Budget, backlog put new ‘history on a stick’ markers on hold
A tight budget and a backlog of maintenance will mean North Carolina will temporarily stop adding new roadside historical markers.
The Highway Historical Marker Program — known as “history on a stick” — boasts 1,600 of the black-and-white signs that offer brief descriptions of historical figures, places and events, but it operates on a $60,000 annual budget that hasn’t changed since the 1980s.
The cost of each new marker has increased from $790 to nearly $1,900 during that time, and a large part of the program’s budget goes to repairing damaged signs and replacing stolen ones.
The program’s advisory committee agreed Tuesday that it won’t consider applications for new signs in 2020. Kevin Cherry, deputy secretary of the N.C. Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, promised that “we’re going to see if we can’t get into the governor’s budget for a slight increase for the most popular public history program that our department sponsors.”
Program administrators are also considering the idea of an endowment fund for maintenance needs. Cherry said the program’s suspension has happened at least once in its 84-year history, including a pause during World War II.
The markers have seen an increase in theft recently, and in the last week a Rocky Mount marker honoring early 20th century Olympic athlete Jim Thorpe went missing. Program administrator Ansley Wegner said it was unclear if it was stolen for scrap metal or because someone “wants a Jim Thorpe sign for their garage.” The program later said on Facebook they discovered it was hit by a mower, and the mowing crew took the sign down to repair it.
A total of 32 markers across the state are currently out of commission due to damage or theft.
“The ones I’m most anxious about are the ones sitting in DOT yards broken that are fixable, but there is a history of them getting scrapped by accident,” Wegner said.
She ordered stickers that say “property of the state of North Carolina” to deter thieves, and more than 80 volunteers across the state have been putting up the stickers. “They’re sending in really fun pictures with their dog or holding their kid up to put them on,” she said.
Before new additions are put on hold, the advisory committee approved a number of new signs on Tuesday.
One will be installed in Elizabeth City to commemorate Wild’s Raid, an 1863 military campaign in which 2,000 African-American troops fought against Confederate soldiers. Another will honor the Revolutionary War encampment in Polk County of the “Overmountain Men” before the Battle of Kings Mountain.
But not all of the 16 requests — which can be submitted by any history buff — made the cut. The committee rejected proposed markers honoring Thurman Kitchin, the Wake Forest College president who oversaw the move to Winston-Salem, and Islay Walden, an African-American poet from Randolph County who was born into slavery.
The signs approved Tuesday will likely be installed late next year.
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This story was originally published December 19, 2019 at 11:48 AM.