Topeka Evel Knievel Museum to close for the last time in 2024 for move to Sin City
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TOPEKA (KSNT) – The Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka will close its doors for the last time in the Capital City later this year as it moves further west.
If Topekans want to visit the Evel Knievel Museum in 2025, they’ll need to travel more than 1,300 miles to its new home in Las Vegas. After months of speculation and waiting, the deal to move the museum back to its old stomping grounds is finally official.
Museum co-founder Mike Patterson announced the news on Tuesday, May 14 that the museum will close for good in Topeka on Nov. 2, 2024. Construction has already started for the museum’s location in Las Vegas.
“I do have mixed feelings about the museum leaving Topeka,” Patterson said. “This is our hometown and we have been so proud to have it reside in Topeka for the past seven years. We have welcomed guests from over 80 different countries and every U.S. state many times over. The museum has been a real economic win for the Topeka community with all those visitors, and we are very proud of that. Our team is excited about this move as we will oversee design of the new Las Vegas museum, and we will continue to operate the attraction from Topeka.”
What happened to these Kansas counties and why do they no longer exist?
The Evel Knievel Museum joined the Historic Harley-Davidson store in Topeka back in 2017. The museum is dedicated to the motorcycle daredevil Robert Craig Knievel, better known by his stunt name of Evel Knievel, who was inducted into the Motorcycle Hall of Fame in 1999.
Ron Pope jumps on a motorcycle over a group of police cars– via virtual reality– at the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas on June 21, 2017. (Photo credit should read BETH LIPOFF/AFP via Getty Images) Chris Keeshan and Carla Bowhay look at a helmet and other items on display at the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka on June 21, 2017. (Photo credit should read BETH LIPOFF/AFP via Getty Images) Jeff Handley, staff member at the Evel Knievel Musuem, helps visitor Kevin Diehl as he uses the virtual reality game to experience jumping over a group of police cars in Topeka, Kansas on June 21, 2017. (Photo credit should read BETH LIPOFF/AFP via Getty Images) Mike Patterson, owner of historic Harley-Davidson and founder of The Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas, surveys the wall of news clippings about the daredevil stunt rider in his Evel Knievel Museum on June 21, 2017. (Photo credit should read BETH LIPOFF/AFP via Getty Images) Bennett Noriega,age 5, and his grandfather, John Wegele, check out one of the many motorcycles on display at the Evel Knievel Museum in Topeka, Kansas on June 21, 2017. (Photo credit should read BETH LIPOFF/AFP via Getty Images)
J Dapper, a developer in Las Vegas, announced in 2021 plans to bring the museum to Sin City at 1001 South First Street, according to an article from the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Patterson told 27 News at the time that a move back to Las Vegas was “a bit premature.”
Discussions among the Shawnee County Board of Commissioners to purchase the museum space for nearly $3 million took place in December 2023. The board approved of the deal that same year in a 3-0 vote with plans to convert the property into an auto body repair shop for the Shawnee County Sheriff’s Office.
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27 News interviewed Patterson after the news of the museum purchase by the county was made public. He said he had been considering the move for some time and cited external factors as the reason for the move.
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