Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada

Earlier this summer, I took a quick weekend trip to Las Vegas to watch NBA Summer League basketball. It was my 15th trip to Las Vegas since 2001, which makes Vegas by far my most visited vacation destination since I started traveling on my own after school. That's an average of more than one trip per year, in case you couldn't do the math yourself.

Despite all the time I've spent in Vegas (over a month all told when added up), however, the territory I've explored there has been extremely limited. Most of my time has been spent on foot or in cabs in and around the Strip, which for those of you uninitiated in these things is pretty much Las Vegas Boulevard from the Mandalay Bay resort to the Stratosphere hotel. One year I rented a car and went to the Grand Canyon for a couple of days and I've been a mile or two off the Strip to go to eat once. I've also been to the Fremont Street area four or five times but for the most part, I've spent my month in Las Vegas within an area which is no more than 15 square miles.

One of the most famous Las Vegas landmarks is the "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas, Nevada" sign which sits about a mile south of Mandalay Bay. This thing is a world famous icon and it graces millions of dollars of Las Vegas souvenirs sold each year. But in my first 14 trips to the Nevada desert, I had never seen it in person. I didn't want to let that error in judgement stand my 15th trip. And it didn't.

The sign was installed in the center of Las Vegas Boulevard in 1959 by Las Vegas salesman Ted Rogich who sold it shortly after its installation to Clark County, Nevada. The sign was designed by graphic designer Betty Willis who never copyrighted the design, insisting it was a gift to the city. As such, she doesn't see a dime from the millions of dollars of souvenirs sold each year. Somehow this gesture makes the sign all that more awesome.

As a graphic design, the sign is so simple and clear but timeless at the same time. It's a simple white diamond shape trimmed in yellow with rounded ends topped by seven circles (allegedly to resemble silver dollars) and a star above offset to the left. The sign's red and blue welcoming message is obvious. The font is easy to read and the script "Fabulous" convinces you that Las Vegas is, in fact, fabulous (it is, most of the time). The back side of the sign, which one rarely sees, is equally clear, although it's easy to see why the back side isn't displayed much.

The sign was made by the Young Electric Sign Company, the company that made most all of the iconic Las Vegas casino signs. If you go up to the Neon Museum near the Fremont Street area, you will see the "YESCO" logo adorning the majority of the signs in their boneyard. The Young Electric Sign logo can been seen on the front and back of the sign.

The sign used to stand alone in the median of the Strip but a few years ago, the city decided to make it a bona fide tourist attraction and installed a parking lot just south of the sign so that people wouldn't simply walk there and then scamper across the road to the sign. Good idea. We took a cab down there on our way to the airport, had the driver wait, and then continued on our way home. The sign is way smaller than I thought it would be. I expected it to be highway sign height but it's quite modest (25 feet high) which was probably more appropriate to the scale of roadside signs in the late 1950s.

Like all tourist attractions in Vegas, the sign has drawn people to it looking to make a buck. We ran into a guy who presumably spends all day offering to take pictures for everyone at the sign (there seemed to be a ton of couples there) for an implied tip (we did it). It's hot in July. Very hot. I know it's a dry heat but still... This had to have been one of the shortest stops I've made at a tourist attraction, maybe slightly longer than the Griswold family spent at the Grand Canyon. It was worth it. I feel like I have been to Vegas now.

I have a long list of jobs I don't want. Sitting in the sun in July in Las Vegas in a Big Bird costume got added to that list about two months ago.