View of empty Vegas Strip walkway with sign that says: Times are tough, but so are we.

Lost Vegas: COVID-19 Shutdown Clears the Strip

A photographic look at the now-empty spaces along the city's iconic boulevard.

UNLV University Libraries Photographs of the Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Las Vegas, Nevada, PH-00428.

To slow the march of the COVID-19 infection, Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak closed all casinos, bars, and dine-in restaurants in the State on March 17th. What followed can only be described as historic as the Las Vegas Strip was transformed into a landscape void of the usual throngs of tourists, sightseers, hucksters, and the likes. Left in the wake of closure is the free-market super-scape painted with a post-apocalyptic brush.

Built as a space to entice people inside its casinos, shops and entertainment venues, the Las Vegas Strip is like no other entrepreneur's paradise in the country. Every inch of valuable Las Vegas Boulevard acreage has been planned and built to move people safely along the casino properties, each putting their best bet out front in hopes of luring travelers from all over the world into their businesses. Now shuttered, the space both loses its luster and comes alive with the detail usually lost in the clutter of thousands of starry-eyed hopefuls.

These images were photographed to create a collection highlighting the city's response to the COVID-19 pandemic and will be archived at the UNLV University Libraries, Special Collections and Archives.

Topics:

coronavirus, Las Vegas

Campus Units:

University Libraries,  Special Collections and Archives

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