subject: North Las Vegas and a Museum of Neon [print this page] North Las Vegas and a Museum of Neon North Las Vegas and a Museum of Neon
If there's one thing that Las Vegas, Nevada, doesn't lack, it's neon tubing. There's about 15,000 miles of the stuff to be found in this city in the desert. With all that tubing, you might think there would be more than just one museum dedicated to the use of this inert, noble gas. To this day, though, there's only one Neon Museum, and it may be found among the casinos and hotels in North Las Vegas. The museum opened to the public about 14 years ago, in 1996, with its sign, The Hacienda Horse and Rider, which may be found at Las Vegas Boulevard and Fremont Street.
The history of neon, though, goes back much farther, about 98 years before the museum was founded, in 1898. Neon was the discovery of two chemists from the United Kingdom, Sir William Ramsay and Morris W. Travers. They discovered the gas and named it "neon," Greek for "new one." It turns out that this is a fairly common element out in the Universe, but on planet Earth, it's a rare thing. The chemists found that by placing the gas into tubing and neon lamps that there's a specific kind of glow, a reddish-orange, which is useful in advertising and in Las Vegas. The Neon Museum seeks to embrace and study the past of these signs.
The Neon Museum is unique, in that its exhibits are located mainly outdoors; therefore it's possible to take a walking tour, beginning at the Neonopolis, a shopping complex on the top of a parking garage. Here, 15,000 miles of neon decorate the building! Over on Fremont Street, you may see the Hacienda Horse and Rider, which once illuminated the Hacienda Hotel where it was first installed in 1967. The sign shows a rider on a horse rearing up on two legs. In this collection, most of the signs were constructed by the Young Electric Sign Company.
Nearby, you'll find Aladdin's Lamp, which has been incorporated into the Fremont Street Experience and Las Vegas Boulevard on the northwest corner. In this area, you'll find such interestingly named classics as The Flame, the Chief Court Hotel, the Andy Anderson (which shows a neon-glowing milkman). From the 1940s, there's the Wedding Information sign; from the 1960s, there's the Red Barn (which shows an immense martini glass). One of the oldest signs, Dot's Flowers, goes back to 1949, just four years after World War II, which once lit up a local flower shop.
welcome to Insurances.net (https://www.insurances.net)
