A Dazzling and Commanding Reality
The Mirage Volcano postcard, 1990. Gift of Samantha Sage, Ref: 0005.0028
The earliest plans for The Mirage Hotel & Casino were announced nearly a decade before the property opened to the public. In July 1981, entrepreneur Steve Wynn announced his plans to open a $300 million property on the Las Vegas Strip, which was then known as the “Victoria Bay.” Throughout the 1980s, titles shifted and costs rose. While its prominent Strip locale never changed, the property name changed from “Victoria Bay,” to the “Bombay” and later to the “Golden Nugget,” a name recalling the downtown Las Vegas casino which Wynn first acquired in the 1970s as the youngest casino owner in the city’s history. It wasn’t until December 10, 1988, that the property’s final name was settled on. By this point, Wynn’s investment in the property ballooned to an unprecedented $600 million, a portion of which was used to acquire naming rights from two smaller nearby properties, the Mirage Motel and La Mirage Hotel & Casino. Wynn’s Mirage Hotel & Casino officially opened on November 22, 1989 – the property featured over 3,000 guest rooms, 260 luxury suites, over 100,000 square feet of gaming space, and was staffed by over 6,000 employees. More than 100,000 people visited The Mirage Hotel & Casino on its opening day.
Upon opening, The Mirage Hotel & Casino was the first new property to be built on the Las Vegas Strip since 1973. Entertainment offerings at the property were diverse, with options ranging from high-profile boxing matches and long-term residencies from Siegfried & Roy to free shows like the property’s popular volcano attraction. Standing at over 54 feet tall, the volcano was surrounded by lush lagoons and waterfalls, regularly stopping onlookers and drivers in their tracks when it erupted, shooting fire and smoke over 100 feet into the air numerous times per day.
The Mirage Hotel & Casino underwent numerous ownership changes in its final decade, culminating in Hard Rock International, owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida, purchasing the property for $1.075 billion on December 15, 2021. This marked the first instance of a tribal enterprise entering the Las Vegas Strip market. The period during this transition saw many aspects of the property winding down and scaling back. The Mirage Hotel & Casino began its multi-day closure on July 15, 2024, when the property’s hotel ceased operations. The following evening, the property’s iconic volcano attraction erupted one last time. Finally, July 17 saw the full closure of the property’s casino operations, with demolition beginning just hours later. The projected opening of the new Hard Rock Hotel & Casino is estimated to be in 2027.
Reflecting on the property’s closure, Wynn stated, “She was most definitely not actually a mirage, but a dazzling and commanding reality.”