My first visit to the spot that would become the Neon Museum was on July 12, 2001, or so my photo archive tells me. On that day, I went to the Young Electric Sign Company’s (YESCO) “boneyard,” then a dirt-and-gravel lot, and took a few photos through the chain-link fence. I’m looking at them right now—photos of retired signs from Sassy Sally’s, the Landmark, the Sahara and others, all in various states of rust degradation and benign neglect. YESCO employees had them neatly arranged for viewing, despite the fact the boneyard wasn’t open to the public.
I said this to Neon Museum executive director Aaron Berger during a seated chat in that exact same boneyard, now home to one of the city’s premier cultural attractions.
