Treasure Island + Wynn (Desert Inn site)
Where Howard Hughes bought the hotel rather than check out — and where Vegas once sold tickets to watch the bomb.
Key facts
- The Desert Inn opened in 1950, fronted by Wilbur Clark and financed with mob money associated with Moe Dalitz; Howard Hughes checked in around Thanksgiving 1966, refused to leave, bought the hotel rather than vacate his suite, and ran his business empire from its top floor for about four years.
- Legend holds that Hughes bought the neighbouring Silver Slipper casino to stop its giant rotating slipper sign, which he believed concealed a camera aimed at his penthouse — a story usually told as legend rather than confirmed fact.
- In the 1950s Las Vegas promoted “atomic tourism”: the Desert Inn's Sky Room hosted dawn viewing parties for above-ground nuclear tests at the Nevada Test Site about 65 miles away; roughly 100 above-ground detonations were visible from the area between 1951 and 1962, and a Sands showgirl was crowned “Miss Atomic Bomb” in 1957.
- Fallout from those above-ground tests drifted across Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and the people exposed downwind — the “downwinders” — later experienced elevated cancer rates that the U.S. government acknowledged and compensated under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
- Treasure Island opened in 1993 with a live pirate battle out front; Steve Wynn opened Wynn Las Vegas on the Desert Inn site in 2005.
Narration transcript
On your right, past the pirate lagoon of Treasure Island, the bronze curve of the Wynn stands on the site of the old Desert Inn — where the strangest chapter in Vegas played out. It opened in 1950 with mob money behind a friendly front man named Wilbur Clark. Then, around Thanksgiving of 1966, the billionaire Howard Hughes checked in and simply... never left. When the hotel asked for the suite back, his answer was to buy the whole hotel, and he ran his empire from that ninth floor for four years, behind blacked-out windows. Legend says he also bought the casino across the street just to kill its rotating slipper sign, convinced it hid a camera aimed at his penthouse — and I'll tell you that one as a legend, because that's exactly what it is.
The Desert Inn holds a heavier memory, too. In the 1950s, this city sold atomic tourism. Up in its Sky Room, guests threw dawn parties to watch the mushroom clouds rise from the test site sixty-five miles north; around a hundred above-ground blasts were visible from here between 1951 and 1962, and a showgirl was even crowned Miss Atomic Bomb in 1957. The fallout drifted across Nevada, Utah and Arizona, and the people who lived downwind later suffered elevated rates of cancer that the United States government eventually acknowledged and compensated.
That world is gone. The Desert Inn was cleared, and in 2005 Steve Wynn opened his own resort on the ground — the last man standing from that era. Out front of Treasure Island, the pirates still put on a show.
Keep heading north. On your left, watch for an empty lot beside the Fashion Show mall — bare Las Vegas ground with a loud history, including the night Elvis bombed.