LOST VEGAS: The Old Vegas Theme Park
Las Vegas has always been brilliant at selling fantasies. One of its earliest and most persistent was the idea that the city grew out of a dusty frontier settlement—a place of cattle drives, saloons, and shootouts. This was the theme of Old Vegas, an amusement park that sold a version of Vegas that…
Las Vegas has always been brilliant at selling fantasies. One of its earliest and most persistent was the idea that the city grew out of a dusty frontier settlement—a place of cattle drives, saloons, and shootouts.This was the theme of Old Vegas, an amusement park that sold a version of Vegas that never existed. The Old Vegas theme park, photographed in August 1980, wasn’t old and it wasn’t Vegas. (Image: UNLV Special Collections) Horse Hockey Opened in 1978 along Boulder Highway in nearby Henderson, Nev., Old Vegas was a 55-acre tourist attraction developed by Robert Shelton as a “sister” property to his successful Old Tucson in Arizona. Designed as both a theme park and a working film backlot, Shelton even had Hollywood art directors lay out the streets to accommodate production crews. Stagecoaches looped the park. (Image: UNLV Special Collections The centerpiece was a massive replica of the Old Mormon Fort, the site of the first sustained Euro‑American settlement in the region. The real fort was established in 1855 by Mormon missionaries and abandoned in 1857—a short, harsh experiment in desert living. Old Vegas reimagined it as a frontier fortress housing shops, a steakhouse, a saloon, a 300‑seat theater, and the Hondo Casino, which by 1979 accounted for half the park. Surrounding the fort was a fabricated Wild West town: boardwalks, stunt shows, stagecoaches, costumed performers, and a railroad that looped around the property. One genuinely historic element did exist here. In 1978, Old Vegas relocated three surviving guest buildings from El Rancho Vegas, the Strip’s first full‑scale resort, which burned down in 1960. The plan was to restore the structures for future film and television productions, giving the park a ready‑made Western set with authentic Vegas lineage. But the universe had other ideas. Trouble A-Stirrin’ Old Vegas patrons enjoy a Wild West saloon. (Image: UNLV Special Collections) Ownership changed almost immediately. In early 1979, TV producer Burt Sugarman and Mexican industrialist Gabriel Alarcón Jr. bought the property and briefly rebranded it as Westworld—not connected to the 1973 Michael Crichton film, but clearly inspired by its theme‑park‑gone‑wrong aesthetic. Their ambitions were bigger: more rides, a video arcade, a train exhibit, and even a plan to screen Priscilla Presley’s private Elvis home movies. But Westworld collided with the real world. Alarcón was denied a Nevada gaming license because investigators couldn’t trace the source of his money under Mexico’s accounting rules. The casino was half the park’s revenue, and without it, the business model wobbled. Attendance never stabilized, and by late 1979 the park reverted to the Old Vegas name. Phase Two opened in 1980, adding a railroad museum, barbecue areas, and the Eureka Locomotive, along with equipment from the Virginia & Truckee Railroad. More rides were planned, but financial losses mounted. By 1982, renovation plans were shelved, and Old Vegas increasingly relied on bus tours rather than locals or Strip visitors. Last Sunset Ride A fire on the night of May 8, 1985 destroyed the park’s souvenir rock shop, collapsing it onto the Eureka locomotive. Regulators ordered a fire‑sprinkler retrofit, and on July 1, 1986, Old Vegas closed “temporarily” for remodeling. It never reopened. A reproduction of the San Pedro-Los Angeles-Salt Lake Railroad passenger train that really gave birth to Las Vegas. (Image: UNLV Special Collections) The site lingered in limbo for years. Developers proposed hotel‑casinos, RV parks, outlet malls, and multi‑phase resort complexes. None materialized. The fort and town decayed in the desert sun. The park’s most visible landmark—an 11‑foot fiberglass equestrian statue of Rafael Rivera, the scout often credited (without proof) with naming Las Vegas(LINK)—was removed in 1996 and relocated to the Rafael Rivera Community Center. By 1997, Old Vegas was demolished for safety reasons. In 2001, the land was approved for a 631‑unit housing subdivision, which kept the name Old Vegas—the last surviving trace of a theme park built to celebrate a frontier past the city never actually had. “Lost Vegas” is an occasional Casino.org series spotlighting Las Vegas’ forgotten history. Click here to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org. The post LOST VEGAS: The Old Vegas Theme Park appeared first on Casino.org.