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Vegas Retold

The history of Desert Inn

Opened April 24, 1950 Closed August 28, 2000

Nighttime Strip view with the Frontier sign at left and Desert Inn signs and a hotel tower at right.
The Strip in September 1989: Frontier at left, Desert Inn frontage and tower at right.

LBM1948 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

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Original photograph reproduced without editorial alteration; responsive overview and index displays may crop the presentation.

Wilbur Clark’s Desert Inn opened on April 24, 1950. Its name presented a personal welcome, although Clark was not its only financial force. UNLV’s collection history explains that rising construction costs exhausted his funds and that he sold a majority interest to Moe Dalitz to finish the resort. Clark remained a partner until 1964.

A country-club resort

The hotel developed a country-club identity as well as a casino and showroom. Golf became part of that setting in the early 1950s. The surviving sources do not give a single consistent starting year for the course: UNLV’s Clark history places its addition in 1951, while The Neon Museum dates the course’s opening and the inaugural Tournament of Champions to 1953. The tournament is a reminder that the Desert Inn offered reasons to visit beyond the gaming floor.

Hughes moves from guest to owner

Howard Hughes became the property’s most famous resident and then its owner. PBS’s history traces his arrival in 1966 and his purchase in 1967 after pressure to vacate his suites. Buying the Desert Inn was the beginning of a wider collection of Strip casino holdings. This was an ownership change within the operating resort, rather than a new casino replacing it.

Names, owners and a luxury renovation

The property continued through further ownership and presentation changes. Contemporary reporting records Kirk Kerkorian’s 1988 purchase and the 1993 sale to ITT. Archival records use the MGM Desert Inn name, and Nevada’s February 1998 registration order identifies Sheraton Desert Inn Resort & Casino. These names belong to the same resort’s history. A renovation completed in 1997 emphasized luxury and personal service while reducing the room count, according to the Las Vegas Sun’s report on its fiftieth anniversary.

The sale and the casino closure

The final sale has two dates that should not be collapsed. Wynn’s corporate filing identifies an April 28, 2000 purchase agreement and completion on June 22. It records the hotel and casino closing on August 28, 2000, while the golf course and related operations initially remained open. Closure of the casino therefore did not mean that every activity or structure vanished that day.

Demolition and replacement in stages

Redevelopment also occurred in stages. Wynn’s May 2004 announcement still described Desert Inn buildings awaiting demolition on a separate twenty-acre site. Wynn Las Vegas opened in April 2005. In April 2006 the company announced Encore’s groundbreaking on the original Desert Inn site, north of Wynn. Today’s Wynn and Encore occupy the redeveloped resort grounds; neither is simply the Desert Inn under another name.

Reading the old site today

The September 1989 photograph preserves an earlier view: Desert Inn lettering and a hotel tower stand to the right, while the large Frontier sign belongs to the casino across the Strip. The map marks the former Desert Inn hotel vicinity. It cannot reconstruct the changing hotel buildings, country-club land or later Wynn/Encore boundaries from a single point.

  1. UNLV: Toni and Wilbur Clark Papers

  2. The Neon Museum: Sports Vegas

  3. PBS American Experience: Howard Hughes

  4. Las Vegas Sun: Desert Inn marks 50th anniversary

  5. UNLV: Desert Inn Hotel and Casino papers and photographs

  6. Nevada Gaming Commission: Starwood registration order

  7. Wynn Resorts: 2002 registration filing

  8. Wynn Resorts: 2004 expansion announcement

  9. Wynn Resorts: Encore groundbreaking on original Desert Inn site

  10. Mapcarta: Desert Inn historical site locator

  11. The Neon Museum: Demolished Las Vegas hotels

What remains uncertain

  • UNLV’s Clark history places the golf-course addition in 1951; The Neon Museum dates its opening and Tournament of Champions to 1953. This account retains early-1950s precision for the course.
  • The April 28, 2000 agreement date and June 22 completion date are different transaction milestones; the casino/hotel closure on August 28 did not end all golf or site operations.
  • The mapped point is an approximate historical hotel locator, not a surveyed footprint. Desert Inn demolition and later redevelopment extended over several years.

This site through time

Replaced by Encore Las Vegas

2000 – 2008

Encore was developed on the original Desert Inn hotel site after the earlier hotel and casino closed and its buildings were removed. Wynn Resorts identified that original site at the April 2006 groundbreaking, north of the Wynn hotel; Encore opened in December 2008. This connects the older hotel site to its later replacement within a much larger redevelopment.

Historical source — April 28, 2006 Encore groundbreaking release, original Desert Inn site north of Wynn. Opening corroborated by December 22, 2008 opening-night release; phased demolition documented in May 3, 2004 expansion announcement.

  • The former Desert Inn resort also included golf-course and associated land. This hotel-site relationship does not assert identical tower footprints, surveyed parcel boundaries or present-day entrances.

Replaced by Wynn Las Vegas

2000 – 2005

Wynn Las Vegas opened in 2005 as a new resort developed on the former Desert Inn resort and country-club grounds after the old hotel and casino closed in 2000. The original Desert Inn hotel area lay farther north, where Encore was subsequently developed. This is redevelopment of a larger resort site, rather than a rename or a claim that the two hotel towers share an identical footprint.

Historical source — Wynn Resorts 2002 registration filing: Historical Development and financial Note 1, Desert Inn acquisition and August 28, 2000 closure; Wynn Las Vegas project on the acquired resort/golf-course land. Corroboration: April 28, 2006 Encore groundbreaking release places the original Desert Inn site north of Wynn and records Wynn opening April 28, 2005.

  • The former Desert Inn grounds included hotel buildings, golf course and associated land. This relationship does not project the current Wynn/Encore complex or its entrances back onto the old resort.
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