Las Vegas Museums & History

Las Vegas has a legitimate cultural side that most visitors never discover. The city’s history — built by organized crime, atomic testing, the Rat Pack, and a relentless drive to be bigger and brighter than anything else on earth — is fascinating, and the museums that tell that story are world-class.

The Must-Visit Museums

The Mob Museum (downtown) — Officially the National Museum of Organized Crime and Law Enforcement. Housed in the former federal courthouse where Kefauver Committee hearings on organized crime took place in 1950. Three floors of interactive exhibits on the mob’s role in building Las Vegas, FBI wiretapping technology, and the ongoing fight against organized crime. The basement speakeasy serves Prohibition-era cocktails. One of the best museums in the western US.

The Elvis Suite at Westgate Las Vegas

Elvis Presley resided in a 5,000-square-foot Imperial Suite on the 30th floor of the International Hotel — now the Westgate Las Vegas Resort & Casino. From 1969 through his final performance in December 1976, the King performed 636 consecutive sold-out shows in the hotel’s showroom.

The suite was in Room 3000, the penthouse level. It was Elvis’s Las Vegas home for seven years during his legendary residency.