{"id":305196,"date":"2024-01-01T17:26:12","date_gmt":"2024-01-01T23:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=305196"},"modified":"2024-01-10T11:02:47","modified_gmt":"2024-01-10T17:02:47","slug":"lost-vegas-the-lucky-strike-prospector-statues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lost-vegas-the-lucky-strike-prospector-statues\/","title":{"rendered":"LOST VEGAS: The Lucky Strike Prospector Statues"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the Lucky Strike Club casino opened in 1954 at 117 Fremont St. in downtown Las Vegas, two 12-foot prospectors stood guard from the top of its rooftop sign. Seventy years later, those statues are still around. They have survived three casino closures, a car accident, decades of desert sun and wind, and a fire.<\/p>\n

But they won’t survive much longer.<\/p>\n

\"twin
The twin gold prospector statues kneel above the Lucky Strike Club sign in 1955. (Image: Hulton Archive via Vintage Vegas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Golden Boys<\/h2>\n
\"\"
The Lucky Strike Club was bought and demolished by the Golden Nugget in 1968, as part of a block-long expansion. (Image: flickr)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The prospectors were designed by noted wax artist Katherine Stubergh. Referred to as \u201cAmerica\u2019s Madame Tussaud,\u201d her work can be seen in the classic films Gone with the Wind<\/em> (1939) and House of Wax<\/em> (1953).<\/p>\n

The sculptures were manufactured out of fiberglass by the YESCO sign company in their Salt Lake City factory and installed on the Lucky Strike sign with their own electrical feeds. When the sign was switched on at night, the prospectors jiggled their pans, which brimmed with lighted \u201cgold,\u201d from side to side.<\/p>\n

In 1963, the property became just the Lucky Casino, and the prospectors were placed in storage. Five years later, the neighboring Golden Nugget bought and demolished the property as part of a block-long expansion.<\/p>\n

But the statues were safe. Since 1964, they had been serving as photo ops in front of the Fort Lucinda Casino. That was part of a ghost town theme park created as an expansion of the Gold Strike Hotel and Casino (today\u2019s Hoover Dam Lodge). The town featured buildings relocated from the New Frontier casino\u2019s Old West village.<\/p>\n

The theme park never caught on, and the Fort Lucinda Casino reverted to the Gold Strike name in 1968. But that was a good day for the prospectors, who were placed back-to-back beneath the marquee of its new roadside sign.<\/p>\n

\"\"
One of the statues mines for photo ops at the short-lived Fort Lucinda ghost town theme park near the Hoover Dam. (image: over50vegas.com)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was to be their happy home for the next 30 years.<\/p>\n

When an accidental fire gutted the Gold Strike in 1998, its owners decided to relocate the miners to their other<\/em> Gold Strike casino, located 30 miles south of the Las Vegas Strip in Jean, Nev.<\/p>\n

Gold Dust<\/h2>\n

And that’s where the statues sit today. They\u2019ve been the victims of vandalism and extreme sun-bleaching, and one of their feet appears to have been run over by a vehicle. But they\u2019re still there.<\/p>\n

Only now, they guard a sad, abandoned resort awaiting the wrecking ball.<\/p>\n

The Gold Strike was acquired in 1995 by the company that became MGM Resorts. In 2015, it was sold again to the Herbst family, which rebranded it Terrible\u2019s, the same strange name used by the family’s local convenience stores and gas stations.<\/p>\n

Herbst closed the former Gold Strike during the pandemic and never reopened it — though its video sign still sadly flashes advertisements for long-expired specials.<\/p>\n

\"\"
YouTuber Sarah Jane Woodall keeps one of the miners company at the abandoned Terrible’s Hotel & Casino in late 2023. (Image: YouTube\/Wonderhussy Adventures)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the prospectors\u2019 only recent visitors has been the Wonderhussy Adventures YouTube channel, which specializes in rummaging through abandoned desert sites that have seen much better days. (Watch the video here.<\/a>)<\/p>\n

In 2022, the former Gold Strike was sold for $44.7M to Tolles Development, a Reno-based real estate company that, according to its website, plans to build a 2.84 million square-foot industrial center on the site and is currently advertising for tenants.<\/p>\n

As for what its plans are for the statues, Tolles did not return Casino.org<\/em>\u2019s emails or voicemails.<\/p>\n

But their prospects don\u2019t look good.<\/p>\n

\u201cLost Vegas\u201d is an occasional\u00a0Casino.org\u00a0<\/em>series featuring remembrances of Las Vegas\u2019 lesser-known history.\u00a0Click here<\/a>\u00a0to read other entries in the series. Think you know a good Vegas story lost to history? Email corey@casino.org.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the Lucky Strike Club casino opened in 1954 at 117 Fremont St. in downtown Las Vegas, two 12-foot prospectors stood guard from the top of its rooftop sign. Seventy years later, those statues are still around. They have survived three casino closures, a car accident, decades of desert sun and wind, and a fire. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":305202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[81886],"tags":[13363,83024,82141,89336,89339,89340,23,89338,24,89335,89337],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nLOST VEGAS: The Lucky Strike Prospector Statues - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When the Lucky Strike Club casino opened in 1954 at 117 Fremont St. in downtown Las Vegas, two 12-foot prospectors stood guard from the top of its rooftop\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/lost-vegas-the-lucky-strike-prospector-statues\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LOST VEGAS: The Lucky Strike Prospector Statues - 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