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| - Las Vegas can be an incredibly frustrating place. The Strip sucks up so much money that the rest of the metropolitan area often looks like it's feeding on the crumbs.
The Clark County Museum is one such place. It's an incredibly plucky museum on the outskirts of Las Vegas that is very clearly operating on a shoestring budget. Don't let that dissuade you from visiting, though, because this museum does a better job of painting a long gone Las Vegas than casino moguls do constructing their modern faux kingdoms.
There is an assemblage of old buildings, machinery, artifacts, and other memorabilia with a heavy sprinkling of mannequins. Oh, yes, mannequins. This penny-pinching museum has mannequins of various eras (and many bad wigs and hairpieces) that are used to help tell the stories. It's sincere and all very quaint but it's also quirky and notches up the entertainment value.
The Mayberry-like tree-lined main street is lined with old houses, a park, a camping trailer, print shop, and a marriage chapel. If Las Vegas ever looked this good, what went wrong when time moved forward? Urban planners could take a lesson from this street.
Enter the various buildings and you'll see the museum's handiwork at creating tableaus to take you back in time. It's all wonderful because there are period details at every turn. (It must be fun to play house here.) While most of the mannequins will elicit giggles, there is one in the Goumond house that's a bit dramatic: a man is sitting in the living room. His facial expression looks like he has received some devastating news. It's like a scene from a film noir movie.
The craziest building is definitely the groovy chapel. It's campy inside: mannequins are attending a wedding. If this represents vintage Las Vegas then I can conclude that the locals had many bad toupees. Who knew? (At least the wedding couple looks good. Whew!)
There's much more on display in the main museum building and it's just as worthwhile and entertaining. If the Clark County Museum can do this well on a $2.00 admission charge and skimpy funding, I can only imagine what they could do if they were endowed like a normal museum.
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