US 95 Vegas to Blythe, Part 2: Tonopah Hwy, Fremont St and Boulder Hwy to Henderson (Old US 95, BR 95, NV 599, NV 579, NV 582)

BEGIN NV 599. This route is due for reliquishment back to Las Vegas and probably will not exist for many more years; as it is, it is very poorly marked.

This was the original northwestern terminus of the Gragson Expwy before its expansion.

Bonanza Rd is also designated NV 579 and is similarly poorly signed. In the days of NV 5/old US 95, it was apparently named Clark Ave.

NV 604 still exists, btw, just not in Las Vegas proper (except for the Tropicana Ave/NV 593 intersection which is still state maintained and still appears in the routing definition).

Main St and old Las Vegas downtown. The original Strip ran in this area but for many years lost much of its economic and tourist importance due to most of the later redevelopment occuring further south where space was cheaper and more abundant. Recently there has been a shining exception, "shining" of course being the key word.

... its conversion to the Fremont Street Experience, a pedestrian mall built 1994-6 as a civic redevelopment partnership between the city of Las Vegas, Fitzgerald's, Lady Luck, Golden Nugget and several other casinos along the old Strip. Its centrepiece is the 90-foot-high central barrel vault shown here, stretching for 1,400'. The vault canopy is supported by sixteen weight-bearing columns, themselves weighing 13 tons and capable of supporting 200, connected up by 43,000 struts.

It's probably a good thing, then, that the old seamy Vegas is now a lost curiosity in photoessays and older films. For me, old Vegas appears particularly alive and slimy in the 007 Vegas outing Diamonds Are Forever (1971); Fremont St appears in this film where James Bond (Sean Connery) is being pursued by the less-than-inept Clark County Sheriff's department (no offense to our men in uniform today, I wasn't the one who wrote the script), along with most of the casinos that lined it and that are, in their fashion, still preserved within the Experience. Click the thumbnail at left for five frames (157K) showing the street and its appearance during its twilight.

Vegas Vic himself hails from 1951. Originally the Pioneer Club had "simply" the words Pioneer Club and a neon hat as their sign during the 1940s, but was looking for a new eyecatch to attract visiting gamblers and distinguish themselves (which was pretty hard to do in Vegas even then). To this end they hired the Young Electric Sign Company (YESCO), the oldest and largest producer of electronic signage in Vegas and still around today. Designer Pat Denner drew his inspiration from an earlier 1947 cowboy sign used by the Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce, but swelled it to an arresting 75' complete with moving arm, moving cigarette, and a voice booming out, "howdy, pardner!" every 15 minutes. (The voice of Vegas Vic was the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Maxwell Kelch.)

Vegas Vic became an instant landmark, even though today he ain't what he used to be. In 1966, actor Lee Marvin objected to the volume of the recording and it was duly turned off; it was briefly resumed in the 1980s but then ceased to function and has not been repaired. In 1991, Vic's arm stopped working, and even his beloved hat lost a little off the top when the Experience roof was added in 1994. Still, the old man got a little consolation when he got to marry his opposite number, Vegas Vickie (nee Sassy Sally) on nearby Glitter Gulch during the ceremonies of the Experience construction. Considering that the years have kept her in fine shape, Vic didn't do too badly after all. We'll say hi to her in a minute.

Junction Fremont Street Experience (behind the camera), modern Fremont St (NV 582, old US 93/US 95/US 466), and Las Vegas Blvd (former NV 604, old US 91, old US 91/US 93/US 466). This is the historic union of US 91, US 93, US 95 and US 466, proven by the modern designations for the streets (Main St being Historic Alternate US 91-US 466 and Las Vegas Blvd being Historic US 91-US 466). To the left, US 91 and US 93 proceeded north along Las Vegas Blvd. Straight ahead, US 95, US 93 and US 466 proceeded east towards the Hoover Dam, and to the right, US 91 and US 466 proceeded south towards California. We proceed straight ahead along modern day Fremont St.

For its part, US 466 is a footnote in Nevada road history as it was never signed as an independent route within the entire state. Although extant since 1935, its alignment in Nevada was always piggybacked on either US 91 or US 93, and due to this redundancy was decommissioned in 1972 at the same time as Arizona (California had long since decommissioned it in 1964 as part of the Great Renumbering).

This 7-Eleven is now gone, but I loved the gaudy neon, so I'm keeping the picture up.

Continue to Part 3