CASPER — The 21-foot-tall neon Tumble Inn cowboy that spent decades beckoning to drivers along U.S. Highway 26 in Powder River, Wyoming, is nearly back to life.
After 18 months of work to restore his smile and cowboy hat, his signature red neon thumb that waves back and forth, welcoming people to come on in is working again.
It’s part of a herculean effort to restore the historic cowboy that was nearly lost to the elements and time.
The hope is that sometime in late spring, the long-and-tall Tumble Inn Cowboy will be standing his ground in downtown Casper.
Efforts to restore the giant cowboy that for years pointed people to the bar and restaurant on the north side of the highway continues at a Casper-area garage and neon light artist’s business.
Sign owner Jonathan Thorne, who has turned efforts over to Casper entrepreneur and muscle-car restoration guru John Huff, as well as neon glass expert Connie Morgan, said work on the sign is progressing.
“We’ve made amazing headway,” Thorne said. “One of the things when I bought this sign in Powder River, I was thinking in five to seven years we’ll get this thing restored. And it’s obviously happened much, much faster. That’s pretty exciting.”
Huff said his goal is to have the sign in place in the Yellowstone district of downtown Casper in time for Memorial Day.
While other phases of his life have slowed some progress on the restoration in recent months, he said only the face and hat of the cowboy remain to be painted.
“I’ve got to take my jig apart that I have it mounted on to mount the hat and finish that part of it up,” he said.
Huff posted a video on his Facebook page of the cowboy’s right hand, thumb extended, waving as the neon lights flash between the tubing positioned over his hand and next to it.
When Huff first got the sign, he disassembled the metal portions, made copies of lettering and sandblasted the hull inside and out in a laborious process. The neon lights had to be removed and electrical connection upgraded.
Bessemer Bridge Assist
His latest puzzle involved figuring out how the horizontal “Lounge Cafe” part of the sign that once went from the cowboy’s shoulders to the roof of the Tumble Inn will stand in its new location near the Yellowstone Garage in downtown Casper.
Huff said he solved the issue when he considered metal from the old Bessemer Bridge that he had used to build a stage.
Unused portions of the former lattice work for the bridge were pulled out and repurposed, combining more history into the project.
“So, that’s all built,” he said. “We’ve got a little bit more work on what is going to be underground which you will never see, but part of which will keep the sign from blowing over in the wind.”
In her shop, Morgan said she continues to sort all the glass. There are 80 neon sections for the sign, some of it was intact, some broken and some missing when she started. Morgan is making patterns for the glass that needs to be replaced.
“I just discovered yesterday that each side of the sign is different, so I have to make patterns for both sides, which is pretty typical,” she said Thursday. “Back in those days nothing was digital or done on computers so it kind of makes sense that the two sides don’t match.”
Morgan said in addition to the patterns, she is filling in the glass that was missing from various areas of the sign.
She plans to spend the time she can dedicate to the project this month working on bending the glass for the cowboy part of the sign and doing the detail work such as painting out or blocking the sections of glass where the neon light is not supposed to shine through.
She calls the sign the biggest project she has done in terms of size, but she remains undaunted by the task.
“It is such an old sign, and it is fun to work on,” she said. “It’s inspiring me because I can’t wait for it to light up downtown Casper.”
Thorne bought the Tumble Inn property in 2023 to get ownership of the classic sign that was initially made for a restaurant owner in Las Vegas in 1959.
A Wyoming oil man who had a dream for a steakhouse purchased it and had it revamped and installed at the log constructed restaurant and bar.
A column in the Casper Morning Star on Feb. 19, 1960, contains one of the first references to the sign.
“Going to have to drive out by the Tumble Inn in Powder River to see that big new illuminated sign that has been erected by the Advance Electric Company,” the columnist wrote. “Real colorful we hear.”
Thorne, Huff and Morgan hope to see that excitement generated again. A website dedicated to the cowboy offers a history of the sign and the restoration process.
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.