CASPER — The giant fence-riding neon cowboy from Powder River continues to undergo work in a Casper shop with a few issues remaining to bring about its full restoration and resurrection.
Plans still call for the 21-foot Tumble Inn Cowboy with six-shooters on his hips to make his last stand in downtown Casper, but entrepreneur and muscle-car restoration expert John Huff, who has spearheaded the cowboy’s refurbishing, hesitates to set any firm date for the cowboy to be placed at its new home.
As 2025 began, Huff had hoped to have the sign that for years illuminated the U.S. Highway 20 location at its Powder River restaurant and bar back up by Memorial Day.
“The plan is to get back to work on it as soon as possible,” Huff said. “But life gets in the way of things, you know what I mean?”
Huff said his other business commitments and unforeseen challenges have sucked up much of his available time in past months.
A Casper artist also said that her part of the project replacing and refurbishing the 80 sections of neon glass to make him bright and colorful in the night has hit its own roadblocks and challenges.
Huff, who has worked sandblasting, restoring metal, fixing electronic wiring and painting the sign, estimates he has about two weeks of work left to do.
Earlier this year, he installed a base and pole for the sign outside the Yellowstone Garage and Bull Horn Brewery at the corner of South Elm Street and West Yellowstone Highway.
Part of Huff’s most recent efforts have included a need to rebuild the "Sizzling Steaks" section at the bottom of the sign where the cowboy’s boots stand.
He also has replaced wiring and insulators in the interior of the sign that are designed to handle the 15,000 volts of power needed to charge up the cowboy’s colorful lights.
Another challenge Huff has wrestled with is devising a way for the “Lounge Cafe” portion of the sign that originally stretched across the cowboy’s shoulders to the top of the Tumble Inn roof to be held up at the Yellowstone Highway location.
His solution was to use metal from the old Bessemer Bridge. He has a separate concrete base installed for that metal to extend upward to support that portion.
John Huff checks to ensure a piece of neon glass that is part of the Tumble Inn sign fits in the right place. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
The Tumble Inn Cowboy is carefully taken down. (Courtesy Photo) 
Tumble Inn as seen in the John Margolies Roadside America photograph archive in the Library of Congress. (Library of Congress) 
Connie Morgan, of GloW Neon Lights in Casper, is refurbishing the Tumble Inn signs’ neon lights if possible or recreating the portions of the lights that were broken. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Casper entrepreneur John Huff has spearheaded the physical restoration of the sign and said he probably has about two weeks worth of work before his portion of sign restoration is completed. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily) 
Tumble Inn owner Jonathan Thorne, right, and artist Samuel Austin discuss how they're going to restore the iconic Tumble Inn neon roadside sign in Powder River, Wyoming. At right, the work is underway. (Jonathan Thorne) 
While the giant Tumble Inn cowboy is friendly, the Powder River bar also has a rough history, as seen in this 1925 newspaper item in the Casper Morning Star. 
Tumble Inn on Sept. 29, 2020. (Wes Dickinson) 
The foundation to install the Tumble Inn Cowboy sign is ready outside the Yellowstone Garage and Bull Horn Brewery at the corner of West Yellowstone Highway and South Elm Street in Casper. (Dale Killingbeck, Cowboy State Daily)
Glass Issues
Neon artist Connie Morgan said she has about 70% of the sign’s neon glass yet to complete. Other demanding projects have taken her time over the summer.
She said one stumbling block has involved the neon sign industry itself and a shortage of the phosphor material needed to put inside certain colors of the glass.
Morgan had worked to install neon glass on the “Tumble Inn” wording on the cowboy’s chest and found that when she tried putting the appropriate gas inside the glass and heated it up, the powder inside the glass started to turn black and make the glass “splotchy and dull in spots and that’s not supposed to happen.”
“I did have to trash all of that glass and start over,” she said. “I had to order different glass from a different manufacturer. I have not tested any of it out yet, but I am hopeful that it will work out.”
With the glass she fashions to replace the broken portions, she said even with the patterns she developed, when she gets a significant number of pieces complete, she wants to physically ensure the fit and line up the pieces with the sign. That takes time as well.
“I want to make sure it hits all the holes and all the glass ends,” she said. “So, it looks like it is supposed to.”
Morgan estimates that she will be able to return to the project in the next couple of weeks and now sees the project likely going into winter with the other challenges she has in her life. She said the best timeline she sees right now is for the sign to be installed by next Memorial Day when Huff hosts his annual car show in the neighborhood.
Colorado-based retired engineer Jonathan Thorne bought the Tumble Inn property in 2023 to obtain ownership of the classic sign.
Thorne has told Cowboy State Daily that he “just wanted to save this piece of history for the Wyoming people who have come to enjoy it.”
As a young man, Thorne passed the sign on the way from Colorado to relatives in Cody.
The sign’s origins can be traced to a Wyoming oilman who wanted to own a steakhouse and bought the log restaurant and bar. He found the sign in Las Vegas and had it revamped for his purposes.
A reference to the sign first being turned on in the region came from a Casper Morning Star columnist in 1960 who intended to drive to Powder River just to see it blink.
“(It’s) real colorful we hear,” he wrote.
Contact Dale Killingbeck at dale@cowboystatedaily.com
Dale Killingbeck can be reached at dale@cowboystatedaily.com.
