Today, developing a volcano on the Strip seems a relatively commonplace concept. But in 1989 it was “crazy.”
That’s how Elaine Wynn remembers The Mirage’s original, signature attraction.
“The volcano was was the beginning of a streak of crazy ideas that always came true,” Wynn said during a phone chat last week as she remembered opening the hotel alongside her then-husband, Steve Wynn, in November 1989. “These ideas were compelling, and part of a pattern we established with all of our properties.”
The volcano was needed to fill a more widespread design need at the groundbreaking hotel. The Mirage era effectively ended Dec. 19 when MGM Resorts International announced it closed the sale of the resort’s operations to Hard Rock International, which is owned by the Seminole Tribe of Florida.
