Gillette Museum Rescues Iconic Signs From Around Wyoming For New Neon Park

Frontier Auto Museum in Gillette has been acquiring iconic, but decrepit, neon signs for years. It’s been restoring them to their former glory, and now is building a permanent place to put them.

The museum has broken ground on its new Neon Park, a home for the towering neon signs from across Wyoming.

When it’s finished, visitors can even spend a night basking in the neon glow as part of a custom-built overnight “man cave” experience.

“It’ll be a little studio man cave museum display,” said the museum’s operations manager, Ryan Swanson. “It’ll be like an Airbnb with vintage gas pumps, porcelain and neon signs, and a few vintage cars. We’re also planning to have vintage campers on the lot that people can rent for the night.”

Neon Park will be an extension of the museum, with the rescued signs as the central feature. Swanson hopes the building and some signs will be finished, restored and ready for visitors by the end of this summer.

“We’re winging it as we go, but we’ve got an exciting plan,” he said. “It's not going to make any money, but if it can pay for its existence, it’s justified for us. And, at the very least, it stopped these signs from going to the dump.”

Signage Salvage

Enormous neon signs along America's main streets and highways were a hallmark of the 1950s and 1960s. The colorful designs and massive structures added character to communities and lured customers off the road to patronize local motels, restaurants, and gas stations.

Much of that color has been lost in the 21st century. The Frontier Auto Museum started collecting neon signs to save them from disappearing forever in landfills.

“We got them before we had a plan on what to do with them,” Swanson said. “It’s a little heartbreaking to see these signs in their current condition, crumbled up and falling to pieces, especially if it’s one you grew up with.”

The Wandler family, which founded the Frontier Auto Museum in 2016, shares Swanson's sentiments. He affectionately called the museum’s owner, Jeff Wandler, “a hoarder with style.”

“We love old stuff, especially old Wyoming stuff,” he said. “If it's neon or automotive related, we can't help ourselves.”

As interest and nostalgia increased for these historic neon signs, Swanson said it was only natural for the Frontier Auto Museum to restore the signs they collected and give them a permanent home in Gillette.

“Everything gets old enough to the point where it's garbage, and then if you wait a little longer, it becomes valuable again,” he said. “A lot of those signs went straight to the dump because nobody considered saving them. Now, people want to save them, and we have several that we’ve saved and are trying to restore.”

Light Travels

The interior and exterior of the Frontier Auto Museum are already bathed in neon light. The signs they were rescuing were too large to stand inside the building, so the neon park was conceived as an outdoor exhibit where the towering signs could be restored to their full height and former grandeur.

Swanson said they’ve already decided which signs will be installed at the neon park, representing a large swath of the Cowboy State.

“We’ll have the Holiday Lodge sign from Lander, the Cheyenne Motel sign from Cheyenne, one from the Fox Theater in Casper, one from an RV park in Rawlins, and the Moorcroft Motel sign from Moorcroft.”

Other signs will be added as they are restored. Gillette residents will be most familiar with the Arrowhead Motel sign, the first rescued by the museum.

When Swanson and the Wandlers learned that the Thunderbird Motel in Laramie was facing demolition, they raced to acquire the 28-foot-tall neon sign extending its multi-colored wing along 3rd Street since 1968.

“We purchased it and had to get down to Laramie in a hurry to get it,” Swanson said. “It was a mess when we got it because birds and bats had found their way inside, as they always do, but we loaded it up and got it here.”

The Thunderbird Lodge sign is leaning against the museum's back wall while it awaits restoration. It already secured a spot in the neon park, but much-needed attention is required before the Laramie landmark beckons people to Gillette.

Small Space, Small Budget

There isn’t a lot of space at the neon park, and the museum doesn’t have a big budget to restore the signs.

“You’re looking at up to $50,000 to restore one of those signs,” Swanson said. “We’re deciding how to restore them so they’ll last because you’re putting all that money into something that will be outside for the rest of its life.”

Each sign requires different levels of restoration. The Thunderbird Lodge sign is in great shape compared to the Cheyenne Inn sign, which was blown over and damaged before the museum acquired it.

Restoring the original neon, glass, and everything is the obvious but more expensive option.  Swanson said the museum is exploring cheaper alternatives to make the sign more durable.

“There might be an LED component in the restorations,” he said. “When you do neon and glass, that’s thousands of dollars that can get broken overnight by wind or hail or some teenagers throwing rocks at it. We have to decide how much effort we want to put into each sign because we only have so much space and so much money.”

Swanson said one option is to partially restore signs so that only one sign or the key elements are fully lit with neon or LEDs while the other is refurbished but unlit. Besides, plenty of light and color will be shared between the signs on the small lot.

“We’re still deciding we want to do with each sign, but from our perspective, they’re not going to the dump or ending up in someone’s garage. We’re not trying to be selfish. We’re keeping them out where people can enjoy them, all at worth, for whatever that’s worth,” he said.

Summer Of Light

Based on current progress, Swanson hopes that the first phase of the neon park, the main building, and one or two restored neon signs will be completed and open for business before the end of the summer.

“We’ve got to get the building done, so we’re not bleeding on bills,” he said. “Once that construction’s finished, we can start renting it. Instead of just spending money, a little bit is coming in, too.”

Swanson said that if they could save every abandoned, threatened, or soon-to-be lost neon sign in Wyoming, there would be only so much space and so much money for the neon park. Some offers have been presented and turned down.

“We’ve never gone out of our way to find these signs — they find us,” he said. “There’s a Joe’s Liquor sign in Rock Springs that’s really cool and iconic, but we don’t have the time or the money to go get it. We hated to pass on that one, but I don’t think it’ll end up in a dump. Someone will save it, and that’s all that matters.”

The Frontier Auto Museum is selecting which vintage campers will be placed on the lot and, eventually, be available as overnight rentals. Swanson acknowledges that the museum’s latest enterprise isn’t likely to become a financial windfall for the museum, but it will be a unique experience for tourists in Gillette.

“Everyone can see it for free,” he said. “It’ll be outdoors, across from the museum, so you won’t have to pay an admission fee. You can drive by, wander around and take pictures. It’ll be there for everyone to enjoy.”

Andrew Rossi can be reached at arossi@cowboystatedaily.com.