Castle caters to pachyderm patrons

Mitch Brown is a self-proclaimed elephant nut.

With 2,500 pieces in her 40-year-old collection, Brown was bursting at the seams with all things pachyderm -- statues, figurines, plates, tea pots, dinnerware, postage stamps, rubber stamps, post cards and advertisements.

In December, Brown and her husband Floyd opened The Elephant Castle Gift Emporium, and to house her growing collection, added a museum in April.

"I've always been fascinated with the animal," Mitch Brown said. "They are so massive, but they have such grace and poise."

Months after the museum opened, "the elephant lady" still has one-third of her collection in boxes ready to meet the world.

"My dream and goal and desire has always been to have a museum," Brown said.

In her home in Colorado, she had "not one inch of ceiling, wall or floor space," so her cousin encouraged her to open a museum.

When she married and moved to Las Vegas 2 1/2 years ago, she went scouting for possible sites. She knew she had found a second home when she set eyes on a building located at 650 W. Sunset Road.

"That's it -- a castle for my babies," Brown said of the first time she saw the building. "It's perfect to me, just perfect."

Soon after opening the store, Brown received calls from elephant collectors citywide. In response, she formulated the Elephant Collector's Club, which will have its first meeting Tuesday at 6 p.m. at the castle.

"I find it very exciting that people are willing to drive," Brown said. "A diehard elephant collector will go anywhere and everywhere."

Miriam Neff can relate.

A recent Virginia transplant who lives in the Southeast area of the valley, Neff shares Brown's nuttiness for elephants and will exhibit her elephant collection alongside Brown's. As an active Republican, Neff began a small collection of her own before purchasing a 40-year-old collection in 1980 and building upon it.

"Every birthday, every Christmas, and for everything in between, people give me elephants," Neff said. "They say I have to have it in my collection."

Items for sale in the gift shop are imported from Cambodia, Burma and Thailand, where natives of nearby India have worshipped the elephant as a Hindu deity named Ganesha for centuries.

Although the gift emporium houses an elephant herd made of wood, glass, plush and metal, the museum is meant for other collectors as well. In fact, Brown plans to highlight local collectors in an exhibition, no matter the theme.

She also will open the museum to class field trips.

"We want to teach kids about preserving their collections," Brown said. "It doesn't have to be elephants."