El Rancho Hotel and Casino, Las Vegas, Version 5, Triblend Tee

Venue Description

Over the years, Las Vegas played host to two separate El Rancho properties. The first, and the subject of this bio, was El Rancho Vegas. It was a hotel and casino at the north end of the Las Vegas Strip in Winchester, Nevada. It opened on April 3, 1941, as the first resort on the Strip, targeting travelers from Los Angeles. Designed by Wayne McAllister, it featured 65 rooms in cottage bungalows with an Old West theme. Its success led to the development of more resorts on what was then known as Highway 91. The El Rancho Vegas popularized the all-you-can-eat buffet concept in Las Vegas, which remains popular to this day. Ownership changed multiple times over the years until a devastating fire on June 17, 1960, which destroyed the main building and led to El Rancho Vegas’s permanent closure, even though the cottages themselves remained intact. After being sold to Howard Hughes in 1970, the site remained vacant and unused for decades, with various plans coming and going during that time. In 2009, plans for a mixed-use development were announced and expected to open in three years. However, the Great Recession led to its cancellation. In 2015, land owner, MGM Resorts International, opened an open-air venue called Festival Grounds. The property was sold to Phil Ruffin in 2019 and renamed Las Vegas Festival Grounds, which it is to this day.