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1959
Betty Willis designed the sign, funded in May 1959 and built by Western Neon
The sign was funded in May 1959 and erected soon after by Western Neon. Betty Willis designed it at the request of Ted Rogich, a local salesman, who sold it to the government of Clark County in Nevada.
The design
White neon circles on the sign stand for silver dollars
The sign is a 25-foot-tall roadside pole design shaped like a stretched diamond. In a nod to Nevada's nickname as the Silver State, white neon circles across the top represent silver dollars. An eight-pointed red star crowns it, and the style is Googie.
25-foot-tallclassic roadside pole design
The back
The north side reads Drive Carefully and Come Back Soon
The back of the sign is less frequently photographed and thus lesser known. It reads Drive on the top line and Carefully on the second in red capital letters, then Come Back in blue script and Soon in blue capitals.
“If I had copyrighted the sign, it probably wouldn't have been used as much and wouldn't be as famous.”
Betty Willis, who designed the sign
Listed
The sign joined the National Register of Historic Places in 2009
The National Park Service approved the designation on May 1, 2009. The State Register of Historic Places added the sign on December 6, 2013. Before 2008 there was no legal place for visitors to park, so people crossed the travel lanes of Las Vegas Boulevard to reach it.
Day 1, morning
Next is Bellagio Conservatory and Botanical Garden.
More stories from this trip idea
The words are a retelling of the Wikipedia article Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign, and are shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. They are checked against those articles, and a fact that is not in them is left out.