Recently the Wyoming Department of Transportation auctioned off five “Welcome to Wyoming” signs to the public, accumulating $33,005 in profits.
“WYDOT officials had decided to hold a sign auction because we were getting a lot of interest from the public who were interested in obtaining these decommissioned signs,” the departments senior Public Affairs Specialist, Aimee Inama, said.
The auction took place online starting on July 31 and ending on Aug. 14 with five 8-by-4-foot aluminum signs that all once stood on the borders of the state welcoming people in. The welcome signs are usually replaced with new ones around the same time new license plates are issued, about every eight years. After being replaced, the old signs are then recycled.
WYDOT selected from the five districts throughout the state.
“We tried to select five [signs] from each part of the state,” Inama said. “We tried to select one from each area that was hanging up.”
One of the signs was brand-new and went for $6,600 at the auction. The four other decommissioned signs sold separately at $10,000, $6,900, $5,100 and $4,405. Together all five signs reach the total of $33,005 which will be put to use in the department’s road improvement fund.
“I think any time the department can recycle its materials, give the public a chance to own a piece of WYDOT history, as well as get some funding that could go back and improve our roads, that’s an opportunity that we would love to pursue,” Inama said.
One of the winners of a sign at the auction was Tiffany Gamble who, according to WYDOT’s website, stated that she will proudly display the sign at her Casper-based business, the Hat Six Travel Center where she is the business advisor.
“We’ve had people who said that they’re going to hang [the sign] in their garage,” Inama said.
No matter what the new owners of the signs decide to do with them, it is exciting that WYDOT has chosen to share some of their western history with the public.
“We felt the auction would provide the best and fairest way possible for us to enable the public to have a piece of WYDOT history,” Inama said.
This was WYDOT’s first sign auction and their website states that they are not sure if there will be another, but if there is it will be announced again on their website and held online on the state’s public surplus page.
