Welcome To Fabulous Las Vegas Sign

Las Vegas, Nevada

Signs and neon are synonymous with Las Vegas. One of the city's main photo ops is its iconic "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas Nevada" sign -- so popular that several copies of it are now scattered around the tourist district. Although the original sign isn't technically at the city limits, it has come to be regarded as the entrance to The Strip and Sin City. It has remained operational, outliving most of its electrified brethren, and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.

The Googie-style sign, installed in 1959, was designed by Betty Willis (1923-2015), who also designed the city's Blue Angel statue. The sign's trapezoidal shape was inspired by the plastic fobs that were attached to motel keys. It's 25 feet tall, a riot of fonts, bulbs, and neon attached on a set of poles. A 1950s "Disney star" twinkles above. Seven lucky silver dollars provide a background for the letters WELCOME. The burned-out incandescent bulbs have been sold as keepsakes, along with countless renderings of the sign on Vegas souvenirs (the design was never copyrighted).

The site has always been a popular photo-op, although a dangerous one to access between busy highway lanes. In 2007 the county added artificial turf beneath it. In 2008 the city officially built a Welcome Sign parking lot on the median, in time to celebrate its 50th birthday the following year. The parking lot reportedly cost 100 times what it cost to design the sign in the first place.

The sign is owned by YESCO (the company responsible for so many Vegas signs) and leased to Clark County.

The back view provides a farewell for all who survive their visit: "Drive Carefully. Come Back Soon."