Road to the Buffalo gets state attention

A local signage project has received attention at the state level.

At the June meeting of Women for a Better Sanders County (WBSC), Linda Haywood shared her experience as a Destination Development panel member at the Montana Governor's Conference in April at the Big Sky Resort.

"Participating on the Destination Development panel at the Governor's Conference on Tourism & Recreation was amazing. Partly because it was held in Big Sky, a world-class tourist destination, and a place I had never been before," Haywood commented.

At the conference, Haywood presented information about the history behind the Road to the Buffalo project, and how WBSC and Noxon Senior Citizens, Inc. raised funds to qualify for a matching grant from Montana Office of Tourism (MOT).

Noxon Senior Citizens, Inc. and WBSC caught the attention of MOT because of their efforts to gain approval and funding (raising $14,000 of the needed $12,000 for sign production) for Road to the Buffalo interpretive signs along Highway 200. Special recognition was given for their efforts in receiving permits from Montana Department of Transportation (MDT) to place signs along state highways, which in the words of MOT is "next to impossible."

Secondly, MOT has interest in expanding tourism, the state's third-largest industry, to "far-reaches of western Montana." Noxon, being a small community, qualifies as such.

Last Tuesday, WBSC held a meeting to discuss the progress of finishing informational signs that are going to be put up at three different sites along the Road to the Buffalo. The meeting addressed that signs had already been designed and are ready to be produced. Casey Steinke, owner of Top Sign & Graphics, Helena, is fabricating the signs and will install them when they are finished. Each aluminum plated sign will be coated with a protective UV barrier, and measure four by three feet. The metal frame-and-post system will have a wood-grain appearance. Each interpretive sign will display different parts of early Sanders County history.  

WBSC have obtained an encroachment permit from MDT to place a Road to the Buffalo interpretive sign next to the David Thompson monument sign located along Highway 200, East of Thompson Falls.

Linda Haywood closed by saying, "I am hopeful the Road to the Buffalo may encourage others to think of something they can do here in Sanders County."