted Routes: Dead Woman’s Crossing and the Ghostly Road of Oklahoma
Wheel of Misfortune
It is located off of Lake Mead Parkway, behind Laker Plaza and Lake Mead Boat Storage, a little distance beyond the entrance to Lake Las Vegas.
Inside one of the abandoned “thickener” holes of the Three Kids Mine, which was operational from 1917 to 1961, was painted the Wheel of Misfortune. The pits were used to “leach a processing pulp” in the manganese business.
In 2012, a graffiti artist by the name of Aware breached security at a defunct mining site outside of Las Vegas. He and his team built a massive wheel that resembled the Wheel of Fortune.
Most of the locations on the wheel read $000, but there are also several that read “Lose a Job,” “Lose a Home,” “Bank Owned,” and “Lose All Hope.” In light of its extended exposure to the elements, the Wheel of Misfortune appears to be in good condition.
Read More: Forgotten Oasis: Haunting Beauty of These 5 Abandoned Places in Arizona
Echo Bay Marina
The National Park Service claims that when the marina was placed up for bid and no one expressed interest in operating it, it closed, partly because of Lake Mead’s declining water levels.
The man-made reservoir’s water level has now dropped to an all-time low, having been constructed during the 1930s Hoover Dam construction.
Echo Bay Marina was located in Lake Mead’s Overton Arm. 365 slips, a fuel dock, retail, dry boat storage, small boat servicing, restaurant, lodging, and land-based petroleum were all provided by the marina at its busiest. In 2013, the National Park Service closed it.
Echo Bay Marina used to be crowded with people and boats, which is difficult to imagine. Currently, the closest gas station is 30 miles away at Calville Bay.
Read More: Haunted Histories: A Deep Dive into Zak Bagans’ Haunted Museum Adventure in Vegas
To Conclude
The abandoned sites throughout Nevada provide a window into the state’s rich and dynamic history. Each location narrates a tale of aspiration, resiliency, and the ever changing winds of fortune, from the intact neon signs of the Las Vegas Strip to the eerie echoes of a marina on a vanishing lake.
These deserted sites are powerful reminders of the transience of human achievements and the enduring majesty of the desert landscape, whether they are explored in person or electronically.
