Whatever Happened to The New Frontier Sign?

Where: 3120 Las Vegas Boulevard [map], 89109

August 3, 2012 at 11:09 PM | by juliana | Comments (5)

Last month, we featured The Frontier in one of our regular Vegas history lessons--Turning Back the Clock. We had lamented that the historic New Frontier was imploded in late 2007 for no good reason since where it once stood now lies a bunch of nothingness, thanks to another implosion--the economy in 2008.

But just before the economic collapse, we were in Vegas in August 2008 snapping away with our camera. Looking through our archives today, we found this snapshot taken from our car of the Frontier sign near the Trump Las Vegas. At first, it looked like the sign was sitting atop a random building but we looked again and the sign was actually behind this building.

Obviously, we knew the sign was no longer standing there, but we weren't sure just where it had ended up. Today we learned the sign's sad story.

Just a few months after we took this shot, Steve Wynn later had the iconic sign pulled down as he thought it would take away from the opening celebration of his Encore casino across the street.

At the time this happened, the Neon Museum was reportedly late to get a hold of the sign before construction crews brought it down but a spokesperson said then they were trying to salvage parts for the museum. That never happened. The Neon Museum told us today that the sign was demolished. (Ugh, punch in the gut.)

Brandon Flowers, lead singer of The Killers, was able to buy/salvage only a portion of the sign--the animated neon bull that advertised Gilley's (just out of range in the photo above.) The Neon Museum, meanwhile, was able to acquire another Frontier sign which stood at the back of the casino on Industrial Road.

It's clear the demolition of the Frontier sign was a major travesty and we can only hope this sort of thing never happens again. (Maybe Vegas needs to consider stricter preservation laws?) But in slightly better news, we were wondering about the glittering slipper sign that was a part of the Silver Slipper, one of the earlier incarnations of the Frontier, and we found that it is still alive as part of the Neon Museum's Neon Signs Project. You can spot it on Las Vegas Blvd. between Sahara Ave. and Washington Ave.

So kids, be sure to take a lot of pictures on your trips to Vegas. You never know--you might be snapping a piece of history.

Comments (5)

Return to » Whatever Happened to The New Frontier Sign?

Damn you Steve Wynn!!!! I loved the Frontier Sign..Cold Beers and Dirty Girls... R.I.P

The hotel they were going to build on that site was ill-conceived from the start. They paid way too much for the land and with all the other projects on the drawing board, if completed would have really struggled.

Just another example of morons from out-of-town who have too much funding and think they "know Vegas" and that what they are doing is going to be a home run.

...you are going to build again in another ten years, make it something themed. The kitsch is what made Vegas Vegas. PLEASE not another shiny overpriced box with letters of the alphabet (LVH, D, TI, etc) in place of a real name!

I always thought the Frontier looked huge from LV Blvd and it must have been because there is a great big hole where it used to sit.
I miss those big signs for the Frontier and the Stardust. Even if I wasn't going to stop in, it was nice to have those signs light up the blvd.

Just plain sad. I do hope Steve Wynn is enjoying the view now.

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