A new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d sign is being installed along highways around the state. The old signs will be sold at an upcoming auction and, in the past, have sold for as high as $10,000 per sign.<\/h5>\n\n\n\n
By Andrew Rossi<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d is getting a new postcard look at every highway entrance to the state featuring bold, colorful photographs from around the Cowboy State.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Wyoming Department of Transportation designed the new signs to look great in millions of pictures that are expected to be taken at them by visitors at all points around Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And what happens to the old \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs? Those will likely fetch thousands of dollars at auction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first of the new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs was installed along U.S. Highway 85 south of Cheyenne, and more were put up Wednesday on Highway 120 north of Cody and U.S. Highway 310 near Frannie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Doug McGee, WYDOT\u2019s Public Affairs Officer, said the design accomplishes everything it needs to and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf you’re just driving by, \u2018Welcome to Wyoming\u2019 is very legible at highway speeds,\u201d he told Cowboy State Daily. \u201cAnd if you’re stopping to pose under or near the sign, you get a little postcard of Wyoming to go with your photograph.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Historically, Wyoming has replaced its \u201cWelcome to Wyoming” signs every eight years. McGee said this followed the same cycle for Wyoming\u2019s license plate designs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe current sign matches the current license plate,\u201d he said. \u201cBut as the license plate was changing, which is required, that’s usually the time to change the welcome signs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The signs were last replaced in 2017, the last time Wyoming\u2019s license plate was changed. With the new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs, WYDOT decided to break with this precedent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe decided it’s possible to get more than eight years out of a sign,\u201d McGee said. \u201cSo, let’s break away from matching the license plate and do something different.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n WYDOT formed a committee with representatives from its sign shops and traffic programs, district representatives, executive staff and a representative from the Wyoming Office of Tourism to brainstorm a new look for \u201cWelcome to Wyoming.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n McGee said the new sign was designed to appeal to everyone but be particularly alluring to tourists \u2014 and the huge number of digital photos they take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cA lot of people stop and take their photos at these signs,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you come and go across the state line, you see a lot of people stop and take their photo with the sign.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cody Beers, a WYDOT spokesperson, thinks the new design is a refreshing and photogenic update for the Cowboy State\u2019s points of entry. He believes the \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs are among the most popular in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople love these signs,\u201d he said. \u201cI would stake at least $1 that it\u2019s the second most popular sign for photos in Wyoming, behind the Yellowstone National Park entry signs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs feature five images of iconic Wyoming places: the Grand Tetons, Devils Tower, Medicine Bow Peak, Devil’s Gate and Flaming Gorge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s more than just a collection of photos. McGee said the images are placed in the same area of the sign as they are in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe settled on five different images from five different parts of the state, and they roughly coincide with these locations,\u201d he said. \u201cYou have northwest, northeast, southeast, southwest and central Wyoming represented on each one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The signs have been printed by a TrafficJet Print System, a digital traffic sign printer with a lot of potential for WYDOT. With the technological advances in printing and materials, McGee is confident the new signs will have more longevity than the outgoing ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThese printers can print photographic quality images,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen you see the signs, they’re still clear even though they have five separate images. That kind of printing ability on reflective sign material is amazing, and it’s cheaper and more flexible than the old materials used to be.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n McGee finds the durability and visibility of the new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs encouraging for future WYDOT sign projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust like a lot of our work, as materials approve, longevity comes along with that,\u201d he said. \u201cThe \u2018Welcome to Wyoming\u2019 signs show a lot of potential for future signs, and that\u2019s a great thing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anyone nostalgic for the outgoing \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs will have a chance to get one, but there\u2019s a national market for the iconic signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McGee said the retired signs will eventually appear on publicsurplus.com and go up for auction. This was a lucrative decision for WYDOT when the agency sold the last batch of \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs in 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe sold five signs, one from each of the five districts, for a little over $33,000,\u201d he said. \u201cThe highest went for $10,000, the lowest went for $4,400, and there was some robust bidding for all of them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Two of the five signs were won by a Midwesterner who traveled to Cheyenne to pick them up. The money from the public auction will go back into WYDOT\u2019s budget to add or replace signage statewide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McGee said WYDOT will announce the opening of bidding for the outgoing signs on publicsurplus.com. However, that will not happen until all five districts remove and replace the signs and deliver them to Cheyenne.<\/p>\n\n\n\n McGee hopes all the new \u201cWelcome to Wyoming\u201d signs will be installed before the weather completely turns, although the ongoing effort to contain the Elk and Pack Trail Fires has delayed some installations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRight now, the ground isn’t too wet from the rainy season and isn’t too frozen from the winter,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re in that sweet spot, so they’ll probably be installed within the next four to five weeks, if possible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Beers said the signs at Frannie and Clark near the Montana state line have already been installed. Plenty of people are already pulling over to snap a photo with the new signs to show they\u2019ve reached Wyoming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe always try to give Wyoming a fresh look,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a big state with thousands of unique things that make it special. So why not use those things to show our state to visitors and the people that live here? Wyoming people love those \u2018Welcome to Wyoming signs\u2019 too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’m partial to the old signs, but these are good too (Nebraska and Colorado, you need to raise your sign game). We’ve seen many of them, and recently seen them crossing in from South Dakota, Nebraska and Colorado, which is always a wonderful sight when returning to our home of Wyoming. https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.com\/2024\/10\/17\/new-welcome-to-wyoming-sign-going-up-looks-like-a-giant-postcard\/ A new \u201cWelcome […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wyoming"],"blocksy_meta":[],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"Jason","author_link":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/author\/jturning\/"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8889","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8889"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8889\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8891,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8889\/revisions\/8891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8889"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8889"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jasonsblog.ddns.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8889"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Welcome-to-wyoming-sign-tiny-10.17.24.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
No Longer Licensed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/cowboystatedaily.imgix.net\/Welcom-to-Wyoming-sign-new-design-10.17.24.jpg?ixlib=js-3.8.0&q=75&auto=format%2Ccompress\")
\u2018Where To\u2019 Wyoming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Welcome To A Windfall<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A Fresh Look<\/h2>\n\n\n\n