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Show Signs on Dixie National Forest Are Erected for Benefit of Traveling Public Have you ever been back in the mountains far from roads and towns and confused about where you are? If you have, it probably was a welcome sight to find a sign which told you the distance and pointed out the trail to the nearest ranger station or road. These signs in remote areas are of great value to hunters, stockmen and travelers in the forest They name the creeks, springs, canyons, lakes and give directions at the forks of the roads and trails. At places where highways enter National forests large entrance signs mark the boundaries. All of the signs are carefully designed to match the setting. Sometimes those at the boundar-ies boundar-ies are mounted on a base of native rock or on a foundation of heavy logs. They call attention to the National forests which are like an endowment fund for all the people. The Forest service has been setting up signs for over 40 years. It is a regular part of the road and trail program. They have experimented with many kinds of materials such as, paint, ed wood, aluminum, and granit-ized granit-ized metal, to find those which are most useful and economical. Wooden plank, 2 inches or more thick, has been found most satisfactory satis-factory so far. On a large forest like the Dixie which has over 2000 miles of roads and trails, a great many signs are needed. They are made for the whole forest at Cedar City. Leland D. Heywood, assistant supervisor of the forest, is in charge of this activity, and Jim Applegate and Grant Seaman spend some time each winter and spring on this work. Most of the signs are made from a good grade of native pine lumber. Two-inch planks are used. Letters Let-ters are cut in about H-inch deep with an electric routing machine. ma-chine. Signs for remote areas are stained brown. Those for forest roads are painted black and white. Most of the signs last for many years. Normal maintenance includes in-cludes painting or staining every third or fourth year and replacement replace-ment of posts to which the signs are fastened. Most of these posts are Utah Juniper and last for 20 years or more in this climate. Jim Applegate says that, besides be-sides normal repair work each year, many signs must be replaced re-placed because they have been destroyed by thoughtless people most often by shooting holes in them, but sometimes by damaging dam-aging them with rocks, axes or knives. Next time you are out in the hills wi.th your rifle or shotgun and need a target, choose some- thing else besides the signs. And I if you see someone else damaging damag-ing them, remind him that it took considerable money and effort ef-fort to place them there or that the sign may be needed some day by someone lost in the hills. Remember Re-member too, that the signs, like the forest, belong to all of us and we should all help to preserve pre-serve them. Another thought is that they are paid for and erected with taxpayers money. |