It means that it’s an official designation. But it’s a little more than that. The Las Vegas Strip was declared "America’s first nighttime scenic byway" on June 30, 1995, by the director of the Nevada Department of Transportation (with some encouragement from the Nevada Commission on Tourism, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority, and the Clark County Comprehensive Planning Commission). Then, it was designated an "All American Road" and recognized as a nighttime scenic byway by the Federal Highway Administration on June 15, 2000.
The Strip Scenic Byway stretches from Sahara Avenue to Russell Road. To maintain the designation, signs along the four miles of the Strip must be well-maintained and new signs require a certain amount of neon and animation. There’s also a little funding involved from a National Scenic Byway Grant committee.
Meanwhile, Las Vegas city officials and boosters have just announced a big project to line Las Vegas Boulevard between Sahara and Washington avenues north of the Strip Byway with 25 vintage neon signs from the Neon Museum’s boneyard. The first two signs, the old "H" and horseshoe from Binion’s and the gigantic silver slipper from the casino of the same name, will be installed by next April at a cost of $400,000. After that, one or two signs will be installed, one per block, per year, for the next 10 or so years. If all goes according to current plans, up to 25 historic neon signs will shine on Las Vegas Boulevard north of the Strip, through downtown, and up to Cashman Field. The city has applied for $235,000 in National Scenic Byway funding.
There are three official federal National Scenic Byways in Nevada: 29 miles of Eastshore Drive along Lake Tahoe, from just south of Incline Village to just north of Zephyr Cove; 37 miles along the shores of Pyramid Lake north of Reno, the nation’s only byway completely within a Native tribal reservation; and 12 miles of road that ascends Great Basin National Park, the highest road in Nevada that climbs 3,400 feet and terminates higher than 10,000 feet in elevation.
State-designated scenic byways include stretches of highway up to Mt. Rose outside of Reno and Mt. Charleston outside Vegas; Red Rock Canyon and Valley of Fire in southern Nevada; and Angel Lake and Lamoille Canyon in northeast Nevada; along US 93 and 50; and several smaller routes throughout the state.
