Stranded on the Strip's Edge: A Word for Las Vegas Towing

So much of the old Las Vegas we document was built around the automobile. The motels with their big roadside signs, the wide boulevards, the whole car-culture sprawl of the mid-century valley — it was a city designed to be arrived at by car and seen through a windshield. Many of the places in our archive lived and died by the traffic rolling past their door.

That car culture never left; it just got bigger. And anyone who has driven these roads long enough knows the other side of it — the flat on the freeway, the dead battery in a casino garage, the breakdown miles from home in the desert heat. That is where a reliable local tow operator stops being an abstraction and becomes the most important phone number you own. Las Vegas Towing is the kind of present-day service that handles exactly those moments, getting stranded drivers and their vehicles off the shoulder and out of trouble.

We mention it here because it fits the through-line of everything we cover. The Las Vegas of old roadside signs and endless boulevards is the same Las Vegas where people still get stuck on the side of the road today. The setting changes, the cars get newer, but the need for someone to show up and help stays exactly the same.

We are a history and photography project at heart, but the living city is what makes the history matter. If you drive the valley — and out here, everyone does — it is simply smart to know who answers when your trip comes to an unexpected stop.

Las Vegas Towing — 2968 Marco St #102, Las Vegas, NV 89115 · (702) 651-0105