Las Vegas Travel Trivia Tidbits

12/28/2024

Not Las Vegas but interesting facts about Illinois

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Did you know? Illinois is home to Chicago, where the first skyscraper in the world was built in 1885—forever changing the way cities look and grow!

🏞️ Starved Rock State Park offers breathtaking canyons, waterfalls, and trails, making it one of the most popular hiking destinations in the Midwest.

🎨 The Art Institute of Chicago, one of the oldest and largest art museums in the country, houses iconic works like Grant Wood’s American Gothic and Van Gogh’s The Bedroom.

🚴 The Chicago Lakefront Trail, stretching 18 miles along Lake Michigan, is perfect for biking, jogging, or taking in stunning views of the city skyline.

🍕 Deep-dish pizza, an Illinois culinary icon, originated in Chicago and is a must-try for any food lover visiting the state.

🎡 Navy Pier, a historic landmark in Chicago, offers family-friendly fun with rides, theaters, and unbeatable views of Lake Michigan.

🌽 Illinois is known as the Corn State, producing more corn than almost any other state in the U.S.—don’t miss the Corn Festival in DeKalb!

🌅 Cahokia Mounds, a UNESCO World Heritage site, preserves the remains of one of the largest pre-Columbian Native American cities north of Mexico.

🎭 The Second City in Chicago is one of the most famous comedy theaters in the world, launching the careers of stars like Tina Fey and Steve Carell.

🌌 Fermilab, located in Batavia, is a hub of cutting-edge physics research and offers public tours and events to explore the mysteries of the universe.

🚂 The Pullman National Monument in Chicago tells the story of America’s labor history and the rise of the railroad industry.

🐺 The Shawnee National Forest in southern Illinois offers stunning rock formations like Garden of the Gods, perfect for hiking and photography.

12/04/2024

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This was Las Vegas in 1947.

12/02/2024

Who has the most rooms in Las Vegas Strip area??
Do you know?

1. Venetian/Palazzo: 7,089 rooms
2. MGM Grand/Signature/Mansion: 6,871 rooms
3. Wynn/Encore: 4,751 rooms
4. Mandalay Bay/Delano/Four Seasons: 4,726 rooms
5. Luxor: 4,411 rooms
6. Caesars Palace/Nobu: 4,142 rooms
7. Aria: 4,044 rooms
8. Excalibur: 3,981 rooms
9. Bellagio: 3,933 rooms
10. Circus Circus: 3,773 rooms
11. Fontainebleau: 3,700 rooms
12. Paris: 3,672 rooms
13. Resorts World: 3,506 rooms
14. Flamingo: 3,460 rooms
15. Cosmopolitan: 3,027 rooms
16. Park MGM: 2,993 rooms
17. Westgate: 2,956 rooms
18. Treasure Island: 2,885 rooms
19. Harrah's: 2,542 rooms
20. Rio: 2,522 rooms

10/17/2024

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Major Riddle opened the Silver City Casino in 1974 in the place of Riata Casino, which had opened in 1973 and closed in less than a year. Circus Circus Enterprises purchased the casino for $30 million, then refurbished both the interior and exterior. In 1991 it became the strip’s first casino to ban cigarette smoking.

The casino was demolished in 2004 to make way for a shopping center known as Silver City Plaza. As of 2015, a marquee for Silver City still stands on Convention Center Drive. 📸 @ tisdalem2001, Flickr #1982 #702

07/27/2024

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Boyd Gaming revealed plans to close and demolish the aging Stardust in January 2006, to be replaced by Echelon Place. The Stardust shut down on November 1, 2006, and its towers were imploded on March 13, 2007. The resort's famous roadside sign was donated to the Neon Museum. Due to the Great Recession, construction on Echelon was halted in 2008. Genting Group later purchased the project in 2013, announcing plans to complete it as Resorts World Las Vegas, which ultimately opened in 2021 after some delays. ❤️

📷 Photo Source: Robert Cameron's Above Las Vegas and Maverickhelicopters

07/08/2024

https://vegas.eater.com/24094847/las-vegas-restaurant-bar-closures-2024?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0arY9ToCQ6lJT7yzEuFfnnw_MJkuIrWrScLmbE4d3gC3RtSG62EGqh1og_aem_xGFt8xRnBnHRDRpd5AYYoQ

A running list of restaurant and bar closures in Las Vegas and Henderson

07/02/2024

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After nearly 35 years on the Strip, the Mirage Hotel & Casino will close its doors permanently on July 17. The property, developed by Steve Wynn, is said to have helped reinvigorate Las Vegas tourism and set the stage for megaresorts to take over the Strip. The Mirage's size, luxury and price tag of $620 million set it far apart from other gambling options of the day. The resort was so popular in its first year that it replaced Hoover Dam as Nevada's leading tourist attraction. Along with the property go a few Las Vegas landmarks, namely the Mirage's Dolphin Habitat, Siegfried & Roy's Secret Garden and the iconic flaming volcano. The Mirage's transition into the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino and Guitar Hotel Las Vegas is expected to be complete in 2027. 📷 Las Vegas News Bureau.

05/25/2024

**Tuesday Trivia Reveal**

Betty Willis had a long and distinguished career in the neon sign industry, creating some of the most recognizable signage in Las Vegas during the mid-20th century. Willis designed signs for the Moulin Rouge, Blue Angel Motel, City Center Motel, Riviera Hotel, and more.

📷: Dennis Connor of Hartlauer Signs

05/25/2024

Luxor Sky Beam has its own ecosystem

The Luxor Sky Beam is the solid light that shines from the tip of the pyramid. The beam is 39 individual xenon lights with 7,000-watt bulbs. The lights are located in a room 50ft below the tip of the pyramid and bring the temperature of the room to upwards of 300F. The light and the heat attract moths to the top of the pyramid, which in turn attracts bats, birds and other animals.

With an estimated 300 hours of darkness in July in Las Vegas, the hotel spends about $15,300 to keep the sky beam on, going up to $22,700 during the darker months of the year.

05/09/2024

Did you know ….

Circus circus is in the Guinness book of world records for being the biggest permanent big top circus. How big is the circus circus big top?

Want to know how big it is? See the answer in the comments on Las Vegas Travel Trivia Tidbits

03/21/2024

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Guests at the Sands playing craps on a floating table in the pool. Transcribed from photo sleeve: "Floating craps table -

Customers at the Sands Hotel escape the heat by gambling in the pool. About 2200 guests tried this in 1954."

Stamped on original: "Desert Sea News Bureau. Las Vegas, Nevada. Photo by Don English - Dave Lees - Joe Buck."
Site Name: Sands Hotel
Address: 3355 Las Vegas Boulevard South

📷 UNLV Special Collections

03/17/2024

From:
https://local.newsbreak.com/las-vegas-nv/3361818219516-historic-las-vegas-strip-property-closed-and-set-for-auction?s=dmg_local_email_bucket_5.web2_fromweb

Whereas the Strip used to be dotted with motels, it's now dominated by megaresorts.
One of the last holdouts, a nod to Las Vegas' past with an iconic Pink Elephant greeting visitors, has closed, and the process of auctioning off the property has begun.

The Diamond Inn Motel, which has been closed since last year, represents a piece of Las Vegas Strip history that will cease to exist when it gets torn down.
"Built in 1940 the Diamond Inn Motel (then it was called the Desert Isle Motel) is one of the oldest buildings still standing on the strip, which several decades ago the strip was called Arrowhead Highway/Highway 91," the company said on its website. "The first hotel/casino built on the strip was called the El Rancho Vegas Hotel & Casino built in 1941."

In those days, most of the casinos operating on the Strip did not have attached hotels.

Las Vegas Strip's Pink Elephant deserves a better fate
Diamond Inn is being auctioned off by J.P. King, a company that specializes in real estate auctions. A minimum bid of $12.5 million has been set for the property, which offers 1.36 acres of land with 237 feet of Las Vegas Strip frontage.
"Zoned H-1 for hotel/casino use, with approved buildable heights reaching skyward between 406 to 505 feet, the estate promises a future as dazzling as its past," the auction company says on its website.

"It boasts more road frontage than the nearby Paris, MGM Grand, and Venetian, and sits directly opposite Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur, placing it at the heart of Las Vegas’ ceaseless energy. The Diamond Inn is walking distance to all major attractions, making it an excellent and rare investment opportunity for a world-class resort in a prime location."
The property went up for bid on March 7 and the auction includes a unique piece of Las Vegas history: Diamond Inn's Pink Elephant statue.
"The pink elephant came from Disney World, probably in the 50’s. He used to trumpet loudly, but the noise caused some accidents. Because of that, the county made the owner take the sound mechanism out," Diamond Inn said.
Update: While the Diamond Inn website does make the claim that the elephant came from Disney World, that can't be true because the Florida theme park did not open until 1971. It may have come from Disneyland which opened in 1955.

J.P. King will close the auction on March