The Final Frontier ...

Cold Beer and Dirty Girls!



Uh, yeah, if you say so ... :)

This report has been a long time coming, almost two years ... anyway ...

On July 15, 2007, I was lucky enough to be in Las Vegas for the closing of the Frontier Hotel and Casino, sometimes known as the Last Frontier and the New Frontier.



The Frontier began its life in 1942 as the second hotel-casino on what would become the Las Vegas Strip. It was preceded only by the original El Rancho, which was destroyed by fire in 1960. Nope, despite what you heard, Bugsy's Flamingo was not the first hotel-casino on the Strip!

At the time of the closure, the Frontier was the oldest continuously-operating hotel-casino on the Strip.



There's so much written about the Frontier's history. Google a bit if you want to read about it. It's been the home of many headliners, in particular Siegfried and Roy with their Beyond Belief show.

The Frontier was also the location of the longest strike in the history of organized labor, lasting from 1991 to 1998.

Anyway, I arrived at about 7:30pm on the 15th and stayed almost until the very end.

This was also one rare opportunity to photograph the action in a legacy Las Vegas casino with impunity. Many casinos prohibit casino photography entirely. Those that permit it (tolerate it) have quite a few restrictions, and very few ever allow photography of gaming tables in play.



There were many cameras present, thousands of photos being taken right in front of management and security, who did nothing at all to discourage it!

When I arrived, several of the complex's facilities were closed or closing.



Notice the expression on the one guy in the gift shop above! :)



Totally vacant sports book ...



One of the arcade shops going out of business ...



Here we look through the glass in the door of what was Gilley's, a nightclub and saloon which featured such things as mud wrestling and mechanical bull riding. Things I've always wanted to do -- NOT! :)



You can see the partially-removed "Gilley's" logo on the glass.


... and the band played on!



A jazz/swing tribute-to-Frank type band played almost until the very end, somewhat reminiscent of the final hours of the Titanic. Oh well ...



Quite a contrast in style here ...



"Like Frankie said, I did it my way!" :)

... and the people played on!



... almost as if it were just another day in the casino!



The Frontier was the home of one of the few surviving Sigma Derby games, a mechanical horse race game with kind of a cult following.



As of this writing, the only remaining Sigma Derby is at the MGM Grand.



As a souvenir, I wanted a cash-out ticket, but I was afraid that if I waited until midnight, the slot machine would turn into a pumpkin or something, so I cashed out of one I was playing which ran down to $0.01 a couple hours before. :)



I found the following coin on one of the bartops. It was of very light metal, not intended as a casino chip or gaming token.

Various photos on display for the employees and regular players ...



Over the years I've managed to be in a few casinos (Wynn, Red Rock, Encore) on opening day, but never at a casino closing. It was a bittersweet affair, but the mood was festive until the very end. I was watching for any celebrities who might be there, but I didn't see any. Most of the crowd appeared to be employees and friends, regular casino players, visitors who happened to be in town, etc. Nope, Mayor G. wasn't there, but the Frontier (as well as almost all of the Strip) is outside the Las Vegas city limits.

So, what are the plans for the site?

There were several announced plans over the years, including a San Francisco themed resort and a Swiss themed Montreux (/me puts on an old Deep Purple album and cranks it) resort, but the latest plans are to build a Las Vegas version of New York's famed Plaza Hotel.

I guess I should book a room on the tippy-top floor, bring my pet turtle, and phone room service and tell them to "charge it, please!" :) (Nobody seems to get that one.) :)

Sin City Nights

One of my favorite places to vacation, and to photograph, is Las Vegas.

Las Vegas at night is exceptionally photogenic!

Here are a few I've taken over the years which I think are different than the typical postcard views ...

The Strip, looking south from Flamingo Road:

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A few unusual angles, ultrawide rectilinear ...

ESPN Zone, nee' Motown Cafe.

Notice the Brooklyn Bridge!



Tropicana, one of the remaining "legacy" casino-hotels:



And now {pause - deep breath - sigh} the World's Largest Gift Shop:



Direct to your room! (yeah, right):


Sahara Hotel and Casino, another of the Old Vegas genre, to the left.

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Excalibur (aka "Egg Salad Bar"):



New York, New York, a casino so nice they named it twice!



Smith And Wollensky. Las Vegas branch of the NYC steakhouse of the same name:


They tell me (the ubiquitous "they") that nobody actually named Wollensky was ever part of the business. :)

The casino formerly known as the Aladdin:


Just prior to the transition to the Planet Hollywood name.

Harley-Davidson Cafe:



Las Vegas Monorail station:



Room At The Wynn:


(... blow on fingernails, wipe on blouse) :)

Looking from the Room At The Wynn across to Treasure Island. (Mirage to the left, Rio in the background):



The Mirage:



Nobody knows what this is supposed to be, but it's right in front of the Fashion Show Mall, right across from the Wynn:



Slots-A-Fun, on the North Strip. Westward Ho and Stardust (both now demolished) in the background:



Penny Town, low-roller annex to the Riviera Casino:


Riviera is another of the surviving legacy "Old Vegas" casino-hotels.

The Luxor light illuminating the clouds:


(Taken from the balcony of the Stardust East Tower, now demolished.)

Imperial Palace tower. It's blue at night. :)



Las Vegas Hilton sign, from the Las Vegas Monorail:

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Technical information:

Canon QL17 GIII
Mamiya SD rangefinder
Olympus Stylus Zoom
Pentax K1000, Sigma 18mm f3.5 ultrawide

Various Fuji C41 films, ISO 400-1600

The Street That Almost Never Was ...

Street oddities, revisited, again.

(Yet again, I'm claiming fair use of a few copyrighted works, for the purposes of commentary, criticism, and educational purposes.)



To make a long story long ...

Going back into ancient history - not really relevant but it sets the scene - shortly after I moved to Omaha, I and a friend got into this habit of occasionally wandering about the cemeteries of North Omaha during the wee hours. We weren't doing anything wrong, just enjoying each others's company and taking in the, uh, scenery. We were 20-something, old enough to know better, but young enough to say "what the {f-bomb}"!

Mormon Cemetery and B'nai Jacob Cemetery were trivial to enter, but Forest Lawn was more of a challenge as it was well-fenced and locked up tight after dark. Can't risk any escapes, can we? :)

Anyway, yes, we were trying to find a way to sneak into Forest Lawn and we wandered a couple of blocks southwest of the old 40th. St. entrance gate, trying to find a way across the brook that flows along the south side of the developed portion of the cemetery.

We didn't find one.

What we did find was evidence of some abandoned but very significant road construction. Lanes were graded, but unpaved and overgrown with weeds and brush. This was very obvious, since the natural terrain in the area is quite hilly.

This would have been just southwest of what is now the junction (it really isn't an intersection) of 42nd. St. and Hanover St.

Had we discovered a true ghost road? :)

We figured it was some kind of road construction effort, abandoned during the gas shortage days of the 1970s. I didn't even think of this again, until ...

... I was looking over an old map, undated but probably ca. 1960s or so, and there it was! The road that never was!



This map, of uncertain vintage, clearly shows Forest Lawn Avenue running through southwest from roughly what is now the 42nd. and Hanover junction to, yes, Forest Lawn Avenue, a length of which is extant and signed, in the vicinity of 50th. and Redick.

Notice the railroad tracks, long since abandoned and torn up, the right of way now used for Sorensen Parkway.

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I was curious (meow!) so on an otherwise sunny Saturday afternoon I took off in search of the street that never was. I ventured to what is the existing west end of Forest Lawn Avenue, paved and signed, and ...

I thought I found the Holy Grail of Street Necrology! Wow!



From 50th. looking northeast, what at first looked like the the continuation of the once-to-be or once-was Forest Lawn Avenue was obvious, but a few things did not make sense.


Decades before, we had stumbled upon what was to be the eastern end of this stretch, those days being in the late 1970s, and it had been abandoned for several years at that time. However, this section looks like a fairly recent abandonment. The pavement here is solid, no major cracks, weed growth, etc.

I'm not at all a streetlight expert (sorry, Kevin and Jeff) :) but it appears to me that the lights are of recent vintage and probably operable. The No Parking signs with the circle-slash icons also date the poles to a time later than the 1970s.

The barricades, in particular, look not very old, indicating that this was a fairly recent closure.

Doing a little homework uncovered the true nature of this section of the street. It was, until recently, running through an apartment complex, the Wintergreen Apartments, and really had no connection to the planned but never constructed section of Forest Lawn Avenue.

Googling a bit brought forth many headlines such as these:



You know the drill, blighted apartments, absentee slumlord, hotbed of crime, city eventually seizes and razes the property.

This aerial view shows the Wintergreen Apartments ca. 2004.



Also obvious in the view is the once-planned right of way for the never-constructed section of Forest Lawn Avenue.

This map, from The Phone Book<tm>, shows things more or less as they are today.



The barricades shown in the photos above are at the green dot, the closed-off Newport Avenue, shown in the photo below, is noted by the red dot.




Notice the stop sign (somewhat difficult to make out, but it's there, look closely at the right, taller post), facing west toward Forest Lawn Avenue. This was the farthest east that this section of Forest Lawn Avenue made.

If we peer through the brush, we can see some remains of the now-leveled Wintergreen Apartments, such as abandoned furniture and a still-standing street light.



The remains of a parking lot can easily be seen looking west into the former complex.



From the barricaded terminus of Forest Lawn Avenue, the remains of another of the former complex's parking lots is evident as well.




Looking northeast from Newport Avenue just east of the barricade, we can see the western end of the planned right of way of the unconstructed section of Forest Lawn Avenue.

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Returning to the Scene Of The Crime<tm>, along what is now 42nd. St. just south of Hanover, the path to the once-graded future Forest Lawn Avenue extension is still visible, looking westward.






So, what's the story? What happened?

I don't really know, but my guess is that Forest Lawn Avenue had been planned for some time to span from its existing eastern section to its existing western section, but after a false start and the lack of a real need, the project was abandoned. That's my guess, anyway. :)

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But wait! There's more!

Another chapter of Street Necrology unfolding!

It appears that the section of 42nd. St. between Newport and Read is destined to be abandoned. Barricades and signs are up, it appears to be inaccessible.



The Yahoo map (above) shows most of this discontinuity, the Google map (also above) still shows 42nd. as being complete through this area.

To those unfamiliar with the area, yes, these photos look more like they were taken in rural Kentucky than in Omaha. This particular area, around 42nd. and Read, although surrounded on some sides by regular fully-developed urban neighborhoods, is very primitive and rustic, lacking infrastructure and in some cases even paved streets.

Looking at a topographic map of the area, several very steep hills in the sparsely-developed region are shown.



The green dot shows the barricaded southwest end of the section that passed through the Wintergreen apartments and the red dot shows the limit of the eastward progress of Forest Lawn Avenue in this area. The orange dot shows the barricades to the west of 42nd. St. where Forest Lawn Avenue was to continue west, roughly in parallel to the stream. The blue dots show the locations of the barricaded blocking off the now-abandoned portion of 42nd. St. Notice the very sharp downhill drop-off just north of the barricade.

Looking at the lack of development in the area it's very obvious why Forest Lawn Avenue was never completed and parts of some streets, such as 42nd., have been closed.