The South Dakota State Historic Preservation Office as part of a Preserve America Grant has offered the Clay County Historic Preservation Commission the opportunity to acquire 10 interpretive signs at no cost to the Commission.  The signs are produced by a sign company in Michigan based on designs and material submitted by the State Preservation Office.  The signs are ½” by 24” by 36” and may use text, pictures, maps and graphics.  It is suggested that there be no more than 200 words of text at an 8^th grade level.

At the CCHPC meeting on March 9, the decision was made to utilize this opportunity to celebrate the history of the county in the broadest possible fashion rather than to use the signs to present and interpret the history of particular buildings or sites.

The locations selected include:

Meckling
Wakonda
Hub City/Dalesburg
Burbank
Vermillion

Main Street at the top of elevator hill (below the bluff)
Curve on Canby Street (below the bluff and existing residential)
Prentis Park
USD
Downtown (pocket park at Market and Main)
Bliss Site (archeology and Native American)

The state preservation office has a general template that they use for the signs.  They would appreciate any help we could give them with research, potential text, photos, plans, maps and any other information or design assistance.  They pay, they set the parameters, but our contributions would form the basic information and provide the direction we want to go.

There is huge potential to produce a county driving tour brochure based on these signs and additional points of interest and existing interpretive signs.

If you have advice or want to provide input to the project please Contact Us.