Mementos continue to reflect grief over Las Vegas shooting
Nearly five months after the Route 91 Harvest festival shootings, Southern Nevadans continue to channel their grief through everyday objects.
And whether it’s a teddy bear affixed to a chain link fence at the site of the tragedy, or message-bearing rocks left at the community healing garden in downtown Las Vegas, the simple mementos still offer a way for Southern Nevadans to cope with their grief over the Oct. 1 incident that left 58 dead and hundreds injured.
With the most high-profile collection of objects — the wooden crosses and other items left near the Las Vegas welcome sign on the Strip — now being processed into the Clark County Museum’s collection, mourners have turned other sites into memorials.
At the Las Vegas Community Healing Garden, 1015 S. Casino Center Blvd., it’s very common for mourners to bring and leave mementos, said Mauricia Baca, executive director of the Outside Las Vegas Foundation, which helps to manage the garden.
The items — particularly those that might degrade or be damaged by the weather — are being taken periodically to the Nevada State Museum Las Vegas, Baca said. “So nothing is just disposed of. Everything is collected.”
Meanwhile, the concert site’s Las Vegas Boulevard-facing fence also has become an occasional, if unofficial, gathering place for stuffed animals, notes and Route 91-related graffiti.
Mary Hynes, a spokeswoman for MGM Resorts International, which owns the property, said company representatives are seeing “very few” items being left there. But, she said, items that are found will be collected, stored and eventually given to the Nevada State Museum.
Contact John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280. Follow @JJPrzybys on Twitter.