LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — In the days and weeks following the 1 October shooting, thousands of items were left behind across the valley to memorialize the 58 lives initially lost and honor those forever changed.
Nearly a decade later, many of those tributes remain preserved as lasting symbols of community strength and love.
Experts estimate more than 100,000 pieces were donated or placed at makeshift memorials, including the Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas sign and the Community Healing Garden. Today, caretakers continue to catalog and protect them, so the community’s grief and unity are never forgotten.
At a Clark County Museum storage facility, more than 22,000 artifacts from the shooting are carefully preserved. The collection spans everything from heavy steel tributes to tokens small enough to rest in the palm of a hand.
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“What we did was collect the items that were left at the Welcome to Las Vegas sign on Las Vegas Boulevard shortly after the shooting,” said Cynthia Sanford, a curator who has spent years preserving the pieces.
Many of the tributes were centered around 58 wooden crosses built and delivered to the Strip by the late carpenter Greg Zanis. While some families have since claimed individual crosses, others remain adorned with handwritten messages, personal tokens, and signs of love.
“There were about 18,000 items that we cataloged,” Sanford said. “That is everything from giant signs and posters to pennies and tiny little aluminum crosses and flowers and candles and stuffed animals. Everything that people felt a connection to and felt like would maybe offer comfort to people.”
Every cross has its corresponding boxes, with Sanford estimating each had around 200 items when collected
In the archives, one small pair of boots holds flowers, with heartfelt messages written across the soles. Another display shows a teddy bear draped with a lei and paired with a note and flag.
“I’ve met with people who say it does help, knowing that these things were saved,” Sanford said. “Even if they never come and look at them, they know that they weren’t just discarded.”
Across town in downtown Las Vegas, the Healing Garden serves as an open-air sanctuary where dozens more tributes continue to live on.
Among the branches of a tree hangs a handmade bell—the very last bell an artist crafted before she passed away, brought to the garden by her husband. Nearby rests a massive stone heart. Originally given as an anniversary gift, the couple chose to load the heavy boulder into a truck and donate it to the garden, believing Las Vegas needed the heart more than they did.
For garden co-founder Jay Pleggenkuhle, the space represents a place where love, with nowhere else to go, can endure.
“This garden is a living thing, and I like that we have something that’s living and changing,” Pleggenkuhle said. “Just like if these people hadn’t lost their lives. You know, they’d be living and growing and changing and leading these wonderful lives.”
Sanford said a handful of victims’ families visit the county museum archives each year to view the tributes, and some have chosen to take items left in honor of their loved ones home.
Members of the public can also view items in the Clark County Museum archives by appointment with advance notice.
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