Neon Cowgirl ‘Vegas Vickie’ Lives On at Circa Resort in Downtown Las Vegas

Posted on: September 14, 2020, 01:11h. 

Last updated on: September 14, 2020, 03:07h.

Larry Henry Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Gaming Business, Legislation, Politics, Regulation.

The iconic Vegas Vickie sign that towered over Fremont Street for decades has found a home inside a new casino nearing completion in downtown Las Vegas.

Vegas Vickie
The Vegas Vickie sign on Fremont Street was removed in 2017 to make way for construction of Circa Resort. The sign has been restored and is inside the new downtown hotel-casino. (Image: Las Vegas Review-Journal)

Circa has announced on its website that the neon cowgirl, in her white, fringed outfit, will reside inside the hotel-casino. The property posted a picture of the restored sign on its Instagram page this weekend.

Vegas Vickie was installed in 1980 at Bob Stupak’s Glitter Gulch Casino on Fremont Street. The casino later became a strip club, but the sign remained at that site until 2017.

That’s when Circa owner Derek Stevens had the sign removed to make way for the construction of his new resort on that block. It is the first hotel-casino to be built from the ground up in downtown Las Vegas in 40 years.

The intent in bringing the sign inside Circa is to unite “old and new Vegas in never-before-seen ways,” the resort’s website says.

Circa is being built on one of the city’s oldest and most historic streets, where colorful gaming pioneers, such as former Texas outlaw Benny Binion, once owed casinos.

Portions of Fremont Street, including where Circa is being constructed, were closed to traffic and turned into a canopied pedestrian mall 26 years ago. This area is dubbed the Fremont Street Experience.

Vegas Vickie’s Marriage

After Circa posted a picture on Instagram this weekend of the sign at the still-under-construction resort, more than 2,500 people had “liked” the image by Monday.

Vegas Vickie still is wearing a holstered pistol. She also has on her tall, trademark cowgirl hat and decorative boots. Her all-white outfit is trimmed in red and blue.

We will need to go see her,” wrote an Instagram user identified as Christina Connelly.

Old School Vegas wrote, “Looks amazing, restoration looks great!”

A longtime tourist attraction, Vegas Vickie was in the news in late 1994 when she “married” another famous Fremont Street neon landmark, the 40-foot-tall, cigarette-smoking cowboy Vegas Vic.

This “marriage” resulted from a Miller beer commercial fictitiously joining the neon Westerners together from their locations across Fremont Street from each other. Vegas Vic has been on the street since 1951 and is still there.

https://youtu.be/PGnMa3T4IGM

Circa Licensing

Circa is expected to begin operations in two phases, with the gaming portions of the property opening in October and many of the hotel’s 777 rooms becoming available by the end of the year.

Stevens, who owns two other Fremont Street properties, D Las Vegas and the historic Golden Gate, is set to appear before the Nevada Gaming Commission on Sept. 24 for Circa’s final licensing approval.

While the price tag to build Circa has not been announced, ENR Southwest, an engineering and construction trade publication, reported that it is a $1 billion project.