I94



Prairie Public

 

 

Road Signage

In the mid-1920s, North Dakota had many things of which to be proud. A system of roads miles ahead of other states, and a system to mark those roads were just two of the factors that contributed to the outstanding network of roadways in North Dakota. As the North Dakota Highway Bulletin stated in November 1925: “North Dakota as far as its marking system is concerned is head and shoulders over most of the states of the Union in this feature of State Highway work.

The systematic marking of state highways began in July 1923 when the Road Marking Division of the State Highway Commission came into existence. The Road Marking Division was created as a separate institution that reported directly to the chief engineer W.B. Black. Mr. Black selected the type and form of sign used to mark the state highways. Black chose the profile of a Native American named Red Tomahawk as an emblem to mark the way through the state highway system. Red Tomahawk was a Standing Rock Sioux and Sergeant of the Indian Police. He received notoriety as the man to have killed Sitting Bull in December of 1890. The signs consisted of pressed steel measuring 15 inches square; Tomahawk’s profile was in black with a white circle in the center thereof with the raised number of the highway in black. The sign was then bolted to an angle iron with a clearance of two and a half feet above the level of the roadway and one foot outside the shoulder of the road.

According to the North Dakota Highway Bulletin printed in November 1925, North Dakota was preeminent for highway marking with a total of 8590 Indian head markers along the highways of the state. The total cost for each of the Tomahawk profile signs was $1.08. At this time there were nearly thirteen thousand signs, including Indian head, directional, railroad crossing and detour markers, across the state for a total cost of nearly $11,500.00.

H.C. Frahm became chief engineer in 1925 and placed the road marking division under the jurisdiction of the Maintenance Department of the State Highway Department where it remains today. This proved to be a logical transfer that allowed for greater efficiency and economy.  The proposed system put the person in charge of general maintenance in each district also in charge of road marking. According to the North Dakota Highway Bulletin of March 1926, a highway department worker would be located in Bismarck, Valley City, Devils Lake and Minot whose duty would be to complete the marking of the State Highway System in that district as well as keep the signage in good condition. This allowed greater familiarity of conditions and eliminated excessive driving.

Beginning in the spring of 1927, six federal highways that crossed North Dakota were marked with the U.S. Highway shield. While still maintained and reconstructed at the expense of the state, the roads were to be marked with the U. S. shield because they were a part of the national system of highways. Several state highways were renamed including State Highway Number 3 which became U.S. Highway 10. The Association of State Highway Officials and the Bureau of Public Roads adopted a plan to standardize U.S. Highway signs along with warning, information, and hazard signs. Because North Dakota had worked so fervently to create a comprehensive system of signage, little needed to be changed to be in compliance with federal standards. According to D.C. Hollopeter, Maintenance Superintendent of the State Highway Department in 1927, the changes needed were mostly in the color combination and the creation of more cautionary type signs.

All marked highways had three kinds of road signs:

Throughout the country, state highway departments were erecting uniform warning signs with standardized size, shape, design and coloring. The Bureau of Public Roads and the American Association of State Highway officials created the system by which all signs and markers followed the same general guidelines with corresponding details as to the governing of their display. The purpose of the uniformity of signs was the idea that similarity across the nation would create ease among drivers around the states. Used in conjunction with color combinations, symbols and uniformity of erection, drivers across the nation would be comfortable and safe driving anywhere in the country.

By the 1970s, it was recognized that automobile travelers would benefit from signs that were identifiable at a glance. The simplification of signs through the use of symbols and uniformity was the basic philosophy behind the requirement in 1974 to change signs with word legends to those with symbols. As more people were traveling the country, it became necessary to create a system of signage recognizable at high traffic speeds. The uniformity of colors, shapes and symbols would make signs recognizable to the majority of drivers. Color uniformity included red to indicate stop, green for directional guidance, blue to lead motorists to available services, yellow to indicate warning, black on white to indicate regulations such as speed, and orange to convey construction.

Since 1975, inmates at the state penitentiary have worked with Rough Rider Industries to create signs for the North Dakota Department of Transportation.  The North Dakota State Legislature created Rough Rider Industries in 1975 as a part of the Department of Corrections; they are an Enterprise Fund in which generation of funds becomes the responsibility of Rough Rider Industries. Approximately 150 penitentiary inmates earn the right to work at Rough Rider Industries working in 40 different skilled areas. Today between eight and twelve inmates work in the sign shop managed by Bruce Korte. Rough Rider Industries makes traffic control signs that meet the requirements of the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices. There are six categories of signs made by Rough Rider Industries and the state pen workers:

According to Dennis Fricassi, Director of Rough Rider Industries, technology in the signage shop has changed very little in the last twenty to thirty years. Since the sign shop is so small, techniques in the creation of the highway signs are similar to those used in the 1970s. A silkscreen process transfers sign symbols, and letters are cut by hand with band saws much as how they were done many years ago. The creation of state highway signs by penitentiary inmates proves to be a benefit to both the State Highway Department and those who have earned the privilege of working in the sign shop.